Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

[KevShmev]

With Spock's Beard, I think Ryo usually played hammond organ and mellotron and Neal played the piano and all synths, IIRC.

With NMB, I can't tell their styles apart either, as Bill seems to have a very similar style to Neal. Both are great, tasteful players.

[RoeDent]

Watching the thematic analysis of The Great Adventure.

We have the Transatlantic theme and we have the Who theme.

I put it to the court that The Who theme sounds far more like Transatlantic than the Transatlantic theme does.

[goo-goo]

Pre-order is up at Radiant


https://nealmorse.com/product/cov3r-to-cov3r-morse-portnoy-george/?attribute_pa_format=3-cd-digipak-in-slipcase

[The Letter M]

Pre-order is up at Radiant


https://nealmorse.com/product/cov3r-to-cov3r-morse-portnoy-george/?attribute_pa_format=3-cd-digipak-in-slipcase

Awesome. I want to get the anthology, but funds are short right now, sadly enough. Thankfully, I'm not in TOO much of a hurry to get this set, or the new album itself, despite having some interesting song choices on that I would like to hear.

-Marc.

[The Letter M]

Eric Gillette has made his orchestral tour intros from NMB shows available for download!

https://www.ericgillettemusic.com/store/p35/Overtures_(The_Neal_Morse_Band_Orchestral_Intros).html?fbclid=IwAR0tiNOl-DrQ9KqnN7OAyx4QG6WmzZu8tQPfUJOOTelAkLGnVnDkgvMM-dU

-Marc.

[ytserush]

Pre-order is up at Radiant


https://nealmorse.com/product/cov3r-to-cov3r-morse-portnoy-george/?attribute_pa_format=3-cd-digipak-in-slipcase

Awesome. I want to get the anthology, but funds are short right now, sadly enough. Thankfully, I'm not in TOO much of a hurry to get this set, or the new album itself, despite having some interesting song choices on that I would like to hear.

-Marc.

I'm waiting until it's a lot closer to the release date.

[Fritzinger]

You guys can’t imagine how much I’m not going to buy this album for 43$ plus 25$ shipping

[KevShmev]

Full version of Baker Street is now up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IszlXuQ99Fo&feature=youtu.be&inf_contact_key=5bf0e45c588b1ec7fcdce38223c4293a680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1

[ReaperKK]

That wasn't bad, I'd be interested in hearing the other covers. Hrmm doesn't look like Neal streams to Spotify . . .

[RoeDent]

Nope. He's decided to do his own subscription service, The Waterfall I think it's called.

I'd say he's trying to start a cult, but eh...

[frogprog]

In a Blabbermouth preview Neal mentions taking a "The Who" approach to Baker Street. I thought it was a great cover but can't figure out what he meant? Mike going all "Keith Moon" on drums?? Can someone explain?

[The Letter M]

Neal just sent out the May IC Newsletter. He details his new solo album, Flying Colors: Live In London (Mascot to release in the fall), and that Rich Mouser is sending him files to work on for TA5.

Of course, there's also buzz about Morsefest 2020 as well. Very interesting stuff over-all, and Neal seems to have a very busy year! Between 2 live albums and 3 studio albums, it's a good time to be a Neal Morse fan!

-Marc.

[bosk1]

In terms of sheer volume of content, it's pretty much ALWAYS a good time to be a Neal Morse fan. 

[MinistroRaven]

Neal just sent out the May IC Newsletter. He details his new solo album, Flying Colors: Live In London (Mascot to release in the fall), and that Rich Mouser is sending him files to work on for TA5.

Of course, there's also buzz about Morsefest 2020 as well. Very interesting stuff over-all, and Neal seems to have a very busy year! Between 2 live albums and 3 studio albums, it's a good time to be a Neal Morse fan!

-Marc.

The biggest BOOM for me was the part about the new solo album

[ronnibran]

Once again I haven’t gotten the inner circle newsletter even though I’m a member. I think I basically figured out what the new album is about because people are talking about the newsletter on FB though.   If what I think is true I’ll be excited.

[KevShmev]

Neal just sent out the May IC Newsletter. He details his new solo album, Flying Colors: Live In London (Mascot to release in the fall), and that Rich Mouser is sending him files to work on for TA5.

