The Introduction by Steve Morse Band

Finding myself in obscure southern instrumental rock fusion.

Apr 20, 2023

When I was about 18 or 19 years old, I was already five years deep into being a bass player. I wanted to be a drummer but my parents and an annoying band teacher thought my transition from clarinet to a “rock” instrument would go better without loud(er) noises.

I spent the first year of my studies in a closet (literally) in the band room of my high school on a terrible borrowed Carlo Robelli bass. I learned scales from a book by Mel Bay I still own that, on the first page, had a picture of a guitar pick and underneath said “This is a pick.”

My band director said real bass players used their fingers, not a pick. I obliged and never looked back.

Why am I telling you this? Because I’m trying to explain why I am writing about an instrumental fusion rock record played a guitarist who was most recently playing with Deep Purple. Stick with me, guys.

Peek bass playing.

My hair and Jerry Peek at the NAMM show in 1990

I didn’t know much about really great, complex music when the album The Introduction came out and I still didn’t when I was “introduced” (ha ha) to it a few years later. I just knew two things when I heard it: First, bassist Jerry Peek was ridiculously good and, second, he played a Guild Pilot bass, like yours truly wanted to (and did, eventually).

Steve Morse was coming off relative obscurity as the guitarist for the Dixie Dregs (don’t get me started on Dregs of the Earth). Think Lynrd Skynyard meets Mahavishnu Orchestra - prog rock goes southern minus the singing.

He recruited the Dregs drummer, Rod Morgenstein (he also played in Winger not long after this came out - remind me sometime to tell you about the drum clinic he did at the music store I worked at in college) and signed up some dude named Jerry Peek, who played with Morse for a few years then kinda fell off the map - at least the larger world music map as I recently saw he was still working as a bassist? Let me know if you have info or if you are Jerry Peek himself!

Before I go further, let me say I hear you. You’re like, “Jesus, Jeff. Fusion in your first Substack. FUCKING FUSION???” Dude, I get it. Like I said, you won’t like everything here or maybe anything. But, then again…

Cruise Missile-d

My hair (again) with Steve Morse at the same NAMM show - I swear I don’t have pictures with everyone I write about.

Right out of the gate, “Cruise Missile” wiped me out, turned my little, young musical brain to mush. The first track of screaming guitar, swinging double kick drums and a bass that went from a wild unison line with the guitar to slapping (something white guys were just discovering - thanks, Flea) to an actual bass solo, something nobody wants almost ever. It was magic.

I tried to learn all of it. I probably learned like 10 percent correctly. I might be able to get to like 25 percent now.

But, the fun had just begun as this album was loaded with some searing instrumental rock music, something that you rarely heard on the radio (yes, that was still a thing in the ‘80s) outside of “Frankenstein” by Edgar Winter or Rush’s “YYZ,” which I still only speak about in hushed tones (you’ll learn my unconditional love of Rush soon enough).

There was also Joe Satriani, who sort of redefined the nature of instrumental music on the radio at least in that era of guitar shredders, but a lot of this kind of music was relegated to musicians’ bedrooms, particularly albums with this much variation on it. That was the key. Yes, my little headbanging self wanted to rock, but this opened me up to stuff I had not yet discovered or appreciated.

Jazz, country and the Weather Channel

By the time you get to the second track, you are wondering what the hell just happened. The blistering shuffle rock of “Cruise Missile” gives way to a chicken-picking country twang fest featuring the legendary Albert Lee, who all but invented that style of guitar. If you were around back then and remember, you might have heard this on the Weather Channel.

For you youngsters, the original Weather Channel would show local weather like five times per hour and play generally quiet instrumental music in the background behind radar screens and forecasts. Lots of jazz, but also stuff like this. This was well before dudes were running around in hurricanes, except maybe Jim Cantore.

From there, who knows what the hell is going on? Like most fusion records, this thing gets weirder as it goes, but it’s also goddamn glorious.

My favorite to this day is the title track. It’s got a rather basic rock groove throughout the…verses? But, it gives way to this really lovely B section that remains in 4/4 despite sounding anything but. Clean guitars over a super syncopated rhythm section with Peek and Morgenstein locked in.

It’s a style that comes back in “The Whistle,” a meditative piece of classical-ish guitars that feels almost baroque. Before that, “On the Pipe” revives the country-tinged rock jams in the style of the Dregs. Ditto “Mountain Waltz.”

Of course, there is the requisite elongated song broken into movements with “Huron River Blues” that is commonplace on most prog rock and fusion records of that era. Fortunately, this one is just six minutes and includes some pretty nifty guitar and bass work, particularly in “Toxic Shuffle.”

This is a complete work of musical masturbation to be sure, but it has roots in accessible music and can even be pleasant to listen to for non-musicians. The Weather Channel cannot be wrong, people!

For me, this was something that, at that tender age, I hadn’t really experienced. It blended a whole bunch of stuff I would later come to love completely independent of this stew. And, it was truly a kind of introduction (I did it again!) into a realm of music I had very little idea existed.

It pointed me to fusion standards like Al Di Meola and Return to Forever, as well as guitar shred freaks like Tony MacAlpine (don’t worry, we’ll get to him), Steve Vai and Eric Johnson. Those sent me to jazz and Latin music I would have never listened to on my own at that age.

I found myself 100% into this strange, noisy, complicated world that most music snobs absolutely hated with every fiber of their being.

The whole idea of this album and fusion music in general was completely selfish and, at times, beyond my musical comprehension, but it made me feel like part of a club that other people didn’t understand. For a skinny, gawkish teenager just discovering a love for music, that felt pretty cool even though it was absolutely NOT. Ask all the girls whose stunned faces clued me in to why playing this for them was a bad idea.

To be frank, The Introduction and this post is mostly just for me and probably not for you or you or even you, weirdo. But, it’s cool as fuck and I love it. Five stars!

Thank you for reading! Why don’t you share this? You know you want to!