Steve Morse Band – Out Standing In Their Field

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Although he never really stops working with bassist Dave LaRue and drummer Van Romaine, the Steve Morse Band haven’t released an album in seven years, Deep Purple guitarist Morse preferring to release most of his albums as a solo artist. Opening with what is probably the band’s heaviest tracks to date in Name Dropping and Brink of The Edge (and later Flight of The Osprey), both showing off chunky riffs, incredibly bright production (courtesy of Morse himself) and trademark solos, with occasional mostly bass-driven mellow breakdowns. There is an inevitable focus on Steve’s guitar work on this record, both in terms of song structure and production, and for fans of his playing this is refreshing after it’s been at best under-used and at worst buried on the last couple of Deep Purple albums. Romaine and LaRue get their chances to add a little flair, but this is very much Steve’s record. Here And Now And Then is a typical Morse “ballad”, as the subtle title reference would suggest John Deere Letter is 4:40 of country-picking blues soloing, Relentless Encroachment, Unnamed Sources and More To The Point are more subdued workouts and Baroque’n Dreams is exactly what it sounds like it should be. This is Morse’s best non-Purple release for years.

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Instrumental, Non-metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Rock, Steve Morse Band