Steve Hackett – Live Rails

Releasedate: 25-04-2011; Label: InsideOut Music
By: Nina Mende

Steve Hackett is renowned as an immensely talented and innovative rock musician.
He was lead guitarist with Genesis as part of their classic line up with Gabriel, Collins, Banks and Rutherford. With Steve’s extraordinary versatility in both his electric guitar playing and his composing, he involves influences from many genres, including Jazz, World Music and Blues. He is equally adept in his classical albums that include renditions of pieces by composers from Bach to Satie, his own acoustic guitar compositions that have gained the admiration of many, including Yehudi Menuhin, and ambitious guitar/ orchestra albums such as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic. As he embarked on his solo career he developed his exceptional range, pushing musical boundaries into exciting areas, inventing new sounds and also techniques such as ‘tapping’. Steve’s live electric gigs take his fans on an extraordinary journey drawn from a rich musical heritage. Perennial Genesis favorites such as the mighty “Firth Of Fifth” sit alongside solo classics, while more recent material, with much of Out Of The Tunnel’s Mouth now included, demonstrate that Steve is an artist still at the very top of his game.

After various releases this is Steve Hackett’s new release; a live album called “Live Rails”. A package with two CDs. Two hours full of music, two hours filled with a brilliant live show of Steve Hackett. 18 live tracks taking your breath away. This album definitely takes you on a journey. “Live Rails” starts out sounding like a broadway piece leading you through different scenes. The album is mostly instrumental, only a few songs include vocals. But it is still brilliant. All the arrangements in different styles – vocals would only distract from that. Sometimes like Irish folk music, Indian, Arabian, country or western, pure rock’n’roll or simply old school; Steve Hackett plays it all without making it sound strange. Steve Hackett can pull off the journey through all these genres and different styles of music and still makes it sound very professional and matching. Like a big puzzle each piece somehow fits to another. Steve Hackett is more than 100 % musician and knows exactly what he’s doing. This album is not only for Genesis and Steve Hackett fans, but for music and art fans in general, maybe even for fans of musicals. So go check it out. “Live Rails” is out now.

Line Up:
Steve Hackett – Guitars, Vocals
Roger King – Keyboards
Amanda Lehmann – Guitars, Vocals
Gary O’Toole – Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Nick Beggs – Bass, Chapman Stick, Taurus Pedals, Vocals
Rob Townsend – Sax, Woodwind, Percussion, Vocals

Tracklist: Disc 1: 01. Intro 02. Every Day 03. Fire On The Moon 04. Emerald And Ash 05. Ghost In The Glass 06. Ace Of Wands 07. Pollution C 08. The Steppes 09. Slogans 10. Serpentine Tubehead

Disc 2: 01. Spectral Mornings 02. Firth Of Fifth 03. Blood On The Rooftops 04. Fly On A Windshield 05. Broadway Melody of 1974 06. Sleepers 07. Still Waters

Links:
Steve Hackett Facebook
Steve Hackett Official