Track Listing

1. Take It Off the Top
2. Odyssey
3. What If
4. Travel Tunes
5. Ice Cakes
6. Little Kids
7. Gina Lola Breakdown
8. Night Meets Light

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43709 in Music
• Brand: Dixie
• Released on: 1998-03-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

A great album for all lovers of instrumental music
I picked up this album circa 1980, after seeing the band on TV's "Midnight Special." I'd been listening a lot to Jean-Luc Ponty albums like "Cosmic Messenger" and "Egocentric Molecules", on which the songs had fantastic, intricate opening and closing sections, but in the middle were long solos while the band vamped on two chords. The Dixie Dregs, who like Ponty were inspired by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, took Ponty's approach to the next level. While a Dreg soloed, the rest of the band was always doing something interesting to keep the listener's attention. The result was the best answer America has ever been able to produce to Britain's prog-rock bands like Yes or ELP: five virtuoso musicians, playing instrumental-only rock music with great melodies, intricate arrangements, and catchy solos, in a variety of styles that somehow all worked together. Led by Steve Morse, who for my money is the best guitarist on the planet.

"What If" has better production and more consistent songwriting than the first Dixie Dregs album, "Freefall". The cuts, mostly written by Morse, include straight-ahead rock ("Take It Off the Top"), progressive rock ("Odyssey"), ballads ("What If" and "Night Meets Light"), bluegrass ("Gina Lola Breakdown"), and even a baroque piece for classical guitar and violin ("Little Kids"--a passer-by once asked me if it was Vivaldi). The best cuts are "Take It Off the Top", the funky "Ice Cakes", and "Night Meets Light", but even the weakest track would be a highlight on many a lesser band's album. "Night Meets Light" is a stunner, a long, gorgeous tune with a lot of time-signature changes that aren't immediately apparent (there's a lot of 5/8). The Dregs' signature sound is electric guitar and violin playing in unison to create a wailing sound. Allen Sloan's violin work is especially stunning, able to both match Morse's breakneck speed and give a impossibly lush, romantic sound to solos on "Odyssey" and "Night Meets Light".

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

The Dregs finest hour
If you ever found yourself shipwrecked with only one Dreg's album, this is the one you'd want. Of all their albums, this one probably best epitomizes the true range and scope of this great band. Steve Morse's compositions and performance bring together all the elements of his eclectic styles. This band could have been anything it wanted to be; progressive rock, jazz fusion, country, baroque, classical. It chose to be all and does so magnificently on this album. The musicianship from all fronts is unlike anything ever assembled. As a musician, I'm always taken aback by rockers such as "Take It Off The Top" and "Ice Cakes". "Travel Tunes" is a fun track that's hard to sit still on. "Odyssey" is the classic Dreg's song; seering guitar by Morse, incredible strings (Allen Sloan), incomprehensible keyboards (Mark Parrish) and flawless rhythm (Andy West, bass and Rod Morgenstein, drums). Since this line-up of performers was their first and last time together, it has always left me wondering....What If?.....

An instant jazz-rock fusion classic
In the late '70's, I went to see someone else, and the Dixie Dregs happened to be the opening band. All I knew about them was they were on Capricorn, the "southern rock" label. And when they came onstage, as I expected they looked "southern rock"--but then they started to play some of the most challenging and original music I had ever heard. I was transfixed, certain I was an early witness to an emerging musical genius. Most of the material was from this album, just released. I bought it the next day. "What If?" was an instant classic, and a defining work. The sound and style are strikingly original. The compositions are brilliant, spanning an incredible range of styles, with stops at rock, blue grass, classical, and jazz. The players are each instrumental geniuses, so technically adept they run the danger of being too facile. The music is mercurial, a blend of tight ensemble playing, well focused solos, and lightning fast interchanges between the performers. The Dixie Dregs demonstrated on "What If?" they were fully equal to the original Mahavishnu Orchestra or the Chick Corea/Stanley Clarke/Al DiMeola version of Return To Forever. And a lot of fun to listen to.