Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier
With the news that Trevor Rabin is working on a new solo record, Mark and I bend the rules of the what did they do next series almost to breaking point so we can take a look at Trevor’s 1989 album, Can’t Look Away. Messages of protestation welcome but not necessary. This week we discuss our expectations of the record and then next week we’ll feed back on our listening experiences.
Did Trevor Rabin actually leave Yes in 1989?
What did he do while he was ‘away’?
Is this a good solo album?
Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!
If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2020 is the time to join us:
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org
Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier
This week, Mark and I have been listening to the album which Jon Anderson released shortly after leaving Yes following the Big Generator tour, ‘In The City Of Angels’. It’s not exactly progressive rock but see if you agree with our assessment of the music and take a listen to an audio contribution on this subject from Stephen Lambe as well.
We also have time for a two pence about the latest Roger Dean Yes album cover and its public development as well as a very exciting YMP Announcement connected with what the YMP Patrons have been up to in secret lately. And that’s not all. There’s the result of the Dave Watkinson Warriors EP competition, news of Miguel Falcao’s PlayForChris6 project and the official press release from Steve Howe about his new album. So, Look out for all that!
What’s this album like?
Why did Jon go in this direction?
Is it worth buying?
Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!
If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2020 is the time to join us:
Why not get yourself one of these? Head over to the YMP Emporium via the link on the menu.
Show notes and links:
Love Is
Release date 31st July
29th April 2020: Legendary Yes guitarist Steve Howe has announced he is to release Love Is on 31st July through BMG Records. Love Is is Howe’s first solo album since the all-instrumental Time in 2011 and has a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs.
The album will be available as CD – gatefold digi-sleeve with 12 page booklet and LP – Black vinyl 180gm with gatefold sleeve, liner notes and lyrics.
Steve Howe sings lead vocals and plays electric, acoustic and steel guitars, keyboards, percussion and bass guitar on the instrumentals while Yes vocalist Jon Davison provides vocal harmonies and plays bass guitar on the vocal tracks. The album also features Dylan Howe on drums.
Many years in the making, Love Is brings together a consistently strong and polished listening experience, forging the very best from the writing and playing throughout the album. This may well be considered the real ‘stand out’ album of Howe’s solo career. The instrumentals keep a highly progressive rock guitar style to the fore, with songs that explore stories of lives lived and lives only just begun. Love Is A River is the central longer song with several textural shifts, featuring a theme played on 12 string and steel guitars.
“I called the album Love Is because it hints at the central idea that that love is important but also love of the universe and the ecology of the world is very important,” says Steve Howe. “Alexander Humboldt went around the world and recognised we are destroying the planet but that was 200 years ago! We are still destroying the planet and, I suppose, my songs show the yearning I have for the love of nature and how beauty, art and music all stem from nature. There is a theme about those things, love, beauty, ecology, nature and wonderful people.
“Love Is A River just seemed a very important track to me, a sort of quintessential track with lots of moods, lots of interesting things going on with steel guitars and acoustic guitars. Further tracks grew from time spent writing in my studio.
“See Me Through looks at the idea that we get through life by not driving ourselves that hard but attempting to achieve things with people who help you along the way and Imagination is dedicated to my granddaughter Zuni. It’s about how I see some of the things she’s experienced in her short seven years.”
“I invited Jon Davison to sing harmonies with me and add bass on the songs. If he was singing on the songs I thought why doesn’t he play bass as well and it turned out nice. He’s been with Yes for seven or eight years and he’s a great guy, great performer and a great interpreter of Yes songs.
“I’ve been singing for years, mainly in harmony but I’ve sung lead on lots of my own albums before and I feel that, as I’ve got older, I’ve got a grip on that and, hopefully, it’s improved over the years.”
The album includes many distinctive Steve Howe signatures among the instrumental tracks from the delicate beauty of Fulcrum, Beyond The Call and Pause For Thought to upbeat rock, The Headlands, and the jazz-tinged Sound Picture.
“The instrumentals are like a mood, a place I went to one day, thought this is nice and then I develop that to a point where it’s a finished track. There might be key ingredients that I thought about using musically that I like, that I’m drawn to, and then developing them into something.”
Love Is was written, engineered and produced by Steve Howe with further engineering and mixing by Curtis Schwartz. “I write in my own studio and then go to see Curtis in his studio,” Howe explains. “We expand the tracks and put them on Pro Tools and everything starts to be possible. At some point, probably around 2 years ago, Dylan came down to Curtis’s studio and we recorded the drums on some of the tracks. I could see a balance of five instrumental tracks and five songs and there was a feeling that it was an album, sitting there, looking at me.”
The track listing for Steve Howe’s Love Is album is:
1 Fulcrum (instrumental)
2 See Me Through
3 Beyond The Call (instrumental)
4 Love Is A River
5 Sound Picture (instrumental)
6 It Ain’t Easy
7 Pause For Thought (instrumental)
8 Imagination
9 The Headlands (instrumental)
10 On The Balcony
Formats:
CD Catalogue No. 538608592
Gatefold digi leeve with 12 page booklet with liner notes by Steve Howe & lyrics
LP – Catalogue Number – 538608601
180gm Black vinyl in Gatefold sleeve with liner notes by Steve Howe & lyrics
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org
Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier
This week we turn our attention to the next person to leave the band, Jon Anderson. He called it a day after the Big Generator Tour. So, what did he do next? Find out later on.
We also have a sort of double 2 pence which is concerned with both what Roger Dean is currently up to on Facebook and why it matters for fans of the recorded output of the world’s greatest progressive rock band.
Solo album for Jon Anderson – but which one?
Who was involved?
What should Yes release next?
Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!
If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2020 is the time to join us:
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org
Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier
This week we blew away the lockdown cobwebs by means of a bracing conversation with the ever jovial and generous Sid Smith. Responsible for many Yes, King Crimson and other sleeve notes, he shared his approaches and told a story or two. It was a very enjoyable chat.
How do you get involved in writing sleeve notes?
Are all sleeve notes created equal?
What plans has Sid got for the future?
Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!
If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2020 is the time to join us:
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org
