Major Impacts
was an interesting idea pitched to
Steve Morse
: paying tribute to the myriad of bands, players, and musical styles that have influenced him not by doing covers, but by recycling the riffs and feel of those influences and crafting
Morse
originals out of them. No surprise,
Major Impacts, Vol. 2
is more of the same, though with some choices that may surprise people.
"Wooden Music"
does a great job of evoking
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
with nice acoustic playing and harmonized guitars. His tribute to the music of the
British Invasion
starts with a
Hollies
12-string intro and ends up somewhere near
"Itchycoo Park,"
and
"Where Are You"
is a well put together tip to
the Who
, where drummer
Van Romaine
does a good
Keith Moon
.
"Organically Grown"
supplies the bombast of
ELP
"Abracadabra"
has the quirky construction of post-
Peter Gabriel
Genesis
. The somewhat surprising choices are the
Bach-esque
piece
"Air on a 6 String"
and the
country-western
/
bluegrass
hoedown
"Tri County Barn Dance."
's salute to
Enya
Celtic
ballad
is right on target: superficially pretty yet ultimately bland, and the only real misstep on the album.
really shows what a versatile player
is, and why he's been a member of bands as disparate as
the Dixie Dregs
,
Kansas
, and
Deep Purple
. ~ Sean Westergaard