Steve Morse

Table of Contents:


Solo Discography:

Steve Morse Band      
  The Introduction 1984 Elektra
  Stand Up 1985 Elektra
  Southern Steel 1991 MCA
  Coast to Coast 1992 MCA
  Structural Damage 1995 High Street Records
  Stressfest 1996 High Street Records
Steve Morse      
  High Tension Wires 1989 MCA
Kansas      
  Power 1986 MCA
  In the Spirit of Things 1988 MCA
Deep Purple      
  Purpendicular    

 


Title: The Introduction

Artist: The Steve Morse Band

Format: CD

Catalog: Elektra 9 60369-2

Country: USA

Produced: Steve Morse

Date: 1984

Tracks

  1. Cruise Missile 5:32

  2. General Lee 3:19

  3. The Introduction 2:50

  4. V.H.F. 4:21

  5. On The Pipe 4:46

  6. The Whistle 2:13

  7. Mountain Waltz 4:24

  8. Huron River Blues 6:18

Band: Steve Morse, Rod Morgenstein, Jerry Peek


Title: Stand Up

Artist: The Steve Morse Band

Format: LP or tape

Catalog: Elektra

Country:

Produced:

Date: 1985

Tracks: English Rancher, others

Cover:

Band:

Comments: "Stand Up" only recently became available on CD. See the Steve Morse home page for ordering instructions.

I think "Stand Up" is easily as good as his other albums. Each album is different in some way. Perhaps what's different album Stand Up is that it has several tunes with vocals. There are also guest appearences from Eric Johnson, Albert Lee and Peter Frampton.

One tune, "English Rancher" was SUPPOSED to have a guest appearance from Allan Holdsworth. It turned out that Allan was not available to to it, but it's interesting to listen to the tune with that perspective. It's one of my favorite Morse tunes.


Title: Southern Steel

Artist: The Steve Morse Band

Format: CD

Catalog: MCA - MCAD-10112

Produced: Steve Morse & Dave LaRue

Date: 1991

Tracks:

  1. Cut to the Chase 3:51

  2. Simple Simon 3:47

  3. Vista Grande 5:02

  4. Sleaze Factor 3:37

  5. Battle Liines 4:05

  6. Southern Steel 3:54

  7. Wolf Song 3:20

  8. Weekend OVerdrive 4:04

  9. Arena Rock 3:59

  10. Pointer Counterpoint 2:12

Band: Steve Morse - Guitars/Guitar Synthesizers; Dave LaRue - Bass; Van Romaine - Drums (Jeff Watson of Night Ranger appears on "Cut to the Chase")


Title: Coast to Coast

Artist: The Steve Morse Band

Format: CD

Catalog:

Country: USA

Produced: Morse and LaRue

Date: 1992

Tracks:

  1. User Friendly

  2. Collateral Damage

  3. Get it in Writing

  4. Morning Rush Hour

  5. Runaway Train

  6. Long Lost

  7. The Z

  8. Over Easy

  9. Cabin Fever

  10. Flat Baroque

Cover: The CD sleeve is a foldout. There's a picture of Morse's distinctive Blue Ernie Ball MusicMan guitar, a picture of the band at an airport and a big aeronautical map of the US.

Band: Steve Morse, Dave LaRue and Van Romaine. There are no guest artists on this record.

 


Title: Structural Damage

Artist: The Steve Morse Band

Format: CD

Catalog: High Street Records 72902 10333-2

Country: USA

Produced: Steve Morse & Dave LaRue

Date: 1995

Tracks

  1. Sacred Ground 3:58
  2. Good to Go 4:52
  3. Dreamland 4:54
  4. Barbary Coast 3:26
  5. Smokey Mtn. Drive 3:41
  6. Slice of Time 2:34
  7. Native Dance 4:38
  8. Just Out of Reach 3:44
  9. Rally Cry 4:31
  10. Foreign Exchange 2:51
  11. Structural Damage 3:29

