There’s something inherently dangerous about putting several
\nmusical virtuosos together. Sure, you’re going to be in for some
\nwonderful treats, but in the end, the individual performances tend
\nto take precedence over the most important thing – the music.<\/p>\n
The Dixie Dregs have been slugging it out on and off over the
\nbetter part of 20 years, though they may be one of the best-kept
\nsecrets in the musical world. Before receiving their latest disc
\nCalifornia Screamin’<\/i> in the mail, I didn’t own one of their
\nalbums, though I had at least heard of the band. Guitarist Steve
\nMorse (who has recently been doing double-duty as a member of Deep
\nPurple) and crew plow through some wonderful songs that cover a
\nwide berth of genres. However, in the end, it seems like the
\nspotlight fails to shine on the whole performance, per se.<\/p>\n
For starters, the Dixie Dregs take on two of instrumental rock’s
\nmost beautiful and challenging numbers – Frank Zappa’s “Peaches En
\nRegalia” and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Jessica” – and plow
\nthrough them with amazing agility. Zappa’s son Dweezil joins in on
\nhis father’s track, and it is a testament to father, son and the
\nDregs that his performance blends in so well that you can’t tell
\nwhen he’s playing. I’ll always be partial to the version on
\nHot Rats<\/i>, but this particular rendition is a very close
\nsecond.<\/p>\n
“Jessica” suffers a little bit in that Morse doesn’t have a
\nsecond guitarist to fall back on to provide some more rhythm licks,
\nbut the version presented here is just as respectable and just as
\nenjoyable. It also gives Morse a chance to add his own signature to
\nthe solos that Dickey Betts would have played in that spot.<\/p>\n
As for the original music,
\nCalifornia Screamin’<\/i> runs the gamut from all-out exciting
\nto, I’m sorry to say, boring. Tracks like “Wages Of Weirdness,”
\n“Aftershock” and the country hoedown-turned-mosh pit “The Bash” all
\nmake the listener sit up and wonder why they haven’t been taking
\nmore note of this band.<\/p>\n
However, the more that individual performers get highlighted in
\nsongs, the harder it is to keep an interest in some of the music in
\ngeneral. Tracks like “Night Meets Light,” “Ionized” and “The Great
\nSpectacular” all fall under this trap. However, special attention
\nshould be called to the track “Sleeveless In Seattle,” which does
\ninject new life into a part of the album that tends to drag. In a
\nsense, by the time the group closes things out with their rendition
\nof “Dixie,” it almost comes as a relief.<\/p>\n
The Dixie Dregs are an incredibly talented bunch of musicians
\nwho have rightfully earned their places as masters of their craft.
\nAnd while there are many moments on
\nCalifornia Screamin’<\/i> that emphasize this, sometimes it just
\nfeels like too much of a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6268],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36508","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-dixie-dregs","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36508"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36508"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}