By: Carlos Martin Schwab
Scary man with the scythe is the winter snow.
The world situation with COVID-19 has made the concert scene disappear, allowing many musicians to focus on the studio and invest their time in composing and recording material. On the other hand, Neal Morse is a musically restless artist, he doesn’t need time for his creations to emerge, his songs come out of impulse, his brain is a continuous spring from which songs flow.
Let’s combine that with giving him more time so that he can dedicate himself to composing music and between his promotional work, preparing his own festival, interviews, attending to his family, dedicating time to his religious faith, attending to his musical projects in the bands he participates in, etcetera.
The consequence was already in April, in the middle of confinement, where he released the album “Hope and a future” for free download during the coronavirus crisis, and now he is releasing a solo album.
Sola Gratia is a follow-up album to their 2007 album, Sola Scriptura, which was about the life of Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Reformation. “Sola Gratia” tells the story of the Apostle Paul, so this new album is not a continuation, although the two are interconnected. The two converge in the treatment of one of his favorite themes, his passion for religion and specifically for the Christian faith, which has always been one of his thematic centers in his works.
The interrelation between both discs is evident because in many songs of Sola Gratia there are passages and winks of Sola Scriptura. The covers are somewhat similar and the latter is by Thomas Ewerhard.
For the recording of the songs, Neal has relied basically on his band. It is curious that having a band like The Neal Morse Band, he relies on his bandmates in order to release the album under the name of Neal Morse, but we have to remember that before creating the band some of them collaborated in his works.
Neal Morse – Image courtesy of Inside Out Music.
Outside of the musical released last year, Jesus Christ: The Exorcist, Neal has not released a solo album since 2012 with that Momentum. When the band performs as The Neal Morse Band, everyone participates as a whole by getting involved in the composition and execution, while under the name Neal Morse, everything is composed by Neal Morse and his bandmates follow his instructions, although it is clear that each musician also leaves his mark, as it can’t be otherwise.
As we all know, Neal Morse is an excellent multi-instrumentalist and plays everything that is put in front of him, but he has counted with the participation of Mike Portnoy on drums, Eric Gillette has recorded some solos, Bill Hubauer has recorded the piano and Randy George has taken care of the bass. He has also counted on Gideon Klein, a person of his total confidence who participates regularly with him. Neal started working on this album in January 2020, but all of it has been gestated from a distance due to the confinement.
Sola Gratia is a good album that brings back those very personal works that were not possible under The Neal Morse Band. The creative and instrumentalist capacity of this American genius never ceases to impress. This new album is more diverse, as a review of many moments of his career, and has another approach, although, despite being a good album, it does not reach the creative and execution levels achieved in Sola Scriptura, surpassing others made in his musical career.