Of course, there's also buzz about Morsefest 2020 as well. Very interesting stuff over-all, and Neal seems to have a very busy year! Between 2 live albums and 3 studio albums, it's a good time to be a Neal Morse fan!

-Marc.

The biggest BOOM for me was the part about the new solo album

Did you say the new solo or new sola album?

[MinistroRaven]

Neal just sent out the May IC Newsletter. He details his new solo album, Flying Colors: Live In London (Mascot to release in the fall), and that Rich Mouser is sending him files to work on for TA5.

Of course, there's also buzz about Morsefest 2020 as well. Very interesting stuff over-all, and Neal seems to have a very busy year! Between 2 live albums and 3 studio albums, it's a good time to be a Neal Morse fan!

-Marc.

The biggest BOOM for me was the part about the new solo album

Did you say the new solo or new sola album?

No, Gratia 

[KevShmev]

Did you say the new solo or new sola album?

No, Gratia 

 

[MinistroRaven]

Morsefest 2020 tickets on sale now!

Neal Morse and Radiant Records have announced Morsefest 2020: Lockdown! The annual weekend-long festival will take place on September 18 and 19 at New Life Fellowship in Cross Plains, TN, and will also be available for online viewing.

Tickets go on sale today and there are serious discounts for early purchases!

The featured music will include:
Friday, Sept 18th – COVER TO COVER NIGHT! Performance of material from the Cover to Cover Anthology including songs from the new Cov3r to Cov3r album, performed by Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy and Randy George with Eric Gillette and Bill Hubauer - plus real horns, string quartet and all the bells and whistles!

Saturday, Sept 19th – PREMIERE OF Neal Morse's NEW PROG CONCEPT ALBUM (title not announced yet) plus other great progressive rock from his catalog performed by the Neal Morse Band and special guests.

“Early Purchase” Discount.
For the next 48 hours the "Virtual VIP ticket with 2 VIP bags" is available for $240 reduced from $300, "Virtual VIP with 1 VIP bag" for $180 reduced from $225, and the "Virtual Double Night" tickets for $75 reduced from $99.

Purchase here:
https://nealmorse.com/tc-events/morsefest-2020/

"I'm more excited about this Morsefest than ever because we are performing so much material that has NEVER been performed before! With so many events being canceled, we are trying to preserve the spirit of MF and make this one special by offering more fun stuff than we ever have!" - Neal Morse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhoxVlxSQWk&feature=youtu.be

The Ticket Options include the limited 70 seat Live VIP, the Virtual VIP, and Virtual Double Night tickets.

Virtual Double Night Tickets: $99
(“Early Purchase” Discount - $75 for the next 48 hours)
•Front row seats (on your couch!) to attend the virtual concert on Friday and Saturday nights
•Opportunity to purchase an exclusive Morsefest release and other merch
•Access to private Morsefest web portal, special merch deals and other cool stuff!

Virtual VIP with 2 VIP bags - $300

Virtual VIP with 1 VIP bag: $225
(“Early Purchase” Discount - $240 and $175 respectively for the next 48 hours)
•Front row seats (on your couch!) to attend the virtual concert on Friday and Saturday nights
•Live online VIP game and Q&A on both days
•VIP Merch Bag including Morsefest VIP t-shirt, VIP lanyard, poster and other surprises (this will be shipped to you in advance of the event, in the hope that you will be able to wear your VIP shirt on the night!)
•Opportunity to purchase an exclusive Morsefest release and other merch
•Access to private Morsefest web portal, behind the scenes live video, special merch deals and other cool stuff!

Live VIP: $1199.00
•Only 70 tickets available (due to expected attendance restrictions)
•Purchases limited to two tickets per Radiant account
•Brand new format “Lockdown” style event – guests will spend the entire afternoon and evening in the venue, with full facilities and entertainment throughout the day
•You get to be the audience for the live performances, which will be recorded in the late afternoon to avoid technical issues, and then streamed to the world that evening
•During the evening broadcasts, you will get to watch the performance again on the big screen, with exclusive live commentary from the band members about what they were thinking while it was happening
•VIP games and Q&A on both days
•Dinner each evening and snacks throughout the day
•Opportunity to purchase an exclusive Morsefest release and other unique items
•VIP Merch Bag including Custom Morsefest 2020 Yeti Cup (only 70 available), Morsefest VIP t-shirt, •VIP lanyard, poster and other surprises
•SPECIAL MF VIP FACEMASK!
•Entry to Inner Circle Jam concert … where some musicians will get the chance to jam with the band
•Saturday night after show karaoke with Neal and friends!

