erik neuteboom
(erik neuteboom)
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Symphonic Prog Expert FIRST REVIEW OF THIS ALBUM Because of the many enthousiastic stories of befriended prgheads I was very curious to this double live CD by Neal Morse, once the multi-talented frontman of USA legend Spock’s Beard. Indeed this is a very pleasant musical experience that will appeal to many progheads, it sounds very melodic and accesible and the music range from melodic rock to symphonic prog and neo-prog. The band (that hosts Dutch musicians!) sounds tight and inspired, especially the drummer plays very dynamic and propulsive. The band members got room for solos and instrumental explorations like in In The Fire (fiery wah-wah guitar, powerful drums and a flashy synthesizer solo) and The Creation (swinging bass, heavy guitar and again a flashy synthesizer solo). Neal Morse has a very distinctive voice, he sings strong and also delivers some swinging pieces on the piano and in Help Me/The Spirit And The Flesh he plays a virtuosic solo on the acoustic guitar, like he never left Spcok’s Beard, what a talent! On CD-2 the emphasis is a bit more on acoustic ballads with a religious message, I am not religious so it doesn’t appeal to me nut on the other hand its’not disturbing for me. This is a strong live-2 CD set that contains pleasant and varied compositions with good work on guitar and keyboards, good vocals (also by female singer Jessic Koomen) and I like the enthousiastic approach by Neal and his band, listening to the reactions of the crowd (Berlin 2006) they loved it too, recommended!

Hi,

Oh man, I am having crazy problems with the new CD! All of a sudden on Saturday the computer started not seeing a whole bunch of audio files. Usually when that happens it finds them eventually, but this time it never did. I tried to get Jerry to come check it out but he wasn't around, so I kept working. Bottom line is somehow crazy stuff has happened, like on some of Mike's drum tracks there are background vocals from other songs! It's insane. And it is the same on the back up drive!! Wow!

Anyway, we will figure it out I know. But, right now it is pretty scary.

Thought you'd like to know,

Neal

Hi all,

Well, it turns out whatever happened happened last Saturday and everything went haywire. I am slowly going through each song and checking everything. There is some CRAZY stuff that happened on both drives! BGVs on the kick drum! And here's the weirdest part - you can't even see it in the wave form! It looks like a kick drum, but you hear BGVs....from another song!! wow.

here's the great news....when Collin was here working on the audio for the DVD he copied the entire folder so he could go play drums on some of the tracks that Mike didn't do. So, he has all of Mikes' original drums. hallelujah!! So, right now, I am emailing Colling saying "I need the whole kick drum for this song" and he is emailing me what I need.

Wild huh? Meanwhile Rich has started mixing stuff I sent him on DVDs earlier this week. We shall prevail!!!

Blessings,

Neal