![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse10.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride1.jpg)
Good times, bad times
Steve Morse took part in a jam that happened in Annapolis, MD, on May 31, 2025. The occasion was the release of a novel Punk Force by Steve’s friend Ward Carroll. Ward is a retired navy F-14 Tomcat pilot, an author of books about life in an F-14 squadron (Punk series), a military commentator, and YouTuber. He plays rhythm guitar and sings here. The rest of the band consisted of SMB stalwart Van Romaine on drums, TJ Collins on bass, and Tom Butwin on acoustic guitar and vocals. They performed a set of hard rock standards, although nothing from Purple.
Thanks to SteveMorse.com for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
That is not a Led Zep song I‘m hearing, is it? 😑 Oh the ignominy of it all. Is nothing sacred?! Would Jimmy Page play Burn?
Note to budding musicians: Playing the Free Bird solo in parts at double speed and with twice as many notes as all three Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarists of yore put together does not enhance the message of the song. Sextuplets alright. 🙄
June 16th, 2025 at 00:53Thanks ever so much for that performance. Really enjoyed that and a good tight band there indeed. Great to see Steve Morse out and cutting loose and Van Romaine too. I have not noticed him a lot visually since our SMB gig in 1993 in a small venue like that, a wonderful drummer Van. Good vocalists and support guitarists and the bass player was really getting it down there, well done to one and all. A good selection of songs too, they all sounded rather good especially the Zeppelin one he he he. No seriously that was a blast, all of it. Cheers.
June 16th, 2025 at 08:48But that wasn‘t by any means a bad gig or band, they did the material mostly justice. I’ve heard a lot, lot worse. And it‘s nice to hear an evidently inspired Steve play proper rock and not just his instrumental exercises I can never tell apart. 😆
Here‘s the 1987 performance with Lynyrd Skynyrd of short-hair-Steve as hilariously recounted by himself, unfortunately it wasn‘t filmed so there is no live footage.
https://youtu.be/MATOh5vgwaU
Steve puts the bullets thorough the proverbial shredder at 03:05; I guess it might still be (significant parts of) Lynyrd Skynyrd, but not as we know it! 😂
June 16th, 2025 at 15:01Steve‘s solo to White Room – shredding elements and all – is pretty awesome to not withhold credit where such is deserved.
And his guitar playing is oh so American South, through all the scholarly academics and technical sleight of hand/Kabinettstückchen you can still hear the bullfrogs + cane toads croaking in the nearby swamps. We can endlessly discuss whether he was the best imaginable fit for DP (I‘d say he was a good fit), but only Steve Morse sounds like Steve Morse.
June 16th, 2025 at 16:45Hi Uwe. Off topic but, You got me listening to Roger Chapman a few months ago, what are your thoughts on Suzanne Vega? I started listening to her last year and she has become one of my favorite artists!! It seems she tours Germany quite a bit. Thanks!!
June 17th, 2025 at 18:42@ 5 – finally, a Suzanne Vega aficionado, good to see. A friend got me into her debut album, back in the mid 1980’s. I have that and her second album Solitude Standing and many individual songs from following albums, up until about 15 years ago. I went to a superb concert with a cracking band behind her in 2008. I have the live at Montreux dvd too, from the early 2000’s era and she is a wonderful singer/songwriter. I might have a look online at some recent live clips to see what she is up to these days. Bass guitarist Mike Visceglia was with Suzanne for a couple of decades, a wonderful bass guitarist. Cheers.
https://furchguitars.com/en/umelci/mike-visceglia/
June 17th, 2025 at 23:55I haven’t bought anything new from her in a while but Luka was of course a masterpiece on child abuse (the song wildly popular in Germany with only few people getting the heavy theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZt7J0iaUD0
(brilliant melodic bass playing)
as was this little acapella ditty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mto47BMT3yA
She’s thoughtful. Very New Yorkerish (though she was born in California, but moved as a small child).
You should try Laura Nyro too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Gx0GVYZkQ
June 18th, 2025 at 00:00