STEVE MORSE BAND

This is a tribute album in which Morse pays homage to some of the guitarists and bands that influenced him, but instead of doing it by playing covers he does so by own original songs which remind us of the honored guitarists or their bands, being it by the guitar playing technique utilized, sound, song mood or style of the riffs, phrases and licks.

So in a way it's more like an academical exercise in which Morse shows us his versatility and his ability at analyzing what makes a certain guitarist have his personal style and then applying his own version of those elements in a composition of his own. However he does not simply create a clone song, it is always clear that it is Steve Morse who we are hearing, just that he bends his own trademark style to incorporate flavours of the guitarist he is paying homage to, which in my opinion is the right way to do it and much more interesting than creating a clone song. Supporting him are his Steve Morse Band fellows at the time Dave La Rue at the bass and Van Romaine at the drumkit.

It's no news that Morse is a guitar master and all the songs are good but from a prog perspective this album does not offer much because most of the honoured guitarists are just rock guitarists. We have songs dedicated to Cream / Clapton, Hendrix, The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, Leslie West / Mountain, The Beatles and The Allman Brothers, all of them interesting interpretations of their styles but hardly proggy.

The most interesting songs for proggers are TruthOla dedicated in tandem to Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson and Alex Lifeson (of whom I do not hear a lot except for a few chorus-drenched chords with open strings), Led On dedicated to Led Zeppelin which is perhaps the most accomplished rendition imo, The White Light honouring the acoustic soft side of John McLaughlin and Prognosis dedicated to Kansas and Yes. This last song is obviously the proggiest, with some odd time signatures and changes along its 6 minutes of lenght. Once again it does not really resemble the music by any of these 2 bands but it just incorporates some flavours reminiscent of them.

Interesting album but I have 5 of his real Steve Morse Band albums and they are all better. A couple of years later he released a Vol.2 of Major Impacts which I have not heard so far.

Of the vocal tracks, Book Of Dreams fares the best. Even behind the vocals, there is a Dregs- like backing track, that makes it listenable. The other vocal tracks, not so good.

Of the rest of the music, there are fine pieces. Pick Your Poison is a bluegrass romp, with Mark O'Connor helping out on violin. And the last three tracks from Travels Of Marco Polo through Unity Gain, are all good enough for any Dregs release.

So despite the four vocal pieces, of which only one is worth multiple listens, this gets three stars.

"Heightened Awareness" opens with guitar as the bass comes in throbbing then it turns heavy. Nice. Contrasts continue.This is great ! Morse is putting on a show. "Busybodies" is fairly uptempo and has a classical flavour to it. I'm really impressed with the guitar here and the bass is prominant. "Marching Orders" turns heavy quickly and we get some aggressive guitar before 2 1/2 minutes and a minute later as well. Morse sounds so good here. "Mechanical Frenzy" has this ripping guitar intro then the bass shakes the soundscape with some deep grooves. So good. It settles back before 2 1/2 minutes as LaRue puts on a show.Mores then comes in lighting it up. Killer stuff. "Great Mountain Spirits" has a good heavy beat with some atmosphere. Great sound. Heavy guitar comes in.This is nasty. Love the guitar before 4 minutes to end it.

"Majorly Up" is a good uptempo track and I like the gutar/bass section 2 minutes in. "Gentle Flowers" is beautifully pastoral early on then it turns surprisingly aggressive before 1 1/2 minutes. An all out assault before 4 minutes. Check out the bass that follows.The next five tracks are mostly acoustic. "Moment's Comfort" is laid back, gorgeous and emotional. "Clear Memories" features strummed guitar, bass and drums.There's a depth here, a rich beautiful sound. "Midnight Daydream" has some intricate acoustic guitar reminding me so much of POPOL VUH. "Back Porch" has this deep rumbling bass with drums as the guitar plays over top. "Natural Flow" is an uplifting and pleasant closer.

No wonder this is the highest rated solo Steve Morse album on the the RYM site. I kept waiting for the Country / honky tonk / Southern Rock style to rear it's ugly head but it never did.Thankyou ! Now i'm excited to hear the new album that Morse, LaRue, Portnoy and Neal Morse are working on.

