Official Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

[bosk1]

Hey, I don't mind that anyone else is going to do it, or why.  I just said that I'm not doing it.

That's where I am as well.  It just doesn't make sense for me and for how I consume music.  And maybe this is just my age showing, but I find it hard to get past not having physical media for things I want to keep longterm.  There are a few albums I have bought digitally-only.  But that is reserved for those few cases where I want to listen to something repeatedly now, but don't see myself being a long-time fan a decade or two from now (e.g., Jinjer).  As an example for why I am uncomfortable, we have all of our family pictures digitally only since about 2001 when we got our first digital camera.  For various reasons through the years, we have lost some of those (hard drive failures, storing them in places that have been forgotten, etc.).  As a result, we are spending quite a bit of time and money lately going back year-by-year, and trying to find as many as we can, and print photo books so that the ones we want the most are preserved in a format we are less likely to lose.  Is that quaint and outdated?  Maybe.  But it just gives us a bit more security, as well as the ability to pull out a random book from time to time and flip through it whenever we please.  I like that, and it is worth it to me.  I'm kinda the same with my music.  I want the physical media so I know the music won't be lost, and I can pull out the CD whenever I want to listen.  If I lose my phone, or it gets erased, or whatever, I still have the music.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE the convenience of having thousands of pictures and songs available instantly through a device I carry around in my pocket that either has them stored internally or in the cloud.  But I like the added security of having most of that backed up on a physical format.  And since I have the physical CDs, and have some of that music available on my phone, I don't see the need to duplicate that and have it on a streaming service.  So paying for something I would almost never use makes no sense for me personally.

[bosk1]

On a completely different note, I'm on a bit of a Neal kick at the moment, due to some catching up and getting a massive NM-related haul as part of my Christmas gifts.  Got Sola Gratia, JCTE Live (Morsefest 2018), and BRNO (TGE live). 

Just watched the making of Sola Gratia DVD.  This one was different, for obvious reasons.  But still VERY entertaining.  Going back to my post above, this is yet another reason I prefer buying the physical media.  I often really enjoy this sort of bonus content, and am willing to pay a bit extra for "special editions" and such, so that I can get it.  And yeah, I know a lot of that stuff eventually gets pirated and put up on YouTube.  But if I am going to consume official content, I think it is only right to pay the artist for that. 

Watching JCTE live now.  I am only a few songs in, but WOW!  I enjoy the studio version a lot, but I had a feeling it would REALLY come alive in a live setting, and I was not wrong.  SO powerful.  Everybody so far is just crushing it.  In particular, a couple of early shout-outs:
-Forget what I have said in the past about Ted Leonard as Jesus.  At least from the intro, he completely crushes it.  I mean, for those who may not remember my comments about him in the past, I have no criticism of his voice in general.  He is a really good singer.  I just felt that his voice lacked a bit of power and gravitas for this specific role.  And, to me, that is highlighted when he is contrasted with so many powerful singers on the album.  But I don't get that at all in the live setting.  He is absolutely fantastic in this role.
-Eric Gillette on drums is killing it.  The guy is just such a talented all-around musician.  I love his drumming here (and the mix, which gives his drumming a lot of punch).
-The guitarist adds quite a bit of fun stage presence.  I don't know this guy, but he is a lot of fun to watch, and is obviously having a lot of fun onstage.
-Interesting to see Neal's setup farther back from front stage to give the vocalists their space to shine.  Which is how it should be.  Glad he thought that through.  It is subtle, but important to the overall presentation.  When a singer comes to the front to perform his or her role, you rightly focus on him or her without having to force it.  Again, that should be a no-brainer.  But given that Neal has literally decades of setting up a certain way, I give him credit for thinking that through.
-The stage is relatively simple.  And that's fine.  At least so far, the simple things like lighting, the fog machine, and the video screen nicely set the mood and atmosphere for the songs.  I don't feel like anything is "lacking."  But it would have been nice if they had more time to make it a bit bigger of a stage production.  But this is just an observation, not a criticism.
I look forward to watching the documentary on this. 
-EDIT:  OK, Rick Florian is AMAZING as Satan! Not only his voice, but his stage mannerisms.  Just...    He is just perfect.  And going back to Ted, his voice stands up to Rick's nicely in a live setting. 

[kirksnosehair]

One of the really great things about Ted if you ever get to meet him is he is super, super humble.   

[The Letter M]

Work begins on the next Neal Morse Band album next Monday, as confirmed by Neal this morning.

 

Very nice, but where did he say this? I checked his FB page and his Twitter and saw nothing about it.

At any rate, I guess I was right in guessing what he and Mike were teasing at the end of his podcast earlier this week.

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

Very nice, but where did he say this? I checked his FB page and his Twitter and saw nothing about it.

At any rate, I guess I was right in guessing what he and Mike were teasing at the end of his podcast earlier this week.

His month Inner Circle newsletter.

Hopefully not another Similitude/Great Adventure sequel, though

Bring on Part III in the form of a triple album.

[The Letter M]

Very nice, but where did he say this? I checked his FB page and his Twitter and saw nothing about it.

