Neal Morse
The Sellersville Theater
Sellersville, Pennsylvania
February 22, 2018

By Howard Whitman

Set List:
Songs of Freedom | Biko | That Crutch | Livin’ Lightly | Bridge Across Forever | Selfie in the Square (with Yellow Medley) | Jailbreak | You + Me + Everything |Rose Colored Glasses |Manchester |He Died at Home |There is Nothing That God Can’t Change | Stranger in Your Soul

 There aren’t many established rock artists who would have the cajones, let alone the talent, to try and pull off a concert completely on their own, with no programmed or sequenced anything, just an instrument or two, and their voice. Elton John did it, just him, his piano and his percussionist. Todd Rundgren used to tour solo, just playing piano and acoustic guitar. Dave Matthews does acoustic shows with Tim Reynolds. There are some examples. But it’s a short list.

Add Neal Morse to that list. Best known as the creator of prog-rock epics, first with Spock’s Beard, then with supergroups Transatlantic and Flying Colors, and lately as the leader of The Neal Morse Band, whose latest, The Similitude of a Dream, was two CDs of pure prog.

For a time, after leaving Spock’s Beard and going solo in 2002, Morse continued with his progressive style on the albums released under his own name. In recent years that has shifted. The Neal Morse Band (featuring former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy) creates the progressive rock, while Neal Morse solo albums have become more introspective, singer-songwriter affairs more akin to James Taylor than Yes or Genesis.

His latest solo CD, “Life & Times,” is very much a laid-back affair. Acoustic guitars and piano are the main instruments here, and there’s not a 7/8 time signature to be found on any of its songs. This new album inspired him to try a completely solo tour, which came to the Sellersville Theater, an intimate showplace in the Philadelphia suburbs, on Feb. 22, 2018. It was loose, unstructured at times, and all the better for that, as it was one of the most honest and compelling performances I’ve seen by any artist; pure music made by a master musician completely in the moment. I think I’m safe in assuming that no two shows on this tour will be identical. But they will all be truly amazing, as this one was.

“People asked me what I was going to do on this tour,” Morse said as he emerged with his acoustic guitar, “old stuff, new stuff, things from the new album, and I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, but I’ve been writing some new things.’ So this is not anything that’s even been recorded. That’s what I’ve been enjoying about this.”

Morse then played “Songs of Freedom,” a piece he said he wrote a few weeks ago. It was a stirring opener in which Morse talked about the music that was important to him growing up, and how it inspired him to create his own songs.

Free-associating, Morse recalled seeing Peter Gabriel sing his anti-apartheid anthem, “Biko,” and being struck by Gabriel’s closing statement, “And the rest is up to you.” Spontaneously, perhaps even to himself, Morse then launched into a perfect cover of “Biko,” which brought to mind his early days as a club musician, when he probably played a number of impromptu covers and requests. This experience also was apparent when he launched into a mini-medley of songs with the word “yellow” in them in the middle of one of the new songs, “Selfie in the Square,” after joking about the affected way people sing that word when it came up in the song. (For the record, he did bits of “Yellow Submarine,” the “yellow matter custard” verse in “I Am the Walrus,” “Mellow Yellow,” “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.”)

His next song seemed to be spurred by a request from an audience member, who cried out “That Crutch.” Morse then launched into that song, from his 2007 solo album, Songs from the Highway.

Things got a little more structured after that, as Morse seemed to be resuming his planned set list by launching into the lead-off track from Life & Times, an ode to laying back and enjoying life called “Livin’ Lightly.” This song represented Morse’s first use of looping that evening. In case you’re unfamiliar with this technology, looping describes the process by which an artist records, during a live performance, sequences that can be repeated to become instant backing tracks. Essentially, the artist is creating a “band” sound on their own, witnessed by the audience. KT Tunstall has been a well-known user of this technology, and it became a key element in the Morse solo show.

Here’s how it worked: Morse would play the shaker into the microphone, “loop” that so it repeated, then “drum” to it on the back of his acoustic guitar, record that, repeat it, and so on, until he had spontaneously created a full sound simulating a band.

He used looping again in the show, on some of the other songs, sometimes unplanned. After starting the guitar lick to “Jailbreak,” a song from his contemporary Christian album Secret Place (Worship Sessions Volume 3), he said, “Oh yeah, I want to do a loop for this,” stopped the song, grabbed the shaker, and started building another sequence to flesh it out.

And yes, Morse is a devoted Christian, and yes, that is expressed in his music, but never to the point that it would alienate those of different faiths. This is what drives him, and his convictions fuel some amazing music. For most of his songs, the spiritual tone is there, but can be interpreted and digested to your personal comfort level.

Morse is also a very honest artist who puts his personal feelings on the line, as he did this night with a new song, as yet unrecorded, that he wrote in the wake of the recent, very tragic Florida school shooting, “If It Was Your Child,” which asked the question, what would you do if it was your son or daughter who was killed? It was impossible to hear that song and not be moved.

The same could be said for “He Died at Home,” a stirring, somber song from the new album about soldiers’ PTSD-driven suicides. Morse is not afraid to tackle big issues, and he does so with sensitivity and humanity.

A highlight of the show was a surprise appearance by Mike Portnoy, Morse’s bandmate in not only The Neal Morse Band, but also supergroups Transatlantic and Flying Colors. The legendary ex-Dream Theater drummer, who is currently leading his own prog-metal supergroup, Sons of Apollo, lives “about 15 minutes away” from the Sellersville Theater, so he came out about halfway through the concert to join his frequent bandmate to do a section of the Transatlantic The Whirlwind CD, “Rose Colored Glasses.” As there was no drum set onstage, Portnoy played percussion and sang harmonies. It was a lovely cameo, and a nice follow-up to an earlier Transatlantic song in the set, “Bridge Across Forever,” which Morse did alone on his keyboard.

This was followed by the final song of the evening, “Stranger In Your Soul,” again played on the keyboard. It was interesting that Morse did so much Transatlantic material in this concert; I guess it translates well to solo performance. It certainly fit the tone and spirit of the evening.

Morse is an engaging entertainer, and he was in good form this night, telling stories, making the crowd laugh, getting the audience to sing along … it was as if the audience was at a campfire and he was in the center of the circle of people, guitar in hand.

An evening spent seeing Neal Morse onstage with any band is guaranteed to be an enjoyable night. But this one was very special; a rare opportunity to see a gifted musician work his craft in its purest form in a small setting.

The Neal Morse solo tour continues in the U.S. through April, before heading to Europe in June. If you have an interest in his music, I’d strongly recommend you catch him on this tour.

Go to http://www.nealmorse.com/livesolo.asp for dates and details.