Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy & Randy George recently announced their return to the Cover To Cover series of albums with ‘Cov3r To Cov3r’, the brand new third instalment. Featuring their renditions of classic tracks by the likes of King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Gerry Rafferty, David Bowie & more (including their cover of ‘No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed’ featuring vocals from Yes singer Jon Davison), the album will be released on July 24th, as CD, Gatefold 2LP + CD & as Digital Album.
Today they are pleased to reveal a video for their cover of ‘Baker Street’, originally by Gerry Rafferty, and you can watch it now here:
Randy George comments: “Baker Street’ is one of the songs that is instantly recognizable. When I first mentioned the idea of doing ‘Baker Street,’ Neal said that it was funny because he and Mike had just been discussing that one as well.“
Neal Morse adds: “To be honest I was never that big of a fan of this song. It’s one that Mike really wanted to do as I recall. But as we dove into it and I began singing it, I really felt it. Lyrics about thinking that it’s going to be really easy to succeed and then hitting walls and becoming disillusioned are very relatable to me. I found myself really digging into it and taking a kind of “The Who” approach to the song really works well!”
As well as this, the ‘Cover To Cover Anthology (Vol. 1 – 3)’ will be released on the same day, collecting all 3 installments together over 3 discs. The first two albums have also been newly re-sequenced and remastered, and will also be available on all digital services. All the albums have also been given brand new artwork, created by Thomas Ewerhard (Sons of Apollo, The Neal Morse Band, Avantasia).
‘Cov3r to Cov3r’ on Jewelcase CD & Gatefold 2LP + CD, and ‘Cover to Cover Anthology (Vol.1-3) on Limited 3CD Digipak is now available to pre-order here: https://MorsePortnoyGeorge.lnk.to/Cov3rtoCov3r
LP 1:
No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (cover version)
Hymn 43 (cover version)
Life On Mars (cover version)
Baker Street (cover version)
It Don’t Come Easy (cover version)
Baby Blue (cover version)
LP 2:
One More Red Nightmare (cover version)
Black Coffee In Bed (cover version)
Tempted (cover version)
Runnin’ Down A Dream (cover version)
Let Love Rule (cover version)
CD:
No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (cover version)
1.Where The Streets Have No Name (U2) 2.I’m The Man (Joe Jackson) 3.What Is Life? (George Harrison) 4.Badge (Cream) 4.Maybe I’m Amazed (Paul McCartney) 5.Day After Day (Badfinger) 6.Pleasant Valley Sunday (The Monkees) 7.Tuesday Afternoon (The Moody Blues) 8.Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith) 9.I’m Free / Sparks (The Who) 10.Where Do The Children Play (Cat Stevens) 11.Feelin’ Stronger Everyday (Chicago) 12.Rock N Roll Suicide (David Bowie)
CD 2 (Cover 2 Cover):
1.(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love & Understanding (Elvis Costello) 2.Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs) 3.Crazy Horses (The Osmonds) 4.Driven To Tears (The Police) 5.Come Sail Away (Styx) 6.Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (Steely Dan) 7.Lemons Never Forget (The Bee Gees) 8.The Letter (Joe Cocker) 9.I Saw The Light (Todd Rundgren) 10.Teacher (Jethro Tull) 11.Southern Man/Needle And The Damage Done/Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young) 12.Starless (King Crimson)
CD 3 (Cov3r To Cov3r):
1.No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (Yes) 2.Hymn 43 (Jethro Tull) 3.Life On Mars (David Bowie) 4.Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty) 5.It Don’t Come Easy (Ringo Starr) 6.Baby Blue (Badfinger) 7.One More Red Nightmare (King Crimson) 8.Black Coffee In Bed (Squeeze) 9.Tempted (Squeeze) 10.Runnin’ Down A Dream (Tom Petty) 11.Let Love Rule (Lenny Kravitz)
Morse, Portnoy & George first worked together on Neal Morse’s Testimony Live project back in 2003, and since then they have devised and recorded countless Neal Morse albums, including three with The Neal Morse Band.
