SO MANY ROADS

First off I'm really surprised this live album hasn't been reviewed yet, more than five months after its release. This being said, let's go with the review.

So Many Roads is another very generous offer from Mr. Neal Morse containing 3½ hours of complex, splendid music. True that 3½ hours of continuous listening can be difficult for the non-initiated and one would feel exhausted after that, but in such cases I've always think that it's not mandatory to listen to the complete oeuvre in one time. And especially in these cases where there's no filler material, I feel lucky to have all these songs to dig into. That's why I'm qualifying So Many Roads as a generous offer. It's a complete overview of Neal's career, partly done through fantastic medleys and even including some Spock's Beard and Transatlantic tunes.

So, about the show now, Neal Morse is as dynamic as ever and he proves us once more that he is a top notch rock frontman. Joining him is the same group of musicians than on the Sola Scriptura tour with the exception of the guitar player, Elisa Krijgsman. If you want to have an idea of how well this guy can play, listen to his solo halfway through the song So Many Roads. This is high class playing. And since I've been mentioning the Sola Scriptura tour, fear not that those CDs are redundant with the Sola Scriptura and Beyond DVD because Mr. Morse has been wise and the tracks are mostly different in both offerings.

One important point, especially with live recordings, both the performance and the sound are excellent, given the fact that the songs were taken from six different shows (if I remember well). This is why it is the ideal place to appreciate both the brilliance of the musical compositions and the stellar live rendition.

To sum up this is highly recommended to anybody but Neal Morse detractors. I also think it is the perfect entry point for any new Neal Morse enthusiast. I would even say it is a must for any contemporary prog rock lover. I don't know what Mr. Morse will offer us after that but it's definitely a high point in his career!

Solid live release from one of present day prog's greatest musicians. Neal Morse as usual shines with a team of unknowns (man can they play this complicated music well.) It is crazy how well this guys play this music.Anyway, Lifeline the excellent title song off his recent effort is great, lots of emotions. I'm so glad Neal finally played Author of Confusion live for recording, which is a highlight on this release. His European drummer Collin does a fine job filling the shoes of the monster drummer Mike Portnoy on this song. All the instrumentation is solid, vocals are pretty good, I enjoy the female vocals of the drummer's wife. All in all a great effort. My only slight complaint is there is too much from the album Lifeline. In my opinion that was Neal's weakest effort, but was still good. Other than that, it is worth five stars. Thanks Mr. Neal Morse!!!