Music Review: Steve Morse Band: Outstanding In Their Field (Ear Music, CD)

Master guitarist Steve Morse has played with Kansas and is the current axeman in Deep Purple, but he’ll probably always be best known as the guitar slinger in Dixie Dregs, the instrumental band that mixed jazz and fusion with Southern rock and lots of other genres. While the Dregs don’t do much anymore , their spirit lives on in this new CD from Morse’s trio, which also features Dregs bassist Dave LaRue. This all-instrumental puts the spotlight squarely on Morse’s lightning-fast-yet-precise guitar work. While he can play speedy, he’s also a very tasteful master of tone and dynamics. The format for these songs is typcially to set up a main tune and then let Morse wail. But, as the title indicates, this is a band, and LaRue also shines throughout with tasty bass licks and some smokin’ hot solos, such as on “Brink of the Edge.” Drummer Van Romaine holds it together. Diversity of mood, tempo and feels keeps this CD from sounding monotonous or repetitive. While the emphasis is on rocking out, there are moments such as the delicately Hendrixian “Here and Now and Then” or the Dregs-like country twang of “John Deere Letter” that add welcome variety. Sound quality is OK, although the recording distorts at times, especially in the bass frequencies. Still, an outstanding effort overall.