The three friends have also released music as Morse, Portnoy & George: so far, two Cover to Cover albums have been produced, each being a collection of covers of their favorite songs. As Portnoy explains: “One of the first things myself, Neal and Randy usually start talking about what we can cover when we gather for one of Neal’s solo albums, should we have some leftover time at the end of the session. Most of the songs are rooted in the 60s and 70s and are songs / bands we grew up with.” Explains George, “We all share an attachment for this era of music, so we each throw out song ideas, see what sticks, and record the ones we like the most!”
The trio has covered songs from such greats as, Paul McCartney, Cream, The Who, Jethro Tull, Steely Dan, and many more. They also have also covered some prog classics from the likes of King Crimson and Yes.
We are pleased to announce that Peruvian band Flor de Loto have been signed to ROSFest also for 2019.
Following a spectacular performance at last year’s RoSfest, we have decided to bring Peruvian band Flor de Loto back also for the 2019 edition of our festival. For a number of reasons: Their concert last year was brilliant, and many desired to see them again sooner rather than later. Some missed out on the show, and from what they heard from others they knew they had missed something good. Hence we see to it that this situation is resolved. And finally Flor de Loto have now signed with US label Melodic Revolution Records, a label that are longtime friends of RoSfest, and they are releasing Flor de Loto’s new album Eclipse.
As we stated last year: Progressive Rock is alive and well on the South American continent, and one of the most popular progressive rock bands in South America is Flor de Loto from Peru. They have built a steadily growing fan base all over the continent since they first appeared in 2005 with their self-titled debut album, with a solid presence as a live band for more than a decade and seven (soon eight) studio albums to their name cementing their reputation as a high-quality band.
Their take on progressive rock is one that resides somewhere in between Jethro Tull and Iron Maiden, incorporating elements from metal, Andean folk music and, chamber music into their compositions alongside nods towards hard rock and psychedelic rock. This results in a sound and style with a broad appeal: This is a band with fans also from outside of the progressive rock universe.
Alonso Herrera, Alejandro Jarrin, Pablo Alayza, Alvaro Escobar, Pierre Farfán and Gabriel Iwasaki are members of a band that has a reputation as a quality act on all levels. We are eagerly looking forward to being able to once again experience one of the top progressive rock bands from the South American continent performing live at ROSfest 2019.
ROSfest 2019 will take place on May 3rd through 5th 2019 at the Sarasota Opera House, Florida. The final line-up and schedule for the festival are still TBA. Confirmed bands to appear so far are: Riverside (headliner), Karmamoi, Cryptic Vision, Prideaux, Martin Barre (performing 50 Years of Jethro Tull), Edge of Reality, Entransient, and Traverser
I have great news! We now have a host hotel with all the accommodations that we promised and it will be available to book starting on July 3rd.
Please read below for details.
Aloft Sarasota offers a convenient downtown location, vibrant social scene, and tech-savvy design. The Sarasota hotel is located just minutes from the bay, popular islands, and beaches, plus the nearby Ed Smith Stadium and Historic Spanish Point and Sarasota Opera House.
InsideOutMusic, the leading force in today’s progressive rock scene, celebrate their 25th anniversary of being a label in 2018, in what will be one of their biggest and busiest yet. Today they launch a specially priced, 35-track digital compilation, giving a glimpse of what InsideOut have been doing for the past few years. The collection features tracks from label mainstays like Devin Townsend Project, Steve Hackett, Spock’s Beard, Riverside, Enchant & The Tangent, as well as newer bands like Bent Knee, Caligula’s Horse, Perfect Beings & Sons of Apollo. Download/stream the compilation here: https://InsideOutMusic.lnk.to/25YearsOfInsideOutMusic
As previously announced, to coincide with the anniversary, two of their longest serving artists, Spock’s Beard & Roine Stolt’s The Flower King’s, will head out on a European co-headline tour in Winter 2018.
