Category: MORSE PORTNOY GEORGE

‘This is my ‘quarantine’ album” says NEAL MORSE of his new release, “Sola Gratia”, to be released next September 11. That refers to the fact that for the first time in his career, Morse didn’t have cohorts Mike Portnoy and Randy George in the studio with him in-person to record their parts.
Instead, due to the obvious impact of COVID-19, each player recorded their performance in their own studios with Morse’s original songwriting staying largely intact.
But that didn’t affected the final product: “Sola Gratia” strengths lay in its top shelf performances from George, Portnoy and Morse, a healthy dose of quality material, and of course its pristine production thanks once again to Rich Mouser.

Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy and Randy George are well known as experts in their field. Some time ago, these masterminds of progressive rock and metal began to record cover versions of legendary songs of which 13 landed on the ‘Cover To Cover’ album, released in 2006. In 2012 the journey continued with ‘Cover 2 Cover’, and now 2020 the third strike follows with ‘Cov3r to Cov3r’.
‘Cov3r To Cov3r’ is a standalone disc, however also this ‘Cover To Cover Anthology (Vol. 1 – 3)’ will be available, collecting all 3 instalments together with the first two albums being newly re-sequenced and remastered, and with brand new artwork, created by Thomas Ewerhard (Sons of Apollo, Avantasia).

The recording of any new album has its challenges. And the more successful a band is the more challenges it faces, both with the actual writing and recording process, but also with a back catalog of material that the new album will be compared to. THE NEAL MORSE BAND had an additional challenge when it came to recording their upcoming...