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Steve Walsh - Schemer Dreamer  CD (album) cover

SCHEMER DREAMER

Steve Walsh

 

Crossover Prog

2.28 | 29 ratings

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SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator
Symphonic Team
1 stars The worst cover art in history?

I am a big fan of Kansas and I love Steve Walsh's vocals in Kansas music. Indeed, he is one of my favourite singers. But not even his biggest fans should be able to swallow this stinker of an album! Released around the same time as Kansas' Audio-Visions which was the last album Walsh did with Kansas before he left the band (but he thankfully returned later in the decade). The 80's were hardly Kansas best years but even the two albums Kansas did with John Elefante (Vinyl Confessions and Drastic Measures) are almost masterpieces compared to Schemer Dreamer!

What we have here is a mix of Rock 'N' Roll, Rockabilly and Southern Rock with totally generic lyrics and hardly any progressive tendencies whatsoever. The compositions are wholly middle of the road and utterly forgettable. Walsh is a really great singer but, like with any singer, he has to have good material to sing and this is clearly lacking here.

One thing that makes this album noteworthy is that Steve Morse plays on it! Morse would later join Kansas when Walsh returned to the fold to record Power and In The Spirit Of Things. But do not expect any of the brilliance Morse displayed on these future albums here. This is not Kansas and neither is it The Dixie Dregs. It is almost unbelievable that such greats as Steve Morse and also Kerry Livgren, Rich Williams and Phil Ehart agreed to play on this album, instead they should have told Walsh that this is unacceptable and sent him back to the drawing board. Schemer Dreamer is the worst album Steve Walsh ever made and the awful cover art fits the music quite nicely!

Recommended only for completionists!

SouthSideoftheSky | 1/5 |

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