The Guitar Channel

Review: Steve Morse Band / Dixie Dregs - 3/30/05 Chicago

Last night I saw the Dixie Dregs at the Park West in Chicago. Everyone got a double-dose of Morse as it was the Steve Morse Band opening for the Dregs. Both shows were great! They aren't promoting a new album, so there weren't many surprises. However, the Dregs played Mahavishnu's "Celestial Terrestrial Commuters" which was a big surprise, and very cool. Morse plays on that tune for the upcoming Mahanishnu tribute album. "Rising Power" was the highlight of the SMB set for me. They always stretch that tune out live. In the Dregs set, "Kat Food", "Ice Cakes", "Celestial Terrestrial Commuters", and "Kashmir" were all particularly awesome. Morse played a purple sunburst Ernie Ball with white trim and white pickups on a couple of tunes as well. For the Dregs encore, Van Romaine (drums with SMB) came out and did a drum duet with Rod Morgenstein.Very cool! The rest of the band then came out and they did "Bloodsucking Leeches" with both drummers. They've done that before when SMB has opened for the Dregs; it was awesome as always.

It was great to see Morse and the Dregs again. They haven't been through Chicago in a few years if I'm not mistaken. The official Steve Morse website has lots of pictures and setlists covering practically every Morse and Dregs tour ever. All Morse fans need to check it out. They will get some submissions regarding this show I'm sure.

Rich

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Mahavishnu Tribute album on the way

There is an All-Star Tribute to the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the works, with Jeff Richman producing. It appears to be similar in concept to the awesome "Guitar Supreme" Coltrane tribute album (which Richman also produced). Steve Morse, Jimmy Herring, and Greg Howe are some of the players involved. Abstract Logix has a short report from Jeff Richman on the project.

FYI

The Guitar Channel will be offline for a few days starting tomorrow. I'll crank it back up some time on Tuesday.

A word about the stream - Keep in mind, I only have 2 slots available. Please don't hog the stream by listening for 8+ hours at a time. Some people try to be sneaky by listening for a few hours, disconnecting for a few seconds, then connecting for another few hours, to mask how long they have been connected. The worst offense is connecting to both slots at the same time with 2 different apps. These types of activities will get you banned - in some cases permanently. If I had 100 available slots, I wouldn't care. But I don't. Please be respectful of other people who want to listen. Listen for a few hours if you want, then make way for someone else. Thanks.

Review: Allan Holdsworth - Against The Clock

"The Best Of Allan Holdsworth: Against The Clock" has just been released by Alternity Records. It's a 2-disc set - The first CD features guitar tracks, the second features Synthaxe tracks and 2 bonus tracks. Alternity also released the recent Riptyde album which also features Holdsworth.

Overall, this is an excellent best-of collection. Against The Clock features tracks from all of Holdsworth's solo releases except the original I.O.U. album and Road Games. The liner notes indicate Holdsworth was unhappy with the lack of creative control on Road Games, and he is currently re-mixing the I.O.U. album, so he did not want to include any of those tracks. Road Games is represented by way of an alternate version of "Tokyo Dream" which was included on the Japanese release of Wardenclyffe Tower. This is one of the highlights of the album for me. Other highlights include the 2 bonus tracks - "Let's Throw Shrimp" (an improv jam with Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Johnson) and "Shenandoah" (Holdsworth's version of the American folk song). Another gem is the Synthaxe tune "Bo Peep" from the out of print Flat Tire album.

The booklet includes some rare photo's, and quotes from John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, and other great players. I would highly recommend this album to people who are new to Holdsworth's music, but also to existing fans. This is a tremendous collection of music from, arguably, the greatest guitarist ever.

Rich

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