Interview: Guitarist Steve Morse
Critically acclaimed guitarist and Dixie Dregs founder Steve Morse recently released an authoritative guitar tribute album titled "Major Impacts" (Magna Carta). Rather than lining up an album of cover songs, Morse used his breadth of knowledge and technique to weave the stylings of several influential guitarists into 11 original compositions.
Part guitar history lesson, part reverential exhibit, Morse and his rhythm section of bassist Dave LaRue and drummer Van Romaine deftly maneuver through music in the style of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, Alex Lifeson, the Byrds, Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin, the Rolling Stones, Mountain, George Harrison, the Allman Brothers, Kansas and Yes.
After forming the fusion outfit the Dixie Dregs at the University of Miami in the early '70s, Morse released a string of Dreg-related and solo albums before serving stints with rock stalwarts Kansas and Deep Purple. SoundSpike correspondent Don Zulaica caught up with Morse to elaborate on his guitar heroes.
SoundSpike: How did the project come about?
Steve Morse: Magna Carta called my manager about the project last fall. They let me have pretty free reign with how I wanted to approach it. I basically did it as a solo project, and then at the end--when the tunes were done--I said to Dave and Van, "Here's a demo recording of this album I want you to play on." And then they replaced the drum machine and synth bass, which is drastically different from how we do Steve Morse Band albums. With those, there's more time, and we all interact more.
What's it like doing a tribute where you're playing the artist's compositions, versus when you're trying to write an original composition with the spirit of the artist in mind?
I can give you an analogy. When I did the "Tales from Yesterday" [a Yes tribute album for Magna Carta], I did two Steve Howe compositions for acoustic guitar in an afternoon. And the tune "Prognosis," which is the Yes/Kansas tribute tune from "Major Impacts"--that took a week. It takes a lot more work to write, a lot more trial and error. It's the difference between "Think up a name for your company" and a business plan. But I really enjoyed the challenge.
I liked the concept from the minute I heard about it. And I made it an additional challenge to myself to not study up on any guitar players in advance, and to just go from my memory, my impressions. Like in the case of Clapton ["Derailleur Gears," written in the style of Cream], the tune is in the same tempo and key as "Crossroads," but other than that, there's not much in common. But I remembered Cream playing live many, many years ago, and that's really what I drew from.
What about the Mountain tune "Bring It to Me?"
Van did a great job with that tune, because he did study before recording! He did the snare drum figure at the beginning, similar to the Mountain tune "Never in My Life." Of course, "Mississippi Queen" was what I was thinking of when I wrote this. The middle part was meant to be reminiscent of "Theme from an Imaginary Western," where the chords just keep changing and descending.
Then you pay homage to George Harrison with "Something Gently Weeps."
He was one of my big heroes. He didn't play much, but when he did he was so great. Even if it was a tiny little fill in "I Saw You Standing There," I loved the juxtaposition of the heavy-midrange rhythm guitar of John Lennon and the sometimes-jangly, sometimes-stark sounding George Harrison. They were one of the few bands that used the guitar as a coloring device as opposed to a never-ending source of...noise. [Laughs] I always liked the way George soloed, always melodic. In the piece, I tried to use the slide guitar for some of the melody, because when George did his solo work, he always used a slide guitar as the vocal sound. I thought that was cool.
He may not have "guitar hero" chops, but that may have been overlooked here. People don't realize how influential he was.
Right, they don't realize. A lot of people have the mistaken impression that if they can play something, that somehow they are equal to the person who thought of putting it in the right place. Whereas the person that was recording and wrote that part, the playing of it was almost incidental. The main challenge was to come up with something that musically worked.
And then there's the Stones tune, "How Does It Feel?"
The easy part was getting the rhythm sound. I think Keith Richards used an open tuning and a five-string guitar in order to get a major chord with a fifth on top, and then used a bar and slid that around--that was the basis for a lot of the Stones tunes. So I recreated that, sort of. I use a six-string guitar, but use an awkward hand position that gives me that sound. And I just love what he did on "Honky Tonk Woman." So I wanted to come up with something that was kind of funky and greasy and laid back like "Honky Tonk Woman," but that didn't sound just like it. It's a combination of "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Gimmie Shelter" and "Honky Tonk," all in that one tune. That's what I was trying to get.
Was there anything that didn't make it on the record?
Santana was one of the ones that I tried, but the Santana-style song that I came up with was a little too trite for me to stand. So I just yanked that idea. I'll have to rethink that one. Maybe, if I get the chance to do a second album, it won't sound as much like Santana as some people would want, because I don't want to get too incredibly derivative.
You cover so many different guitarists, were you using a lot of instruments?
No, I used my same 4-pickup guitar for all the parts, except for any acoustic parts. Instead of saying, "All right. Jimmy Page: I have to use the same Telecaster he used for rhythm, and a Les Paul for lead," I used my guitar.
Who do you think are the more important guitar players out there today, doing original music?
I think John Petrucci of Dream Theater, he's an absolute impeccable virtuoso. Jimmy Herring of Jazz Is Dead--I think he's one of the most well-rounded soloists that you'll ever see. Some of the bands I hear on the radio, they're kind of actively not featuring the guitar. That's probably [due to] producers. And I think, frankly, there's less emphasis on practicing for soloing chops and ability.
I heard a song the other day that had a lot of intense energy--it kind of reminds me of my kids on skateboards--there were some cool riffs on it. And my kids said, "That's Rage Against the Machine." And I thought, they're putting some nice little licks in there, but the producer's trend is to scoop all the mid-range out of it so that it almost just sounds like a wall of noise. Whereas when I'm doing a record, if somebody is playing a solo, you can better believe it's going to be heard in my mix.
So it sounds weird to me to have the guitar in such a distant role. So they're putting forth the effort playing guitar, so I can't say that it's not happening. It's just that I think the goals are different.
Do you think that will change?
It'll definitely turn around sometime, just out of boredom. Somebody somewhere in one of these happening bands--maybe 'N Sync--one day will feature somebody with a guitar solo. And somebody will go, "Wow, they had a guy play something for 30 seconds that was really cool--what was that instrument? It had strings and..." [Laughs] I think that it will turn around, just from the fact that it's so gone now.
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