The Steve Morse Band has unveiled a breathtaking collaboration with Eric Johnson for their new track, TexUS. Check out the official video for the song with the Steve Morse Band in full force HERE.
This is the second cut to be taken from the forthcoming album, Triangulation, which will be released on 14 November via Music Theories Recordings (home to Yngwie Malmsteen, Ayreon, Paul Gilbert, and Vandenberg).
Talking about TexUS, Morse says, “The amazing Eric Johnson agreed to do a song, and I had to write something that fit the era of when we both started doing instrumental guitar rock. Eric is always super melodic and flawless, as he is here!”
Whenever we think of the greatest guitar players of all time, Steve Morse is a name that’s always in the conversation. This album sees Morse teaming up once again with Dixie Dregs, Steve Morse Band, and Flying Colors bassist Dave LaRue, with Van Romaine [Steve Morse Band/Enrique Iglesias] joining on drums.
“The album title Triangulation comes from the concept of aviators, navigators, and sailors looking at two points to pinpoint their exact location at a specific moment in time,” says Steve. It’s a geographical concept that also applies to human life on a broader level, and given the journey Morse has been on in recent years, it’s only natural that he’s been on a path of self-discovery and reflection.
The previous track, Break Through, was the first new music since the release of 2009’s Out Standing In Their Field. There are also some stellar guest features, alongside Eric Johnson’s majestic contributions to TexUS, John Petrucci brings his inimitable progressive metal thunder and Kevin Morse joins his father on “Taken by an Angel,” – the latter being the most poignant of the nine tracks and a tribute to Steve’s beloved late-wife Janine.
Morse started his career in the mid-1970s, playing mind-melting jazz-rock with The Dixie Dregs, which earned him multiple Grammy nominations in the process. The following decade, he formed the Steve Morse Band, grabbing an additional Grammy nod, and joined arena heavyweights Kansas, before being recruited by rock and roll originals Deep Purple in 1994. And despite being in one of the world’s biggest bands, he continued to innovate in other projects, such as Living Loud, Angelfire, and Flying Colors – as well as guitar supergroup G3 – showing the world just how much versatility there was in those magic fingers. He announced his departure from Deep Purple in 2022, choosing to care for his wife, who passed away in 2024, by which point he had become their longest-serving guitarist.
After all the heartache and anguish of the last few years, you can’t help but feel grateful Morse is once again ready to share his creative genius with the world around him. Given his stature among the guitar community – often lauded as ‘your hero’s hero’ in the same way people spoke about Jeff Beck – his creative return marks a new phase of inspiration and brilliance. In that sense, you can tell the release of this record means a lot to him.
