Steve Howe Reviews

Also see: Yes

From: "Chris Bollerer" <>
<>>
I own all the Howe albums, some of which are not impressive at all. This one, however, is quite good. Probably the most focused album he's made in a long time. It's pretty straight forward rock/prog instrumental with Howe playing most of the instruments himself - Dylan Howe takes care of the percussion. The music is great but whoever put the packaging together needs to find another job - it contains the most unflattering picture of Steve on the inside cover. He looks, literally, like death.  Bottom line - good album.

From: "Chris Bollerer" cbollerer@mail.knowledgeway.org
> So it's along the lines of 'Turbulence'? I do like that particular disc.
You could say that. I think it might actually be a little better than Turbulence, but that's my opinion.

From: Mark DiNapoli <>
No. It's more along the lines of 'Grand Scheme of Things' without any vocal tracks. I love Steve's style and I very much enjoy most anything he's involved with but 'Quantum Guitar' and 'Grand Scheme' leave me cold. Not that I can find any fault with these albums, it's just that they seem to straddle the Country Guitar/Rock Guitar fence without committing to either style of playing. I thoroughly enjoy 'Turbulence' and I never tire of 'Beginnings' and 'The Steve Howe Album.' The man Rocks with Style. I heartily recommend Steve's collaborative CD with Paul Sutin, 'Seraphim.' It's a wonderful exploration into Steve's Ambient/New Age possibilities. Their follow up, 'Voyagers In A Blue Universe' though just slightly less, ahhh, how shall I say.... creative, is still a nice venture into calmer waters. I enjoy both CD's when I need to slow it all down.

From: "Casey Van Tieghem" <>
I'm a real big Steve Howe fan, and there are a couple of fantastic tracks on Beginnings. I am one of the few that don't mind Howe's singing too much. I guess it's an acquired taste. The title track for Beginnings is an excellent orchestrated piece with a cool little synth solo by Moraz. I think Beginnings is the most overlooked of all the Yes solo albums.

From: "Carlos Lima" <>
> Does anybody know Steve Howe's collaboration with Paul Sutin?
I have Seraphim and I think you should "run very fast" from this album, unless you're looking for music to fall asleep... :-( And I don't think so, since you're listening to DT, right now! It's New Age, afirmative! Perhaps Steve's play will wake you up from your sleep in the rare passages where he plays.

From: Brian Phraner <>
I got Seraphim (or whatever, it's collecting dust as we speak) and I had a hard time wondering if this was just some other guy named Steve Howe. All I can say is "How, Steve?"

From: Jeff Marx <>
Agreeing completely with Carlos here, as big a fan as I am of Steve Howe, I bought Seraphim a while back, listened a few times, cursed my stupidity in buying it in the first place....then sold it. Doesn't Steve have some recent albums that are not coma-inducing?

From: "upnsm0ke" <>
The last solo of Steve's I bought was Turbulence, way back. Good one, IMHO.

From: "Rick Gutleber" <>
Ho ho ho! Are you guys in for a treat! After "Turbulence" came "In the Grand Theme of Things" which I like better. It's a little more accessible (I find Turbulence gets kinda boring around 2/3 of the way through), which some nice songs with vocals reminiscent of "The Steve Howe Album". I realize Steve can't sing lead well (he sounds fine behind Jon Anderson and Chris Squire through ;) ), but I enjoy the album. Then, IIRC, came "Not Necessarily Acoustic" which is a superb live album, combining pieces from Steve's entire career (including a some wonderful excerpts from "Tales from Topographic Oceans"!) and quite a few tracks that don't appear elsewhere. After that Steve released "Quantum Guitar", which is all instrumentals and very enjoyable. He does covers of a couple of standards and lots of new, fresh original material. Again, more like his older stuff than "Turbulence". Very polished, well-played, not particularly progressive, but an excellent album. There are 3 more I don't have, but was just lamenting yesterday to a friend I wish I could afford right now: "Homebrew" which is demos and other unreleased stuff. "Pulling Strings", another live album and a tribute album to Bob Dylan (!). Of course there's also Steve's recent work with Yes, particularly the "Keys to Ascension" albums. He was a lot more subdued in "Open Your Eyes" (which sounded like a lot of unreleased Trevor Rabin material (not that that's a bad thing), but "The Ladder" was an improvement guitar-wise. Steve played a bit on the Yes tribute by Magna Carta, "Tales from the South Side of the Sky" or something like that. A great album, the best of MC's many tribute albums, IMO. Steve is also supposedly working on a album with Annie Haslam, and those two (as evidenced in the tribute album) were made for each other. That's been in the works for a while, and I haven't heard anything recently. Anyhow, head to the record store and enjoy!

From:
> Doesn't Steve have some recent albums that are not coma-inducing?
Regarding Steve Howe - "Turbulence" 1991 - Relativity: has Billy Currie on keys & viola & Bill Bruford on drums. "The Grand Scheme Of Things" 1993 - Relativity: has his son Dylan on drums & son Virgil on keys. "Homebrew" 1996 - Herald/Caroline: mostly early demos of his material, as well as some yes & ABWH material. He plays almost all instruments. "Quantum Guitar" 1998 - Resurgence: has son Dylan on drums and Steve on everything else - he lists all 33 guitars that he plays on the liner notes.

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