cjp@vax135.UUCP (10/14/83)
For those of you who saw the DiMeola, McLaughlin, & DiLuccia (sp?) concert and were blown away by the music of the "mysterious" fourth guitarist, let it be known that he is Steve Morse (and not "Steve Morris"). In my opinion, Morse stole the show, both in playing ability and in compositional talent. Morse is the leader of a band called the Dregs (also, the Dixie Dregs). They're really great! I am finding it hard to describe their music; kind of a base of intelligent pop rock, heavily influenced by jazz and classical music, and *no vocals* (except for two songs out of six records). The mood ranges from hard rockin', to pleasantly bouncy, to mellowed-out spacey. Their tunes typically feature intricate picking by Morse on electric guitar and Andy West on bass, and intricate harmonic structures and rhythms. (The band also typically has keyboardist, violinist, and drummer.) The Dregs music is geared towards live performance; there is little or no overdubbing or postprocessing on their records, and the result is electrifying concert performances virtually indistinguishable from the recorded versions. For Morse's segment of the abovementioned guitar concert, he played a handful of Dregs' numbers on acoustic guitar which came through very well solo, without the normal band accompaniments. He also played some very impressive classical numbers. In closing, I'd like to ask the Net if anyone knows whether Morse will resume working with the Dregs after finishing his current tour. I sure hope so. I also hope that people are not being too put off by the name "Dixie Dregs". They are NOT a country or southern-rock band, although a couple of their earlier tunes have a semi-tongue-in-cheek bluegrass feel. I advise all lovers of well-thought-out, intricate instrumental music to check them out. Disco <Expletive ending in x>, Charles Poirier (ucbvax!vax135!sheila!cjp)