Band: Steve Morse, Dave LaRue, Van Romaine


Title: Stressfest

Artist: The Steve Morse Band

Format: CD

Catalog: High Street Records 72902 10345-2

Country: USA

Produced: Steve Morse & Dave LaRue

Date: 1996

Tracks

  1. Stressfest
  2. Rising Power
  3. Eyes of a Child
  4. Nightwalk
  5. Brave New World
  6. 4 Minutes to Live
  7. The Easy Way
  8. Glad to Be
  9. Delicate Balance
  10. Live to Ride

Band: Steve Morse, Dave LaRue, Van Romaine


 

Title: High Tension Wires

Artist: Steve Morse

Format: CD

Catalog: MCA - MCAD 6275

Country: USA

Produced: Steve Morse

Date: 1989

Tracks

  1. Ghostwind 3:12
  2. The Road Home 4:48
  3. Country Colors 3:46
  4. Highland Wedding 3:21
  5. Third Power 4:14
  6. Looking Back 3:59
  7. Leprechaun Promenade 6:24
  8. Tumeni Notes 4:10
  9. Endless Waves 3:46
  10. MODOC 2:19

Guest artists: Allen Sloan - violin; Jerry Peek - bass; Rod Morgenstein - drums; T Lavitz - keyboards

This album is technically Steve's only "solo" album. Although the cast of guest artists certain are familiar, compositionally, the album is quite different from any other album Steve has done. The album seems even more eclectic than the usual Steve Morse output and seems to delve deeper into even more outer reaches of sonic space.

Highlights include: "Tumeni Notes" (pronounced like "too many notes") has Steve ripping the fretboard up with his amazing speed and dexterity; "Country Colors" is an introspective pieces somewhat remniscent of "Night Meets Light" and yet quite different; "Highland Wedding" starts out with a modern quasi-acoustic solo guitar piece and then shifts gears midway into a hybrid electric Celtic romp; "Leprechaun Promenade" is the same version that appeared on the Ensoniq "Off the Record" promotional CD.

This album is a "must have" for any serious Steve Morse fan - not merely for its brilliance, but also for its uniqueness.

- Dave Blickstein


Title: Down the Road

Artist: Kansas

Format: CD

Catalog:

Country: Luxembourg

Produced:

Date: 1989?

From the Tower Theater in Philadelphia in 1989 (with Morse):

Tracks:

From a 1982 performance in Omaha, NE (obviously without Morse):

Sound quality is very good, and I highly recommend this recording, especially if you are a fan of both Kansas and Morse. If you have always dreamed of hearing Steve play the soaring, emotional guitar melody in "The Wall", or hear him cover the keyboard and violin parts in "Point of Know Return", then you are going to be in heaven. Morse's influence in this music is *very* substantial. It adds a whole new dimension to Kansas.

Band: The musicians are not listed, but there is no violinist on the Morse tracks, and Steve Walsh is singing. (His voice quality is above average but not fabulous on the Morse tracks... but better than on LIVE AT THE WHISKEY.)


Artist: Various, including Steve Morse

Title: Guitar's Practicing Musicians

Format: LP?

Catalog: Guitar Records

Country: USA

Date: 1989

This is a compilation album put out by "Guitar (for the Practicing Musician)" magazine. It contains one song by Morse ("Cut to the Chase"), which is also on the "Southern Steel" album.


Title: Ski Patrol soundtrack

Artist: Various, including Steve Morse

Format: LP?

Catalog:

Country: USA

Date: 1990

This soundtrack features three songs by Morse. The first is "Cut to the Chase" (from "Southern Steel"). The other two songs are re-mixes of previously released stuff (from "The Introduction") which were renamed for the soundtrack - "Western Chase" (aka "Cruise Missile") and "Downhill Run" (aka "General Lee").


Title: Hot Guitarist

Artist: Steve Morse

Format: Video Magazine

Country: USA

Date: 10/13 edition, 1993 (?)

It was disappointing in that they do not actually show him playing a WHOLE song completely thru, but the interviews and music snippets were pretty interesting. The video opens with him trying to intro the tape while playing an acoustic with his son sitting on his lap.

