Neal Morse biography
Neal R. Morse - Born August 2, 1960 (Van Nuys, California, USA)

As a young musician, Neal's dream was like many others-to find success in the pop music world. But after years of struggling in the LA singer-songwriter scene, he realized that his dream would not materialize. Eschewing conventional wisdom, Neal took a courageous step: he about-faced and devoted himself to progressive rock, the music truly in his heart. The obscure and fiercely competitive genre held little chance of commercial success. Undaunted, he formed the quirkily-named SPOCK'S BEARD with his brother, Alan. They recorded The Light with what money they could scrape together. Against all odds, it was a breakout success, sending shockwaves through the small genre's community.

Over the next 7 years, Spock's Beard released 6 critically acclaimed CDs, ascending to the top of the "prog" world. Neal also released 2 CDs and 2 live albums with TRANSATLANTIC, the heralded prog "supergroup" comprised of the world's finest prog musicians. The proverbial wayward son, Neal had finally found the success he dreamed of. But something was missing. While on the outside Neal had it all; on the inside, something was missing. Morse came to realize that for him, embracing the Christian faith was the fulfillment of his spiritual quest. His walk was at once gradual and sudden-and like with so many, completely unexpected. As he continued, his path increasingly revealed more of what his heart had sought all along. Yet he also began to find his career growing at odds with his faith. The rising spiritual tension and increasing commercial success finally came to a head with the release of Snow (2002), Spock's Beard's (with Morse) magnum opus.and swan song.

The extraordinary 2-CD rock opera, composed by Morse, was widely acclaimed as the group's finest. But it was the end of the era: Neal made the agonizing decision to leave Spock's Beard. After also leaving Transatlantic, the transformation was complete. Despite having finally achieved the success he had long sought, Morse began all over again; musically, emotionally and spiritually. While Spock’s Beard elected to continue without him, Transatlantic disbanded (though this would later turn out to be a hiatus). Neal then embarked upon the most ambitious musical project of his career. Entitled Testimony (2003), it chronicles his spiritual and musical journey in words and music. The 2 CD set (3 CDs for the Special Edition) spans over two hours as one continuous piece of music. It ranges in style from a full gospel choir to hard rock; from a symphony orchestra to contemporary pop. A deftly woven musical tapestry, the album takes the listener on a fascinating journey as unique as the man behind it.

Artistically, Testimony was a remarkable solo achievement, with Neal not only writing, arranging and producing; but singing the lead vocals and performing most of the instruments. Recognized as a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist, he is endorsed as a guitarist, keyboardist and singer (Yamaha, Gibson, Rode Microphones, and others). Neal invited Mike Portnoy, with whom he had played in Transatlantic, to play drums and this was the beginning of a close friendship and musical collaboration which has endured to the present day. For his next solo album, entitled One, Neal added bassist Randy George to the line up, and Morse, Portnoy and George have formed the nucleus of Morse’s progressive rock albums ever since. Neal has been prolific in releasing solo albums since then, all based on his Christian beliefs yet somehow popular with those who don’t share those views. Most have been concept albums, covering such subjects as his journey to faith (Testimony and Testimony 2), the Reformation (Sola Scriptura), the temple of God (?) and even a rock opera based on the life and passion of Christ.

In 2012 Neal decided to expand his regular band and held auditions via Youtube. As a result guitarist Eric Gillette and keyboardist Bill Hubauer were added to the permanent line up and the project was relaunched as The Neal Morse Band (subsequently abbreviated to NMB). This was more of a band project, with the new members contributing to writing as well as sharing lead vocals with Neal.

As well as his solo prog albums and those with NMB, Neal has also released several singer-songwriter albums, a series of worship albums, and three albums of covers under the Morse Portnoy George name. Transatlantic was resurrected as a side project in 2009 with the highly acclaimed “Whirlwind” album, and in 2012 Morse and Portnoy joined with Steve Morse and Dave LaRue of the Dixie Dregs, plus vocalist Casey MacPherson, to form Flying Colors. He also joined with Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard, Big Big Train) and Ross Jennings (Haken) in 2022 to form an acoustic trio. Last but not least, Morse was once part of the Beatles tribute band Yellow Matter Custard.

Neal Morse remains one of the most prolific progressive rock artists around today.