NEAL MORSE ONLINE:

https://nealmorse.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nealmorse/
https://twitter.com/nealmorse
https://www.instagram.com/neal_morse_official/

[Willthescout7]

Hey Everyone,

Does anyone know where I can find a physical or downloadable (Legal) copy of Neal's Mighty to Save? That's the last one I need to complete my set of his albums. I've looked on Amazon, Radiant Records, and Ebay. Any help would be appreciated.

WilltheScout7

[KevShmev]

I have never heard of Mighty to Save.  Is that one of his worship albums?  I avoid those, so I have no idea.

Interesting to see that they are already offering reduced prices on Morsefest. Makes me wonder if initial sales with the Inner Circle peeps the other day weren't as great as they had hoped.  Wouldn't surprise me.  I hope it all goes as well as possible for Neal and the gang, but that is an awful lot of money to pay.  My brother (who has gone with me to Morsefest several times) and I talked about it last week, and I was like, "If it was Transatlantic, or something really awesome like playing both Similitude and TGA, or something really special, I probably still wouldn't go for that price, but I would at least consider it."  A night of covers is about the least special thing I can imagine being done at a Morsefest, but I get that their options as to what to do were pretty limited.  Neal is making the best of a not-great situation.

[ytserush]

I have never heard of Mighty to Save.  Is that one of his worship albums?  I avoid those, so I have no idea.

Interesting to see that they are already offering reduced prices on Morsefest. Makes me wonder if initial sales with the Inner Circle peeps the other day weren't as great as they had hoped.  Wouldn't surprise me.  I hope it all goes as well as possible for Neal and the gang, but that is an awful lot of money to pay.  My brother (who has gone with me to Morsefest several times) and I talked about it last week, and I was like, "If it was Transatlantic, or something really awesome like playing both Similitude and TGA, or something really special, I probably still wouldn't go for that price, but I would at least consider it."  A night of covers is about the least special thing I can imagine being done at a Morsefest, but I get that their options as to what to do were pretty limited.  Neal is making the best of a not-great situation.

My uneducated guess is there will be further discounts.

[Willthescout7]

I have never heard of Mighty to Save.  Is that one of his worship albums?  I avoid those, so I have no idea.

Yeah, it's Worship Sessions #5. Those are how I got into him in the first place

[MinistroRaven]

There are many discussing it over their FB forum, and lots of complain about the price for the online streaming and how it is not actually live but only broadcast of the recording. There's a note over the radiant site that states these won't be available as DVD/BR in the future. Knowing Neal I know that these will eventually be released as IC releases.

[MinistroRaven]

I have never heard of Mighty to Save.  Is that one of his worship albums?  I avoid those, so I have no idea.

Yeah, it's Worship Sessions #5. Those are how I got into him in the first place

The album is OOP.

[KevShmev]

There are many discussing it over their FB forum, and lots of complain about the price for the online streaming and how it is not actually live but only broadcast of the recording. There's a note over the radiant site that states these won't be available as DVD/BR in the future. Knowing Neal I know that these will eventually be released as IC releases.

I believe they are saying these shows will not be "commercially released," which gives them some gray area to eventually release them to IC members online.

[RoeDent]

The Dark Melody chorus is fascinating! Each time the full chorus plays, the second half drops down a semitone from the first half. Especially as the vocal line is an ascending minor second (ie. a semitone), it's not necessarily easy to pick out the change. I love the song Freedom Calling, especially the instrumental section effectively acting as whatever the opposite of an overture is, recalling the themes of the opera as the story reaches its pivotal moment. The counterpoint use of several themes is particularly special. The passage starting at 3:17, we have the Element of Fear descending bass theme, joined afterwards first by the variation on To the River theme (I say this as it starts with the four notes of "To the river..." but then it goes off somewhere else), followed on top of *that* by the minor-key variant of the "Memory of every brother" theme that possibly recurs more often than any other theme. We hear it first in after the second WTTW chorus, but its most prominent outing is as the chorus of Fighting With Destiny. Hence the Memory of Every Brother theme.

