Steve Morse – Prime Cuts 2
Magna Carta
www.magnacarta.net
Rating: C
Steve Morse
is a living and breathing god of guitar. There are few that can
compete with him when it comes to sheer talent, passion and
drive. He is impeccable as the lead guitarist of Deep Purple
but he is even more impressive in his solo career.
His latest
release is a ‘best of’ type of thingy released by the record
company Magna Carta, who bunched together ten songs from albums
by Morse or by others where Morse appeared as a guest. The
album features performances by some of rock’s most talented
players. The following all appear on cuts with Morse: James
LaBrie, Dave LaRue, T Lavitz, Rod Morgenstein and Jordan Rudess.
The album
is filled with amazing guitar playing – that goes without
saying. “Zig Zags,” “On Fire,” “Bar Hoping with Mr. Picky,”
“Ghost of the Bayou,” “Portrait,” “Great Mountain Moments” and
“Midnight Dream” may not be the most famous songs Morse plays
these days but each have their own jaw-dropping excellence. You
can figure out where “Mood For A Day,” “TruthOla” and “Red
Barchetta” come from…a Yes tribute, one of Steve’s Major
Impacts series and a Rush tribute.
The problem
with these type of releases is that they contain great moments
but they really are a mixture that does not go together…like
putting brown sugar in vegetable soup…both are good but put
together it just doesn’t taste right. This is great playing but
I would rather hear new music from a man as talented as Steve
Morse, not just a rehashing of songs released to get his biggest
fans to pony up a few more bucks to keep their collections
complete.
By Jeb
Wright
