For Steve Morse, the renowned guitarist of Dixie Dregs and Deep Purple fame, the concept of triangulation is at the heart of his long-running, three-piece band. So much so, that he selected it for the title of the Steve Morse Band’s first studio album in more than 15 years.
Using the analogy of a three-legged stool, he says, “If one is slightly a different length, the stool won’t stand up.”
“Triangulation is looking for a solution based on the known location of the two other points. And so in the album cover, it’s like the guy’s halfway stuck trying to get through this barrier and is looking at the angle where the other guys are. How did he get through it? How did he get further ahead? And we help each other that way.”
“Triangulation,” out Nov. 14, is the first album from Morse, bassist Dave LaRue and drummer Van Romaine since 2009’s “Out Standing in Their Field.” It’s also the first album Morse is putting out since he left Deep Purple in 2022 to take care of his ailing wife, Janine, who passed away last year. A centerpiece of the album is his tribute to her, “Taken by an Angel,” which features his son Kevin on guitar.
“I just wanted to paint a picture of what it was like that last night and consecutive days of not sleeping and having the worst possible news and having to figure out on your own the things that were being unsaid,” Morse says of his reason for writing the song. “Just that last night, holding my soulmate’s hand, who may or may not hear me anymore. And this sudden onslaught of the return of the cancer so fast that the doctors didn’t even know 10 days ago. It starts with that. Just kind of a late night, just a lonely desolate feeling, and it builds up to the sort of soft landing and possibility of, well, knowing that she’s going to a better existence.”
The song was performed at Janine’s memorial service.
Morse was a founding member of the influential instrumental group Dixie Dregs and did a three-year stint in the band Kansas before joining Deep Purple in 1994. He formed the first version of the Steve Morse Band in 1983 and put the current lineup together in the ’90s.
When writing for his group, he says, he deploys four different methods.
“One is recording something where I play it on guitar, and a lot of times those are arpeggiated parts. So I can describe the harmony of the music that I’m hearing with one instrument. The other style would be recording chords and then making a melody go over it by listening to it and playing over it. Another method would be playing on keyboard, left hand and right hand together, to come up with a melody and accompaniment. Another would be a classical guitar all at one time the entire time.”
Morse is a member of rock guitar fraternity that includes Steve Vai, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal and Joel Hoekstra; they have an email thread where they share what they’ve been working on, which Morse says pushes him to come up with interesting material.
Fellow six-string heroes and longtime friends of Morse, Eric Johnson John Petrucci, appear on the new SMB album.
Johnson, from the Lone Star State, appears on the appropriately named “TexUS.” “I hate asking favors, but I did ask him a favor,” Morse explains. “And I wrote the tune just for he and I to play on. It was very melodic and not not very proggy, just kind of fun rock. And to me, it suited both of us, and he did a great job with trading the melodies and everything like I wanted to do, and his solos are definitely him.”
Morse plays in the supergroup Flying Colors with Petrucci’s DT bandmate Mike Portnoy and has known the prog metal guitar hero for years.
“They they came to a Dregs concert way back,” Morse recalls. “And actually somebody gave me a tape of their demo album. They were looking for a producer, and I was like, yeah, I’ll produce this, yeah, sure. But they already had someone.”
Asked how he feels to have his work inspire players like Petrucci, Morse does not mince words.
“It’s a career highlight. How do you get any better than getting an endorsement from John? And John has earned his place. He was always good, when I first heard them playing together, Mike and John, but I don’t know how he keeps getting better and better and better, and more musical. It just blows me away. I mean, I use him as an example in my teaching clinics and stuff. [I tell students], so why do you think this guy’s like this? Do you think there’s any work involved? Yes. This is what it takes. If you want to compete in this world and have that be your only source of income, bingo. This is the standard.”
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