"Cruise Missile" is a great opener and I especially like the prominant bass from Jerry Peek. Morse cranks it out while Morganstein pounds it out. Synths in this one too. "General Lee" is perhaps named that because of guest guitarist Albert Lee, I don't know. Not a fan anyway as it has a strong Country flavour to it. "The Introduction" has some beautiful moments in it. One of my favourites.Some tasteful guitar before 1 1/2 minutes. "V.H.F. (Vertical Hair Factor)" opens with drums before the song settles in. Not bad.

"On The Pipe" opens with some Honky Tonk sounding guitar. Yikes ! Much better when it changes and gets heavier. Morse comes in soloing over top. Keys after 2 minutes but this is mainly a guitar led track. "The Whistle" is pastoral but it does build some. Morganstein is on the synths here in this mellow offering. I like it ! "Mountain Waltz" is another story. It has that Southern Dixie / Country vibe I dislike. "Huron River Blues" sounds serious to start. Like a different band really.Then it settles right down before a minute. Some bluesy flavoured guitar follows.Some slide guitar too. Not a fan. A blues flavoured section starts around 3 1/2 minutes. It builds until we're rocking pretty good.

Like I said it's a good album that DIXIE DREGS fans will no doubt appreciate more than I.

The album opens powerfully with Sacred Ground, a fine example of Morse's proggy song styling, shown since his Dregs Days. The best prog tune is Barbary Coast, which despite clocking in at under three and a half minutes, contains a lot of nice prog riffs.

Special mention should be made for Slice Of Time. Morse has always shown proficiency at classical based compositions, but he has outdone himeself with this one. This Bach inspired just amazes me every time I hear it.

The album closes with the whirlwind Structural Damage. This is a great finish for the disk, leaving the listener drooling for more of The Steve Morse Band.

The first part of the album, according to the liner notes, is "heavier", band oriented songs. And it's nice. The two songs mentioned above are great works of prog fusion, the former mixing in some baroque classical as well. But the rest of the "heavy" songs are just okay.

The last five songs are more mellow. And again, Morse can make the worst material sound good. But that's just it. These songs are only good. Morse music is usually great.

So while this is not a bad album, I wouldn't call it essential. It's one of the last Morse albums I'd recommend.

This was the first album with what has become Morse's band's longest static lineup (that includes The Dixie Dregs, too). Dave LaRue on bass and Van Romaine on drums have proven to be a perfect backup for Morse's pyrotechnics.

As usual, Morse's music is strong, inventive hard rock, with country, fusion and classical mixed in. I tend to prefer the faster, hard rock tunes, so Cut To The Chase, the opener is one of may favorites on this album. And the usual bluegrass song is more rock than usual (for Morse), but the song Southern Steel still provides him with a nice guitar workout.

Two of the tracks come from tribute albums. First, there is a fantastic cover of Rush's La Villa Strangiato (I know the original is perfect, but who else could cover this so well?). Morse and Bassist Billy Sheehan almost succeed in making this their own. Then there's Steve Howe's (The) Clap. This was made for Morse's fine picking style, and I think he outdoes Howe himself.

There is also Quantum Leap, from a Jordan Rudess solo album. This is a great keyboard based symphonic prog tune with another great Morse solo.

Then there's Led On. Originally a Steve Morse Band track, remixed by some "producer" calling himself some pretentious title, like Vapidspace. What make these leeches think that looping a rhythm track, and taking tiny excerpts from a song and dropping them over the rhythm at random intervals, to make something the ecstacy-numbed "ravers" can wag their butts at in interesting. It's not! Vapidspace, you created the only bad track on what could have been a great album.

The rest of the tracks are from Morse's more recent albums, the ones on Magna Carta. And true to the label's history, they are all excellent works of prog. It makes a great album by paring away the romantic and bluegrass pieces, and focusing on the best stuff.

4 stars, thanks to Vapidspace :( - it would have been a five otherwise.

The music, as we have come to expect from this guitar master, is a mix of rock, country, jazz fusion, and classical, in that Steve Morse style. The best songs are Cruise Missile, which starts the album on an agressive note (this one would have been a Dregs classic), General Lee, the obligatory Dixie breakdown tune, witha cameo by Albert Lee, and Huron River Blues, a three part proggy piece.

This is a must for Dregs lovers.