[The Letter M]

I'm not too surprised that Morsefest 2020 won't be a commercially available DVD or BD, if only because it's not a really stand-out set of material, especially with covers (which I assume would need some sort of permissions to be released on video like that).

An Inner Circle release seems likely, even though he is still behind on releasing the rest of 2018 and all of 2019.

-Marc.

[Willthescout7]

I have never heard of Mighty to Save.  Is that one of his worship albums?  I avoid those, so I have no idea.

Yeah, it's Worship Sessions #5. Those are how I got into him in the first place

The album is OOP.

Welp, that's how it goes sometimes. Thanks for the help.

[KevShmev]

I'm not too surprised that Morsefest 2020 won't be a commercially available DVD or BD, if only because it's not a really stand-out set of material, especially with covers (which I assume would need some sort of permissions to be released on video like that).

An Inner Circle release seems likely, even though he is still behind on releasing the rest of 2018 and all of 2019.

-Marc.

I am guessing the hold-up on 2018 Night 2 is because the Exorcist studio album was released under a different company, and I am sure they are in the loop as far as the live release goes, but it's been almost two years.  Kinda surprising to see this much of a delay.

[MinistroRaven]

FC morsefest is on development. JCTE will see the light next year.

[MinistroRaven]

I received this email in the AM



Hey Jorge,

Morsefest sales are underway and we are delighted so many of you have signed up already. We had a few people ask, and so we are extending the early purchase discount for a further 48 hours! Be sure to get your tickets now — there will be no further extensions. This will end on on Monday, June 1.

We’ve also had a number of questions raised by email or via social media and we thought it would be helpful to clear them up here:


1. Why are the Morsefest 2020 live streams not live broadcasts?

They’re not actually live because we've had some technical errors with live streaming broadcasts in the past. So we thought it would be better to perform the shows in the afternoon to make sure that everything was great for the viewer — and then broadcast them at show time. The tech team have also said this is the best option to give you the best online experience. They will be ALMOST live!

2. Do I have to watch the shows when they premier? That time doesn't work for me in my time zone.

You will have the option of watching them when they are first broadcast, and then they will be replayed at more opportune times for your time zone.

3. Will there be an Inner Circle show this year?

Yes, there will! And Inner Circle members with Virtual tickets will be able to join us — so that’s an extra reason for IC members to sign up! Part of this will be a Jam Session with some of the people who are attending the Live VIP event — another great reason to snap up one of the Live VIP tickets!

4. Will I be able to stream the virtual shows to my TV using my device?

In the run up to Morsefest, our tech team will share details of how to stream to common devices for the best experience. We can’t guarantee they’ll fix all your problems but there will be lots of advice on how best to enjoy the shows.

5. Will Neal’s new prog concept album that is being premiered at Morsefest be available before the show?

The album will be released one week before Morsefest and will be available three weeks before Morsefest on the waterfall streaming app.

6. Can’t I just wait and buy the DVD / Blu-ray?

We are not planning to commercially release a DVD or Blu-ray of the Morsefest 2020 shows.

[KevShmev]

Assuming Radiant is in charge of the virtual show, Vegas should set the odds at 40 to 1 that it goes off without a hitch. 

[Fritzinger]

I have never heard of Mighty to Save.  Is that one of his worship albums?  I avoid those, so I have no idea.

Yeah, it's Worship Sessions #5. Those are how I got into him in the first place

The album is OOP.

Welp, that's how it goes sometimes. Thanks for the help.

It's not available on Discogs either, but if I were you, I'd keep an eye on this space (or add it to your waitlist so they'll notify you when it becomes available)
https://www.discogs.com/de/Neal-Morse-Mighty-To-Save-Worship-Sessions-Volume-Five/release/4169313

[Dedalus]

Jesus Christ The Exorcist - Live at Morsefest 2018

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/tfyhhk/neal-morse-jesus-christ-the-exorcist-live-at-morsefest-2018