STEPPIN' OUT

In 1991 I bought the "The Mama Tour" concert video from Genesis in the VHS format, and I watched it with a friend who at that time was listening to a lot of music similar to the one which Duran Duran and other similar bands were playing then (and apart from one song, called "Ordinary World" from Duran Duran, I really never liked all these bands that he listened to at that time). I realized that he really didn`t like that Genesis`concert video (he never was a fan of Genesis, but he liked Rush a lot), but he commented about the two tour musicians (Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson) who appear with Genesis in that video (and also in others too): "Why these two very good musicians are happy only being session musicians? Are they not frustrated to be only session musicians for bands like Genesis?" Well. I commented to him that I didn`t think so, because I knew that at least Stuermer at that time had released a solo album (this "Steppin` Out" album; Thompson released a solo album later in the nineties, I think, titled "A Joyful Noise", which is also a very hard to find CD in the record shops and it is not yet included in the Prog Archives`s database). At that time I never saw a copy of this "Steppin` Out" album in the record shops of my city, but I knew about it thanks to see it in the record listings of the Schwann Record Catalogues. It was released in late 1988. It was until 1994 when I saw a CD of it in a record shop, but I didn`t buy it then because I saw a copy of Rick Wright`s "Wet Dream" album on CD and that album was also very rare. So, I bought Wright`s CD then as I only had money to buy only one CD. Some days later I went to the same record shop to buy Stuermer`s album,. but I couldn`t find it anymore. So, it was until this year that I found it available for listening in youtube that I fiinally listened to it.

I read in one website the liner notes from this CD, written by Phil Collins, introducing Stuermer`s music and his first solo CD with a lot of jokes. Anyway, Stuermer is supported in this album by two other very good session musicians who like Stuermer and Thompson also played in Collins`s touring band several times (Leland Sklar and Brad Cole). The sound of this album in production is very typical of the eighties, particularly in the sound of the drums and the keyboards, and with the use of a drum machine in some tracks. The predominant musical style of this album is in the Jazz- Rock Fusion style but also it has some commercial Jazz and even some Pop Rock influences in some arrangements. For my taste, the songs which are the best and are the most influenced by the Jazz-Rock Fusion style are "Venturing Ou" (the best of all), "Electric City", "Night Flyer" and "20th Century Lady". Don`t expect very complicated time signatures, as the rhythms and the drums playing are really very conventional, very accessible. But as expected, the main instruments are the guitars, of course. Stuermer is a very good guitarist and all the songs of the album are instrumental and full of melodies and very good guitar solos, plus also very good rhythm guitars, all played with different sound textures. So, I think that with this album Stuermer had his first chance to show how good he is as a composer and as a soloist (there is also one song , called "Only You Know and I Know", co-written with Collins and also released in one of Collins `s solo albums, but played in this album as an instrumental and with a different arrangement).The recording and mixing are very good, very clear, but maybe very eighties in sound, as I commented above. Stuermer has a very long and respected career as guitarist, and the members of Genesis have commented that he and Thompson became very important to the live sound of the band during the years they played with them on tours. They also commented that Stuermer helped a lot to remember how a song was played in the past. This is a very good solo album and the only solo album from him that I have listened to until now.Unfortunately , I think that it is now out of print.