Before he became a household name in prog rock, Neal Morse had already played in a handful of bands throughout the 80s and 90s. He’d recorded at least half a dozen albums with the notable Spock’s Beard, and also formed a prog-rock supergroup called Transatlantic with members of Flower Kings, Marillion, and Dream Theater. In fact, Morse’s partnership with famed drummer Mike Portnoy would carry over into several other projects, most notably (for our purposes here) the Neal Morse Band.
In 2002, Morse became a born-again Christian, and began writing music with distinctly Christian lyrics and purposes. He’s written and recorded a number of solo albums, some of them essentially consisting of prog-rock praise and worship. But some of his most interesting work is through the quintet that bears his name, featuring himself on vocals, guitar, and keyboards; Portnoy (Dream Theater, Transatlantic, etc.) on drums; Eric Gillette (Mike Portnoy’s Shattered Fortress, Temic, Tree of Life) on guitar and vocals; Bill Hubauer (Prog World Orchestra, We Came from Space) on keys and vocals; and Randy George (Ajalon, Prog World Orchestra) on bass guitar. The band have released an astonishing 24 albums (some of which are 4-disc, or 5-disc box sets) in 11 years–yes, that’s more than 2 albums per year on average.
“Bird on a Wire” comes from the 2-disc album Innocence & Danger, and is accompanied by an official video. If you like this track, the rabbit trail goes deep with this band. Be warned, you could be trailing for days just to keep up with all of Morse’s projects!
(*not all side-projects and related items have Christian themes)
