ALBUM: ‘What If.’ (1978)
MVC Rating:
4.0/$$
I have a story about the Dixie Dregs. Must have been around 1978 and I was hanging out with Catherine (my future bride), Rose and Carol in downtown Athens, Ga.
We were all high school buddies and happened to be walking past the Georgia Theatre when some folks were loading equipment from a truck into the theater. It was late afternoon.
We sidled, or at least the young women in the group sidled, over and asked what’s up. They told us they were the Dixie Dregs and were playing that night.
The Dregs members and crew seemed quite chatty, though not to me. Anyway, with me way in the background, they invited ‘us’ to enjoy the show from the front row. (I think at this point they were holding the door open for Catherine, Rose and Carol and I had to practically dive through before it closed in my face.) Anyway free front row show and it was good. An all-instrumental funky band playing music that was hard to pigeon hole.
Ironically, earler that year I had won an award for best high school critical review with a write-up about Sea Level, an all instrumental offshoot of the Allman Brothers, playing the same venue. The award was from the University of Georgia Journalism Department.
Sea Level was playing at the grand opening of the Georgia Theatre as a concert venue. It used to be a movie theater. (It burned down in 2009, but I can attest it has been re-built and is very much a go-to Athens, Ga. music venue, with the likes of Randall Bramblett and Chuck Leavell frequently playing.}
As for the Dregs’ music, it was musicianship at a high level. A little bit of Mahavishnu Orchestra, a little southern-fried rock, and some Pat Metheny, or Steve Howe-like jazzy guitar-based tunes. As a guitarist, Steve Morse is about as respected by musicians as you can get. Since 1994, he’s been lead guitarist for Deep Purple.
He had big shoes to fill in Deep Purple where the guitar was once wielded by Ritchie Blackmore. Apparently, he has been well received in the group. This from Deep Purple’s website:
Morse brought a funkiness, a depth as guitarist and writer, an unparalleled fluidity as a soloist, a startling aptitude as foil to Lord, and an arsenal of influences – country, folk, jazz, what they’ve sadly labeled “fusion,” and an inherent understanding of blues-based riffs – that meshed effortlessly with the immaculate Glover-Paice sense of swing and Gillan’s seeming capacity to go anywhere at any time, full-throated and eyes ablaze.
On the Dregs’ 1978 album ‘What If,’ which I have, the instrumentals are easy to listen to and sound as if they could be soundtrack miniatures in a way. ‘Take it off the Top,’ the opening song,, sounds so familiar, kind of like a TV soundtrack (in the vein of Rockford Files).
I hate to call it fusion, as well, but the music certainly fuses jazz, blues, rock and some classical conceits into a very listenable sound synthesis. There’s a violin, organ, bass and drums all driven by Morse’s extraordinary guitar.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.