Oh, I know the joke on which the album name is based!

[joke] While driving to work, a guy passes this farm and sees the farmer leaning on the fence. The next day, he sees the same thing. And the day after that. After a few days, he wonders why the farmer isn't going round doing farm things like he assumed all farmers did. Curious, he leaves for work early the next day and stops his car near the farmer, so he can walk over and greet him.

"Hey there. You know, I pass you every day and I've noticed that you're always out here in the same place. Are you waiting for something?"

"Yep. Waiting to win a Nobel prize."

"What? Uh...how does that work?"

"Well, they say they give the Nobel prize to people who are out standing in their fields." [/joke]

Don't think Steve Morse and co were gunning for a Nobel prize, though. If they were funkier, they could have tried out for the much more prestigious cowbell prize. After all, everything needs more cowbell. Well, to cut to the chase, Morse, along with longtime cohorts Dave LaRue and Van Romaine have taken time off from their 'day gigs' to release a new album, a full 5 years after Major Impacts 2. And it is good. Very good.

One must wonder how these guys keep their sound fresh. After all, they're not radically experimenting from album to album. Maybe you could see a subtle progression through their discography, and notice how Morse has moved away from fret-blazing tracks like Tumeni Notes and Stressfest to a bigger, song-driven style. But hearing their new songs, it's hard not to go, "Hey this reminds of me this song from that album. Which was, like, 20 years ago." The band's still got that sound. It's comparable to a power trio like OHM:, except with pop sensibilities instead of jazz. In fact, on paper it could be put alongside an act like Joe Satriani. Both outfits have monster players covering all bases and both play catchy, easily accessible instrumental rock.

So what makes this more of a success than the recent albums from Satch? Wish I could come up with a fancy reason, but basically the songs are better and the band dynamic is better. It's easy to call bullshit on a broad definition like that, but I'm sticking with it. They know when to double up, when to play off each other and when to back off to leave space for the others. In theory, it's simple enough - start doing rhythm when the other person is soloing. Thing is, it's not entirely what they're doing, but how they do it. The result is seamless, handled in a manner that makes you think the song wrote itself.

All Morse's usual styles are around - straight-up rock, blues, celtic tunes, classical flourishes and the steely twang of rockabilly. Plus, there's a very cool extended live version of Rising Power from the Stressfest album - a treat for the old-time fans. On a whole, it actually comes off sounding ballsier than anything he's done for a while. His guitar tone has also gotten a little fatter and dirtier. For a demonstration, check out the gloriously scratchy solo on Relentless Encroachment. Quite a departure from the squeaky clean approach we're used to from the man. I'm no tone guru, but that doesn't stop me from parroting the general sentiment that his switch to Engl amps might have something to do with the more badass guitar sound. As for the other two, Van Romaine plays it straight on the drums. Just a solid rhythm backing, no solos, no extravagant rolls, nothing. Somebody needs to hold down the fort while Morse and LaRue run riot, anyway. Oh yeah, about LaRue. The guy's just damn good. After all these years (and albums), you'd probably have figured that anyway, but it still warrants a mention. His presence on the album is significant, locking in with both guitars and drums, and taking several solo spots all over the place, starting with the very first song.

So if you're going to take away anything from this piece, it's that you're probably going to like the album. The tunes stick with you, they do just enough to keep it getting predictable and they're all damn fine musicians. Outstanding in their fields, even. Yeah, you knew I was going to do that.

Label: Eagle Records

Year of release: 2009

Buy album (Amazon)