Prog Recommendations/Featured albums - Jordan Rudess

Jordan Rudess'' 2007 "The Road Home" album showcases the Dream Theater keyboardist covering and reworking some of his favorite Prog Rock classics. Be warned, these are not your average "covers". Rudess re-arranged and transformed the songs into his own personal interpretations. "I wanted to play the right pieces and play the parts that I felt were really important to the composition," says Rudess, who penned the original "A Piece of the Pii" for The Road Home. "I also added my own sections that aren't there at all [in the original songs]. So there is a lot of originality even within these new arrangements."

Here are a list of songs on The Road Home with the original artist in ( ).

Sound Chaser (YES)
Dance on a Volcano (Genesis)
Just The Same (Gentle Giant)
Piece of the Pii (Jordan Rudess)
Tarkus (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

"Piano Medley" merges bits of the Jon Anderson vocal showpiece "Soon", King Crimson's gentle, supernatural "I Talk to the Wind" (with vocals by Rudess), Yes' "And You And I", and Genesis' sprawling "Supper's Ready."

Rudess, who is used to being surrounded by immense musical talent, had some help on this record from leading prog talents. Guests include Spock's Beard vocalist Neal Morse, Kip Winger, Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, Bumblefoot (Guns 'n Roses), Ozric Tentacles' Ed Wayne, and drummer Rod Morgenstein.

A fusion which results in an all star "prog tribute album" by one of the genres' leading keyboardists.