Some great comments about Steve from Rod, some insightful and NEW questions being asked of him (i.e. no "what gauge string do you use" or anything like that).

There is some footage of him playing with the SMB, with the Dregs Reunion (I think some from the tour with Jerry Goodman, some with Allen Sloan), him playing a duet with LaRue, etc.

Anyway, also on the tape is some interesting "Guitar Art" (neat guitar designs), lessons from Paul Gilbert, Eric Johnson and Steve (actually these are just excerpts from their instructional videos which are advertised on the tape), and an interview with Scott Henderson.

It's a pretty neat format. I might subscribe regularly for about 1/3 of the price, but at $20, I'll pick and choose the issues I want.

Title: Two Faces

Artist: Steve Morse

Format: CD

Catalog: Minotauro Records - AS 23

Country: Italy

Produced:

Date: 1984

Cover: Artwork looks pretty impressive, but on closer scrutiny it seems all the pictures were taken out of old "Guitar Player" articles.

Tracks: Miss Tilly (misnamed - really is "Northern Lights"), "Unknown" (Never heard this one before), "The Country Tune" (Haven't heard this one either), Riff Raff, Acoustic Jam For One Acoustic Guitar (Or this one), Barock (Or this one), Cruise Missile, Dregs Medley: Take It Off The Top..And more! (Not the same "Dregs medley" as played on "Bring em Back Alive"), Horn River Blues (misspelled), The Bash, Cruise Control

Band: Steve Morse, Jerry Peek, Rod Morgenstein.

The first half of this one is acoustic - recorded live in Kiva 10/24/83 (Supporting DiMeola, De Lucia, McLaughlin), and the second half is with the "Steve Morse Trio" Live in Albuquerque, New Mexico 7/25/84. The Musicians on the second half are Morse, Peek, and Morgenstein. This album only lists a reference to "All Of Us", that it was made in Italy, and that the album # is AS 23, so I'm fairly sure you can get more info at this phone number: 39.382.29017 (Fax is 39.382.530821). Sound quality is quite good.

I purchased this album at: Sound Exchange ph. 201-694-6049 1482 Route 23 Wayne, NJ 07470 for $35. I don't know if the store is willing to do mail order.


Steve's guest appearances:

Band Album Title Year Label
Steve Walsh Schemer Dreamer 1980 Kirshner/CBS
Triumph Surveillance 1987 MCA
Lynyrd Skynyrd Southern by the Grace of God 1988 MCA
Rossington Band Love Your Man 1988 MCA
Jeff Watson Lone Ranger 1992 Shrapnel
Coven, Pitrelli, O'Reilly CPR 1992 Guitar Recordings
Rob Cassel ? ? ?
Marcel Dadi Fingers Crossed 1991  
Michael Manring Thonk 1994 Windham Hill

Steve on compilations:

Guitar's Practicing Musicians-1989 Guitar Recordings
Ski Patrol soundtrack-1990
Guitar's Practicing Musicians Volume 2-1991 Guitar Recordings
Guitar Speak III-1991 IRS


Steve is supposedly appearing on upcoming releases by:
Z (on Barking Pumpkin)

Steve also has done one "Hot Licks" instructional tape, and 3 video
instructional tapes: "Power Lines", "Steve Morse - The Essential" and
"Steve Morse: The Complete Style". Steve is featured in "Hot Guitarist",
which is a video magazine. Steve is featured on the Roland New Products
1994 Vol 2 video (RUG-V2) [get it from Roland at 213-685-5141 for $9.95 +
$3.00 S&H]


Steve's Songbooks:

Steve has seven Songbooks out:

"The Steve Morse Songbook"-1986 Cherry Lane Music
"High Tension Wires"-1990 Cherry Lane Music
"The Essential" + CD or tape-1991 Manhattan Music *
"Complete Styles" + CD or tape-1991 Manhattan Music *
"Southern Steel"-1992 Cherry Lane Music
"Coast To Coast" -1993 Cherry Lane Music
"Structural Damage" -1995 Cherry Lane Music
*distributed by CPP media, 15800 N.W. 48 Av. Miami FL., 33014