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Cover to Cover
Artist: Neal Morse
Label: Radiant Records
Length: 13 Tracks/63.14 Minutes
What you have here folks is the feel-good CD of 2006. Consisting of thirteen covers, (hence the title-DOH!), Cover to Cover is a big ol’ blast of musical fun just waiting to be listened to with the car windows down and the throttle wide-open. Since leaving Spock’s Beard in 2001 Neal Morse has created three epic Christian-themed prog-rock masterpieces (Testimony, One and ?). During the recording of these projects, Neal and compadres Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater’s force-of-nature drummer) and Randy George (bassist of Christian proggers Ajalon) made time for some fun at the end of the sessions and recorded these (mostly) deep cuts of classic rock and pop. Morse, George and Portnoy picked out tracks they would love to cover, and then would sit down with an acoustic guitar or piano and work out how they would approach the song. Then they would hit the studio and play the songs live together.
The results are pure magic. Some of the songs are straightforward interpretations of the originals, and some take delightful twists and turns (witness the "swinging reggae, mid-tempo rock, or up-tempo punk" of The Monkees "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the mellow-to-rocking version of U2 "Where the Streets Have No Name," and the classy melding of The Moody Blues "Tuesday Afternoon" with Blind Faith’s "Find My Way Back Home" featuring lyrics altered to point to man’s search for God). Couple this with like Morse’s great vocal turn on the scorching cover of Bowie’s "Rock and Roll Suicide," The Who’s "I’m Free/Sparks" (gotta’ check out Portnoy’s drums on that one!), and the cool duet with Phil Keaggy on George Harrison’s "What is Life?" and you’ll understand why I’ve chosen this CD as one of this years top picks.
Check out Cover to Cover: http://www.radiantrecords.com
Visit Neal Morse: http://www.nealmorse.com
Visit Mike Portnoy: http://www.mikeportnoy.com
Visit Randy George’s group Ajalon: http://www.ajalon.net
Barry Nothstine hosts Soul Frequency Radio (http://www.soulfrequency.com) a weekly freeform FM radio show showcasing progressive rock, instrumental rock, power-pop, psychedelic rock, rock classics, blues, and more—great rock for the ages!