At any rate, I guess I was right in guessing what he and Mike were teasing at the end of his podcast earlier this week.

His month Inner Circle newsletter.

Huh. I just checked my email and realized I hadn't received ANY IC emails since September, despite being a paying member ever since. I just emailed them to see if they could fix that.

Now I feel like I've missed out on some good emails and notifications of IC releases. Great.

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

Radiant strikes again!

[The Letter M]

Radiant strikes again!

Sadly, this is honestly my first real big issue with them. Every order has always shipped and been received in a timely manner. This new website of his is an awful mess, and it strikes me as hilarious that they have an Accessibility Statement at the bottom, even though the Search function doesn't even work. Simply awful.

Honestly, I may just quit being an IC member if I can't even download to be notified of new downloads for members. Even looking at the website now there is only 1 IC download currently available, from May 2018. What happened to everything else?!

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

No clue.  You could always go to the FB Neal fan page and ask, but beware of the Radiant Apologist Group who defend them like it's their grandma.

[The Letter M]

Mike has posted that he is driving to TN to begin work on the NMB4 album! I wonder if it'll get released before the end of the year.

-Marc.

[axeman90210]

I would imagine so because it's not like they'll have much else to do the next few months

[KevShmev]

I would imagine a summer release is the likely goal, that way it is out in time for the annual Morsefest in September. 

[gzarruk]

I would imagine a summer release is the likely goal, that way it is out in time for the annual Morsefest in September.

Morsefest should be Transatlantic, though.

[The Letter M]

I would imagine a summer release is the likely goal, that way it is out in time for the annual Morsefest in September.

Morsefest should be Transatlantic, though.

I'd love that, but that honestly depends on the state of the world, with regards to the pandemic and how easy (or difficult) it'll be for Pete and Roine to get new work Visas to perform in the US.

I think Neal probably wants to do TA since it was one of the initial plans for 2020, but circumstances as they were, they couldn't do it. It would be a miraculous return for Transatlantic if they started a tour from Morsefest and did some shows this fall, but I won't hold my breath.

If the NMB pump out an album before Fall, it might be likely that they'll perform it at Morsefest.

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

Marc, that was pretty much my line of thinking. I can't imagine things being good enough by next fall for Roine and Pete to make the trip to Nashville AND for a fully packed venue to be realistic, and I can't see them wanting to do Transatlantic at Morsefest for the first time until they can do it right.

[kirksnosehair]

When you consider that they had a goal of vaccinating 20 million people by January 1, 2021 and the number came in at just a little over 4 million, I have a feeling 2021 isn't going to be the end of the pandemic or the travel restrictions.  Not unless we can get our shit together.  At the current pace it will take 11 years to vaccinate the entire population of the US

[MinistroRaven]

NM just posted:

Musicians Having Coffee & Talking About Stuff - Episode #2 with special guest Phil Keaggy. This time we talk about movie stars, looping and The Beatles! It goes live on waterfall www.waterfallstreaming.com on Mon Jan 11th and everywhere else on Wed Jan 13th. https://youtu.be/EQwmRCYLFt8

[ReaperKK]

Oh damn, I'll have to watch this, I love Phil Keaggy.

[gzarruk]

NM just posted:

Musicians Having Coffee & Talking About Stuff - Episode #2 with special guest Phil Keaggy. This time we talk about movie stars, looping and The Beatles! It goes live on waterfall www.waterfallstreaming.com on Mon Jan 11th and everywhere else on Wed Jan 13th. https://youtu.be/EQwmRCYLFt8

This is going to be really cool! I still remember being a kid and watching my dad (a guitar player) play along with Phil's instructional VHS tape from way back in the day

[The Letter M]

An update from the NMB:

Wow! What an amazing time The Neal Morse Band have had in our writing sessions. Check out an update from the band here: https://youtu.be/v5oCmZ0g7yY

Also… look out for the January 2021 Inner Circle release coming soon! This month’s release, “NMB3 - Some More Adventures,” is a collection of songs I demoed during the process of making The Great Adventure album. Some of what’s included made it to the final album in very different forms, and some of it has never been heard before!  If you’re not yet an IC member, you can join now: www.nealmorse.com/#circle

Writing and arranging is done! Now they'll probably spend a few months recording and tracking and finishing the album. I suspect a late summer release, just before Moresefest 2021 (if it happens).

-Marc.

[bosk1]

Interesting that Neal didn't bring any ideas with him into the studio whatsoever.  I wonder how apparent that will sound, if at all, in the final product. 

[MinistroRaven]

Interesting that Neal didn't bring any ideas with him into the studio whatsoever.  I wonder how apparent that will sound, if at all, in the final product.

That's only until Neal starts to work his magic and twist everybody's arm to turn this into a double concept album. And then the PRESS RELEASE will read: "we never planned to do three double concept albums in a row, but it happened organically". COPYRIGHT OF THE COMMENT GOES TO RODRIGOALTAF

[RodrigoAltaf]

Interesting that Neal didn't bring any ideas with him into the studio whatsoever.  I wonder how apparent that will sound, if at all, in the final product.