You can find the full list of dates below:
30th November – Cosmopolite, Oslo, Norway
1st December – Kulturhuset Studion, Stockholm, Sweden
2nd December – KB, Malmo, Sweden
4th December – Zeche, Bochum, Germany
5th December – Z7, Pratteln, Switzerland
6th December – La Machine, Paris, France
7th December – De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
8th December – Hedon, Zwolle, Netherlands
9th December – Islington Assembly Hall, London, UK
10th December – Academy Club, Manchester, UK
Formed back in 1993 in Kleve, Germany, the label made their name with acts such as Enchant, Spock’s Beard, Symphony X & The Flower Kings, many of whom they still work with now – a rarity in this day and age. Since that time, the label has played a key & continued role in the survival and resurgence of progressive rock in recent years, and has always prided itself on shining a light on leftfield music. Now the band count some of the biggest & most exciting bands amongst their roster, including Dream Theater, Steve Hackett, Devin Townsend, Sons of Apollo, Kansas, Haken, Riverside, Leprous & more. On the label’s 20th anniversary back in 2013, one of the labels founders, and current label-head Thomas Waber was given the Guiding Light award at the Progressive Music Awards, praising his aforementioned role in the continued celebration of progressive rock.
Many of InsideOut’s longest running relationships will see new albums released in the labels 25th year, including Spock’s Beard’s 13th album ‘Noise Floor’, a new collaborative project called The Sea Within that features Roine Stolt, Daniel Gildenlow & Jonas Reingold (all veterans of the label), a landmark live album from Devin Townsend filmed at a special performance at a Roman Theatre in Bulgaria, a new studio album from Riverside & much more.
This year will also see InsideOut release a whole host of lavish catalogue releases throughout 2018, including the second part of The Flower Kings ‘A Kingdom of Colours’ CD boxsets, a series of Devin Townsend high-end vinyl boxes, a CD collection covering the whole of Enchant’s illustrious career, & much more yet to be announced.
The Progressive Music Awards 2018 recently announced their nominations, with InsideOutMusic seeing 10 nominations in total, including Spock’s Beard for best international artist, as well as nods for Perfect Beings, Toundra, PFM, Sons of Apollo, Kino, Leprous & Caligula’s Horse. Find more details here: https://www.loudersound.com/features/vote-now-in-the-2018-progressive-music-awards
The Rites of Spring festival aka RoSfest is an annual progressive rock festival which takes place at the end of April or in early May. Established in 2004, the festival was held at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania until 2007, and then moved to the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania for 2008 and 2009. In 2010, the festival moved to the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg, PA. where it celebrated its15th Anniversary throughout the weekend of May 4th, 5th, and 6th. 2018. On the last day of the festival, George Roldan announced that Polish Prog Metal Band “Riverside” will be one of many bands that will grace RoSfest in 2019.
May 21 just 14 days after the festival George Roland makes an announcement that RoSfest will be relocating to Sunny Florida for the No. 16, here is a posting from the official website.
The RoSfest community is very important to me on so many levels and my long-term goal is to keep RoSfest going for as long as we can in order to benefit the “progressive music family” as a whole for both musicians and Prog music lovers alike. The Majestic Theater in Gettysburg, PA has been a memorable host to us for the past eight years, but even though our reputation continues to grow as the best North America Progressive Rock Festival, our audience attendance has been slowly declining.
As many of you are aware, we recently relocated to Sarasota, Florida. Our decision in selecting this location was not only because of its beauty, beaches, arts, and entertainment but because we believe Sarasota would make the perfect location for RoSfest to continue to survive and grow. Besides having an incredibly approachable downtown social area with blocks of restaurants, bars, hotels, Saturday morning Farmer’s Market, and shops that are bordered by Parks on the Sarasota Bay, Sarasota is home to the SARASOTA OPERA HOUSE offering an incredible acoustic experience residing in a $20 Million renovated theater. Our new home theater is in WALKING DISTANCE to hotels, restaurants, shops, and parks surrounded by views of the Gulf.
There are many additional attractions that people from all over the world visit Sarasota as a destination vacation spot for such as Siesta Key Beach, “Rated as the #1 Beach in the USA, 2017”, Selby Botanical Gardens, The Ringling Museums and Grounds, The Mote Marine Lab & Aquarium, the Art Center Sarasota, The Circus Arts Conservatory, Longwood Key, St. Armands Circle, and Lido Key for Kayaking the Mangroves or the Bay. In the coming weeks, we will share additional information about Sarasota that will include maps, photos, videos, and details to help familiarize everyone with the area. New host hotels will be designated and after hour parties will continue, but all within walking distance as most of you have requested.
I’m aware that this news may upset some of our supporters, but please understand that in order for RoSfest to survive, we’re hopeful that our RoSfest family will give Sarasota a chance so that we can keep bringing you the best that progressive music has to offer!
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