Dixie Dregs

Welcome !

Welcome from the heart of the Dixie Dregs land.  They played around the Atlanta area a lot when I was in my teens.  My brother and mom were big into the band so I got to see them live a lot and I do mean a lot. 

Even had the privilege of doing volunteer roadie duty when they played a show at Dekalb College.  Without a doubt What If remains my favorite.  And you can't go bad by Bring 'Em Back Alive.  The band is one best experienced live.  The Live At Montreaux DVD doesn't showcase some of my favorite material but gives you a nice taste of what the band was like live when I first got into them. 

Fun fact: the band loved to cover Mahavishnu Orchestra songs in their early days before they had built up their own repertoire.

PS.  Why wouldn't post an appreciation thread for them in the a prog section?    I don't think their habit of doing a somewhat obligatory bluegrass influenced track disqualifies them. 


Edited by Slartibartfast - December 14 2011 at 18:54

Welcome. I've always been a big fan. My younger brother snuck Cruise Control on the turntable one night many years ago and it blew me away. Have been a fan ever since. Saw them upstage the useless Jefferson Starship when they opened for them on the pier in NYC. Played a brilliant set - one of the best I've seen. Got to see them a second time at Hofstra University when I was there in the late 70's. Here they were the headliners and got to play a full 2 hour set-fantastic! Morse is one of my favorite guitar players and I have most of his cd's along with most of the Dixie Dregs work. Fine stuff indeed!

I love them too! Here in Europe they are very little known, I first learned about them when I was studying music in the mid-late 80's (never got past amateur level by the way) and a fellow guitarist played me Freefall, wow, I had never heard Morse and I was amazed, what a right hand! but also Morgenstein and the whole band impressed me a lot.

Snow Dog wrote: They are fairly well known in Britain due to one of their songs being the theme tune to the "Friday Rock Show" I like them.

Gerinski wrote: I love them too! Here in Europe they are very little known, I first learned about them when I was studying music in the mid-late 80's (never got past amateur level by the way) and a fellow guitarist played me Freefall, wow, I had never heard Morse and I was amazed, what a right hand! but also Morgenstein and the whole band impressed me a lot.   What If and Bring 'Em Back Alive are also my favs, together with the Montreaux DVD which I have reviewed, but from Freefall to Dregs of The Earth they are all worth the money. Of their studio albums I miss Unsung Heroes and Industry Standard.   Got a few Steve Morse Band albums too, The Introduction and High Tension Wires being favourites. Major Impacts is also a very nice album with Steve's interpretation of other bands styles while avoiding actual covers, it's something that I always thought if I was a musician I would like to do.

Steve's DVD Sects, Dregs & Rock 'N' Roll is another really good one to get.  Has one performance of a the revamped Dregs with none other than Jerry Goodman on violin and the late T Lavitz on both that performance and joining Steve in a mostly solo show. 

And hey, while I'm at it a link/plug for Steve's site:http://www.stevemorse.com/


Edited by Slartibartfast - December 15 2011 at 18:16

Blacksword wrote: ^^^ I'm assuming that's 'Take it off the top' ..

richardh wrote: Blacksword wrote: ^^^ I'm assuming that's 'Take it off the top' ..     It is

I've very fond memories of the Friday rock show. Vance used to also use Theme 1 by VDGG, to introduce his 'Friday night connection' slot..

Snow Dog wrote: ^ Did he use the Cozy Powell version?

^ Indeed, you might want to check out the Prime Cuts album which i believe features almost all of the Dream theater members. A Steve Morse Band Album.

Edited by timothy leary - December 17 2011 at 11:12