That's only until Neal starts to work his magic and twist everybody's arm to turn this into a double concept album. And then the PRESS RELEASE will read: "we never planned to do three double concept albums in a row, but it happened organically".

Hmmmmm...where have I read that before?

[KevShmev]

An update from the NMB:

Wow! What an amazing time The Neal Morse Band have had in our writing sessions. Check out an update from the band here: https://youtu.be/v5oCmZ0g7yY

Also… look out for the January 2021 Inner Circle release coming soon! This month’s release, “NMB3 - Some More Adventures,” is a collection of songs I demoed during the process of making The Great Adventure album. Some of what’s included made it to the final album in very different forms, and some of it has never been heard before!  If you’re not yet an IC member, you can join now: www.nealmorse.com/#circle

Writing and arranging is done! Now they'll probably spend a few months recording and tracking and finishing the album. I suspect a late summer release, just before Moresefest 2021 (if it happens).

-Marc.

Nice!

[The Letter M]

Interesting that Neal didn't bring any ideas with him into the studio whatsoever.  I wonder how apparent that will sound, if at all, in the final product.

That's only until Neal starts to work his magic and twist everybody's arm to turn this into a double concept album. And then the PRESS RELEASE will read: "we never planned to do three double concept albums in a row, but it happened organically".

Well, they were together for about 9 days (they flew/drove in to Nashville on Sunday the 3rd), which seems about normal for Neal's sessions with Mike. I was also a bit surprised that Neal has said that he went in with little to no pre-demoed material for these sessions, but even MORE surprising that Bill brought in a lot! I wonder how that'll affect the final album, or if everyone's in-the-studio contributions kind of leveled the playing field. Maybe next time Eric can bring in a ton of material and they could be called the Eric Gillette Band. 

I honestly hope we get another single album like TGE, and a new long epic from Neal, because it feels like forever since we've gotten one of those from him in ANY band.

I also still stand by my hypothesis that they will perform this album at Morsefest 2021, but the opposite night of music...Hmmm, I wouldn't mind if they played all of Momentum in its entirety, since we are now far away enough from that album/tour cycle that they could probably bring back those songs and it would seem fresh. Their last two tours were almost entirely concept albums performed live, minus the encores (which were all mostly over-played classics anyway), so playing some of the latter-day NM Solo stuff would be welcomed.

-Marc.

[kirksnosehair]

Interesting that Neal didn't bring any ideas with him into the studio whatsoever.  I wonder how apparent that will sound, if at all, in the final product.

That's only until Neal starts to work his magic and twist everybody's arm to turn this into a double concept album. And then the PRESS RELEASE will read: "we never planned to do three double concept albums in a row, but it happened organically".

You know what's really interesting about this is back around the time between the release of "V" and "Snow" - the final Spock's Beard album with Neal Morse on it, he said in an interview that he wasn't crazy about doing concept albums and his argument boiled down to "because they're hard to do" and two months later Spock's Beard dropped "Snow" and Neal Morse quit the band to go solo and produce concept album after concept album after concept album 

[gmillerdrake]

Interesting that Neal didn't bring any ideas with him into the studio whatsoever.  I wonder how apparent that will sound, if at all, in the final product.

I recall reading that for 'TGE' he didn't have a lot of material...if any...prepared either. I remember him saying it felt really strange going in with no pre-planned ideas. I think his idea of 'having no ideas ready' and our idea of it are probably two different things also. I'm sure he has a ton of melodies and musical ideas floating around all the time. Anyway....looking forward to what they have to give us.

[Stadler]

Plus, the guy writes songs like I grow ear hair, and there's always the interplay between the musicians that he can feed off of.  NMB is a high musical priority for me, and yet I have zero concerns about this.

[The Letter M]

An update from Mike:

While the rest of the Neal Morse Band have returned home (Randy to AZ, Bill to PA, Eric to OK and Neal has gone skiing in CO), I am still here in TN recording my drums this week for #NMB4 🥁

https://m.facebook.com/116713035013014/posts/5328271223857143/

-Marc.

[Fritzinger]

Seriously, I wish these guys would take a little more time to write their albums. What do they all have to do now that they have to hurry away and can't even spend at least 2-3 weeks for the writing? Re-arrange stuff, throw away stuff, compose new stuff, let the new music work a little...

[RodrigoAltaf]

Seriously, I wish these guys would take a little more time to write their albums. What do they all have to do now that they have to hurry away and can't even spend at least 2-3 weeks for the writing? Re-arrange stuff, throw away stuff, compose new stuff, let the new music work a little...

 They're busy recording other albums, man.

[kirksnosehair]

I don't care how much or how little time they spend working on it as long as it's good and the albums they've released as NMB so far have been good so I don't expect this one to be any different.

[Mladen]

This discussion comes up every time it is reported that a new album by Neal Morse is done. Whether its NMB, or Flying Colors, or Transatlantic. People wonder if it being written quickly will influence the quality. And yet, the album is damn good every time. 

[KevShmev]

Is it me or does Neal go skiing in CO like every other week?

[kirksnosehair]

Those trips aren't cheap either, Neal must be doing pretty good financially