Artist: STEVE HOWE
Album: HOMEBREW III (CD)

Year: 2005
Media type: CD

Born in 1947, Steve Howe can look back on a career of 35 years as one of the most renowned guitarists of rock and progressive rock history. His enormous oeuvre seems to be based on a source of never dwindling ideas and inspirations which includes albums with Yes, Asia and GTR as well as 14 solo albums. With "Homebrew 3", Howe opens his archives for the third time and gives us a further insight into his work as a composer and arranger.

While other distinguished musicians sometimes shut themselves off from the outside world - and also from their music making fans - and hide information about their playing techniques, sounds and methods of composing, like some sort of state secret, Steve Howe offers the contrary. Not without pride he has already presented his remarkable guitar collection in great detail in his book The Steve Howe Guitar Collection and with the previously issued albums in the "Homebrew" series, the master once again opens up his home studio to allow listeners the opportunity to hear the development of his ideas.

"Homebrew 3" takes listeners on a voyage of discovery that leads us, initially to his solo albums from the 90's - from "Turbulence" to "Quantum Guitar". After digressing briefly with the preparations for Yes' album "Magnification" and ABWH, a collaboration Howe did with past and present Yes members Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman, it finally ends with ideas for the GTR album, the power rock project Steve did with Steve Hackett.

In extensive liner notes, Howe not only reveals which instruments he recorded his home demos with, but also describes what kind of changes his compositions underwent on the way from the recordings you can hear on this album through to the final mix. So for instance Howe explains that he played the song "No Deceiving" for the orchestrated record "Magnification" just with guitar accompaniment to the other Yes musicians, hoping the song would be left the way it was. Eventually it became the song "Soft As A Dove", with an added orchestral arrangement. Elsewhere guitar themes became patterns for vocal melodies such as in "The Main Title" which later became "Nothing's Any Good Anymore". This also worked the other way around as with "Just A Passing Phase", which here still features Steve's vocals but was later released as an instrumental on "The Grand Scheme Of Things".

The demos compiled here once again show Howe's broad stylistic spectrum. "Homebrew 3" offers up grand prog riffs in tracks like "Turbulence" and "The Last Word", dreamy pedal steel guitar in "From Door To Door", "The Main Title" often recalls "Soon", the wistful Yes piece from "Relayer". There is also the bluesy solo featured in "Solar Winds", and the gentle acoustic guitar of songs such as "Suddenly" or "Pyramidology".

"Homebrew 3" invites the listener to revisit the original Yes, GTR, and Howe albums and compare them with these demo versions, which proves to be a fascinating and worthwhile pastime.

TRACKLIST:

01) TURBULENCE 3.59
02) HINT HINT 3.09
03) THE MAIN TITLE 2.30
04) JUST A PASSING PHASE 3.01
05) SUDDENLY 2.35
06) KIND OF FRIENDS 3.37
07) PYRAMIDOLOGY 1.40
08) IN THE COURSE OF THE DAY 2.24
09) FAMILY TREE 4.02
10) SOLAR WINDS 2.01
11) IN YOUR WORLD 1.18
12) NO DECEIVING 2.49
13) FROM DOOR TO DOOR 4.23
14) CRUISE CONTROL 1.17
15) IT'S TOO LATE 3.01
16) SEVEN CASTLES 3.22
17) BETWEEN YOUR SMILES 2.03
18) REACHING OUT 3.01
19) THE LAST WORD 4.27
20) GETTING THROUGH 0.54
21) OUTLAWED 3.51

LINE UP:

Steve Howe - guitars, vocals