THE STEVE HOWE ALBUM

"The Steve Howe album" shows the roots of Steve Howe's legendary guitar work. This album explores blues, bluegrass as well as classic and rock/prog elements. When Steve Howe was young he had trouble sleeping due to bad nightmares, so to put himself to sleep he would listen to the radio from which he grew familiar with the artists from the 50's, particularly the more bluesy musicians. This period of his life greatly influenced his love for the guitar which he would used as a tool to sleep. The other later classical influences from 19 and 20th century composers like Stravinsky and Bartok are also explored in this solo album.The Steve Howe album is not too far from being progressive and basically the first half of the album is undoubtedly progressive. The later songs on the album are either solo guitar (and violin) or Steve Howe playing guitar against a backdrop of an orchestra. These songs take the label of Symphonic prog to the extreme.

Furthermore the album is almost entirely instrumental and just two tracks feature vocals," Look Over Your Shoulder "and "All's a Chord ." The highlights of the album are "Look Over Your Shoulder" which features guest vocalist Clair Hammil, "Diary of a Man Who Vanished" and "Pennants." All these songs have clearly defined guitar and good instrumentation by a large array of guest musicians. The CD booklet of "The Steve Howe Album" comes with a spreadsheet of all the axes and other fretted instruments Steve Howe plays on the album, as well as great cover art.

1. Pennants (4/5) 2. Cactus Boogie (3/5) 3. All's a Chord (3.5/5) 4. Diary of a Man Who Vanished (4.5) 5. Look over Your Shoulder (4/5) 6. Meadow Rag (3/5) 7. The Continental (3/5) 8. Surface Tension (3/5) 9. Double Rondo (3/5) 10. Concerto in D, 2nd Movement (3/5) Total = 33.5 divided by 10 (number of songs) = 3.35 = 3 stars Good, but non-essential

"The Steve Howe album" is a clear three stars from me, good for an occasional listen. I'd recommend this album to any fan of Yes in order to see where Steve Howe's influences originated from; in that respect this album is very good.