Dixie Dregs @ The Catalyst Santa Cruz, Ca. Wednesday Jan 17, 2007.

                                                                                                                                                                Written By  International Rock Journalist    Mike Ellis  

Exclusive review for publications 2007 copyright

PhotoGrafiti.net and Your Music Magazine, 

reproduction by written authorization 

                                                            The frightfully freezing weather had no effect on The Dixie Dregs,

or the ‘huge for a Wednesday’ crowd at the Catalyst.    

 The “Cool Uncle” of Prog Rock, Steve Morse, and the original lineup of The Dregs hit The Catalyst hot, hard and loud.  Anyone who reads a music trade mag knows that Rod Morgenstien of The Dixie dregs is a monster drummer.  Forget ear plugs, protect you spleen from rupturing from his kick drum.  (Don’t let his short tenure with Winger bother, everybody has to have a day job, and his probably paid really well!).  And then there is Steve Morse; all of the guitar food groups are represented: Rock, Jazz, Metal, blues, bluegrass and shred.  The rest of the band, all 15+ years with The Dregs, include Jerry Goodman on electric violin, Jerry played with The Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 70’s (don’t know about Vishnu? You are forgiven), T. Lavitz on keyboards who is the professorly veteran

and Dave Larue, session bass master.   If you consider yourself a Progressive Rock fan in any way, you MUST check out The Dixie Dregs, The Dregs, or Steve Morse…  

Their instrumental set consisted mostly of songs from early Dixie Dregs albums such as “What if”, “Freefall”, and “Unsung heroes”.   This band can turn it on at any minute and melt your face, but the beauty of the Dregs live is that they bend the intricacies of the songs to the breaking point and beyond…  Adding meaning and weight to the face melting….  Yes, you have to pay attention a little bit, but then suddenly your head is rocking and you forget what you ….  Um, oh yeah, the drum solo… 

It was beautiful.  There were 2 drum sets on stage.  Rod Morgenstien came out with this kid, had to be 22 at the most, and they did this symbiotic drum solo, trading parts, one would let go and the other would finish the sentence.  Brilliant.  Steve Morse led the band through Dregs favorites like “Ice Cakes” and “odyssey” from What If, “Kat Food” and “Divided we stand” an American frontier\Manifest Destiny big picture rocker from Unsung Heroes.  They also did a Dregs cover of Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”.   Before finishing with the rhythmic “Bloodsucking Leeches” Steve Morse squeezed in a bluegrass number, a shred metal hoedown, if you will, countering the guitar and violin… and thrilling the crowd.  That’s what keeps all of us coming back, we all expected to bang our heads, but not to bluegrass.  And when you get totally lost in the moment, the band has definitely done their job…  It begs a question, If it’s awesome and even if it sounds like shred bluegrass, It IS awesome…. Who Cares?