Steering this thread back on topic to Neal himself, I've been wondering if he'll be announcing Morsefest 2017 anytime soon, seeing as December begins tomorrow, and 2017 is just around the corner.
If he DOES announce it, what do you all hope he'll do? With the Snow performance earlier this year, it's now not out of the realm of possibility that Neal could do a non-solo work for the Morsefest weekend, so I offer up some options:
1 - Neal's solo band will perform the next two solo albums in sequence, Lifeline and Testimony 2, and here's some good reasons why this would be great:
While Lifeline is typically regarded as Neal's weakest solo effort since he left SB, it's still got some great songs on it, like the title track and the epic, which has only been performed TWICE, and I think some of the songs haven't even been performed at all before! Play the whole album in sequence, and add the two original bonus tracks "Set The Kingdom" and "Sometimes He Waits", and it would be the definitive recordings of these songs, especially "So Many Roads", which was only performed with Neal's European band.
And for Testimony 2, it would be great to hear the new band play this album, and it's been 5-6 years since it was last played, so I think it's been long enough for it to make a come back. Throw in all 3 songs from the second disc into the second set of the night, and you've got a winning concert!
2 - Neal performs the first two Transatlantic albums live, with Roine, Pete and Mike. This would be a great warm-up for the band to go into the studio for their fifth album next year, if they plan on it. Let them play the two albums that started it all with them live, and have them get charged up by it, get their creative and performing mojo flowing, and make an amazing album after playing together for a week. It would also mean their first live performance of "In Held ('Twas) In I", and they could possibly do other covers as well. It would be an interesting and fun weekend, I'm sure!
3 - Neal performs the first two Flying Colors albums with Flying Colors. I know, the first album is only 4 years old, and the second just about 2 years old, but since the band is recording next month and possibly releasing their third album next year, and eventually touring on it, a Morsefest weekend with the band could make sense. Perform the first two albums in their entirety, then fill the rest of each concert night with new songs!
4 - Neal performs with Spock's Beard...again. This is probably VERY unlikely, as it seems that the Snow performance with SB would be a one-off for Morsefest, it's still a possibility. And if not with ALL of SB, then maybe just with Nick or Al (again). They could do two SB albums, or random songs. Who knows... I'd be less excited for this option to be honest.
5 - Neal doesn't do Morsefest 2017 at all and takes a year off. This is pretty possible too, since no announcement has been made so far, and Neal seems like he'll be busy with touring with the NMB early next year, then possibly touring with FC later next year, so who knows if he'll even have time to put together another Morsefest.
-Marc.