Steve Morse Primer

Is it enough to play music for your own sense of self-satisfaction? It has to be - play because you love to make the sounds. Is it enough to listen to music just to be distracted for a few moments by the latest thing? It can be - but there is more to savor from life than well-financed ad campaigns. It takes a little more effort to expand your horizons, but no one else will, or can for matter.

So now you say to yourself, "I want to hear more of Steve Morse's playing, but I don't know any of his music from the radio; where do I start?" Well, here it is, your Steve Morse primer.

If you like hard rocking, kick-ass guitar playing with some serious shredding, then you should pick up any and all of the CDs by the Steve Morse Band. Start with Southern Steel, the first one of the five discs that they did during the '90s. It's like with the first album from Boston where every song on the disc is great; you can't go wrong. But it's not like Satriani where he just lays down a simple track then shreds over the whole song. These are true compositions. They are meaningful songs that happen to have great guitar playing. Each album has a stylistic range that includes along with the hard rock tunes, a country song, a classical piece, some ballads intertwined with the rich harmonies derived from jazz fusion. Some of my favorite highlights are "Vista Grande," "Battle Lines," and "Weekend Overdrive" from Southern Steel; "User Friendly," "Morning Rush Hour," and "Cabin Fever" from Coast to Coast; "Rally Cry," "Dreamland," and "Good to Go" from Structural Damage; "Brave New World," "Four Minutes to Live," and the title track from Stressfest; and "Marching Orders" from Split Decision. Those are just a few of the songs I feel should have been on the radio all along, and the world would be a better place.

Two of Morse's solo albums, Major Impacts I & II, are amazing examples of his writing skills. Both discs have him composing in the style of classic rock bands that influenced him, including the Allman Brothers, the Beatles, the Stones, Jeff Beck, Clapton, Yes, and many more. With each song he is able to capture the essence of each vocal based band with just an instrumental arrangement. Listen to the Zeppelin-influenced "Led On" and the Hendrix-styled "Well I Have" to get a feel for how masterfully he was able to so closely match the feel of each artist.

High Tension Wires is a unique masterpiece. It comes from a transitional point in Morse's career and contains a wide variety of musical ideas and influences, which makes it a great album for driving. I still wake up to "Ghostwind" every day on my alarm clock. There are some beautiful, subtle moments on this disc, but check out how he slowly builds an intense Celtic solo on "Highland Wedding" and the blistering neo-classical fusion riff of "Tumeni Notes."

If you are familiar with the work of the Dregs, then I need say no more. If you are not, then start with Bring 'Em Back Alive. This live album will give you a great retrospective of the legendary work of the Dixie Dregs staring back in '75, and their pioneering efforts to combine elements of jazz with rock, funk, classical, and country music using modern instrumentation along the lines of Al DiMeola's Return to Forever and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. A must-have Dregs album is Full Circle. It was done much later and with a different line up, so many Dregs fans may have missed this one, but I can't say enough about how cool this album is. It shows a competence and confidence of composition that is seldom seen.

I won't go into the solo albums from the era right after the Dregs, because Morse mentioned them in the interview as some of his favorite works. As for me, "Cruise Missile" and "On the Pipe" are the first two tunes I ever heard from Steve Morse, and they left a lasting impression.

If instrumental music is not your thing, then you're in luck, because everything that Steve Morse has done with Kansas and Deep Purple carries the same artistic integrity and innovative, creative guitar playing as his solo work. If you are a fan of the Ritchie Blackmore-era Deep Purple and love their famous tunes, then you should get the live disc Total Abandon from Australia in 1999. It has them breathing fresh life into the old classics and will give you a taste of the powerful new material written with Morse. My favorites are "Any Fule Know That," "Fingers to the Bone" and "BloodSucker" from Abandon, and "Ted the Mechanic" and "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" from Purpendicular. All of these could be hits on the radio today and seem as current as anything you hear.

Do not pass up a chance to get the Living Loud disc with Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake (from Ozzy's first two solo albums). This is an epic rock album; I have no idea why the radio didn't jump all over it. People already know and love the Ozzy tunes and are probably tired of hearing the originals from radio overplay. While I love their version of "Tonight," I like the new tunes they wrote even better, especially "Every Moment a Lifetime" and "Walk Away."

If you want to learn how to play like Morse, he is more than willing to help you out with a plethora of instructional videos, books, transcriptions, and articles from Guitar Player; all are available from his website; complete with up-close photos and descriptions of his stage gear. All of the DVDs are of the highest quality and give you a closer look at his beaming stage presence.

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