LIVE IN BADEN-BADEN GERMANY MARCH 1990

If you consider yourself a serious progressive rock fan and you don't have something with Steve Morse in your collection I'd seriously advise you to consider this. It is an excellent collection of his compositions from Dixie Dregs era through his 1980's solo material. Of course to call Steve Morse's stuff merely compositions is a bit misleading, as there is a compositional structure mixed with improvisation whenever he plays live. Steve embraces a wide variety of musical styles in his tunes and this DVD showcases them well. Progressive rock, first and foremost, with some jazz fusion, classical, bluegrass, a little country (yes, Virginia there is such a thing as progressive country), even something a little Scottish (sorry no bagpipes).

Released in 2006, the main body of the DVD is a concert from 1990 that was shown on German television. One of the cool things about the show is that they introduce each song with a graphic that gives the song title with a brief sentence of information on the song, so it's a great way to get familiar with Steve's stuff if you are new to it. Unfortunately it also gets repeated in the middle of each song, which I find a little annoying, but it's always flashed over the the audience in the shot and not the band.

It's interesting to see how Steve can really fill out the sound in a three piece setting after I got to know him in the Dixie Dregs, which always includes a keyboardist and a drummer in the lineup. Here we have Dave LaRue on bass and Van Romaine on drums. The four live bonus tracks, with the Morse/Jerry Peek(bass)/Rod Morgenstern(drums of course), and a video fill out this DVD nicely. That was Steve's first post Dregs trio group. Peek's and excellent bass player, but Dave has the right hair (joking, no I'm not). Also has a bit of a heavier style that compliments Steve's guitar work a little better, but not by much.