It all started with Tommy Vance and the Friday Rock Show in the late 70’s, and its theme tune Take it off the Top by The Dixie Dregs. It was pretty much the only ‘rock’ music show on UK’s Radio 1 at the time and Steve Morse’s electrifying guitar riffs were the perfect appetiser to ‘TV on the radio’ latest Friday night rock selections.
Take it off the Top was, even to my inexperienced ears, recognisably a close cousin to Red, and for me, that marked it out as a progressive track, something a bit more than just a heavy metal workout. The album the track was taken from, What If, became a fixture on my turntable and tape machine for a long while and it remains a timeless classic to my ears, a genuine progressive masterpiece, albeit in the Dixie Dregs inimitable style. It is book-ended by TiotT and Night Meets Light, an incredibly moving and melodic 8-minutes of sweeping and swirling guitars, synths and violins that for many years I used as an emotional escape room to take myself away to, until it was later usurped from that position by Marillion’s Neverland.
As a result, Steve Morse is one of a small band of rock gods that I have carried a seriously bright torch for since my very earliest music-listening days. Someone who just seems to have the knack of constantly creating and re-inventing the music that I craved, and not just the music that everyone else in the mainstream seemed to want to hear.
His work with Dave LaRue and Van Romaine began after the Dixie Dregs ran out of steam in the early 80’s and this trio has been a reliable outlet for Steve’s solo work over the years, slotting in between his day-job assignments with Kansas, Deep Purple and Flying Colors. The power-trio set up allows Steve the freedom to express himself on guitar, but on Triangulation, as this appropriately-named album rightly emphasises, the whole definitely adds up to more than the sum of the parts, with Dave and Van perfectly in tune with Steve’s ingenious combinations of jazz, blues and rock influences. The rhythm section is not just sitting back in the mix, they are there to do their fair share of the work, and there are many examples where Dave LaRue’s bass is dynamically tracking Steve’s guitar parts, or soloing, adding his own colours and vibrancy to the melodies.
Whilst there are frequent echoes of the Dixie Dregs sound, the album overall is probably more reminiscent of Deep Purple, with a heavier blues-rock sound permeating through the songs. And, since the guest musicians are all also guitarists, it is not surprising that the overall tone of Triangulation is all about the guitar. Doubters may also be disappointed that Steve isn’t writing songs in order to set up a series of melodic, soaring solos. His core style of dynamic picking, unusual chord progressions and bluesy riffing is to the fore, and his ‘solos’ tend to creep up on you, emerging briefly to light up the turntable before being engulfed by the tune as it curveballs into a new direction.
As for the songs themselves, the opening trio of tunes are neatly aligned, with the blues rock of track 1 Break Through being of Deep Purple descent, Off the Cuff being in the more jazz infused Dixie Dregs style, and then TexUS opening up with a gorgeous solo reminiscent of Steve’s work with Flying Colors, that develops into a playful duet with Eric Johnson. The second trio of tracks feature a more unstructured style of riffing and improvisation over more regular rhythms that showcases the Steve Morse Band’s own idiosyncrasies to full effect. The third section is a grand finale that opens with Tumeni Partz, a roller coaster of epic proportions that is the centrepiece of the album and a turbo-charged demonstration of the full force of the band. Then Triangulation, another distant cousin harking back to the style of Take it off the Top and Red, featuring guest John Petrucci, and finally Taken by an Angel, a mainly acoustic duet with Steve’s son Kevin, a heartfelt tribute to Steve’s wife who died in early 2024.
I am not as familiar with the Steve Morse Band discography as I should be, and if you feel the same way, then this is an excellent gateway. It’s origin and influences are unmistakeable, but it also sounds current and it’s innovative in the way that true talent has a knack of delivering, time after time. 2025 was a notable year for releases from solo artists and side-projects, and this is as good of an example as any of an artist throwing off the artistic shackles of band and label demands to create something crafted with a unique originality.
TRACK LISTING
01. Break Through (5:00)
02. Off the Cuff (4:54)
03. TexUS (4:01)
04. The Unexpected (6:04)
05. March of the Nomads (5:23)
06. Ice Breaker (4:42)
07. Tumeni Partz (10:59)
08. Triangulation (4:50)
09. Taken by an Angel (2:22)
Total Time – 49:15
MUSICIANS
Steve Morse – Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Guitar Synth
Dave LaRue – Bass
Van Romaine – Drums
~ With:
Eric Johnson – Vocals, Guitar (3)
Scott Sim – Guitar (5)
John Petrucci – Guitar (8)
Kevin Morse – Guitar (9)
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Mascot Label Group
Country of Origin: US
Date of Release: 14th November 2025
LINKS
Steve Morse – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube | X | Instagram
