Steve Howe is a prog rock legend as a guitarist with Yes, as well as with Asia and projects like GTR, not to mention the Steve Howe trio with son Dylan, and his stellar contribution has earned him his place in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. But he’s done a whole lot more than just this. His hinterland shows that he also has a credible solo career in place, with albums featuring everything from bluegrass to folk to the classics, all of which reflect the fact that, after fifty years or more in the front line, his passion for music remains undimmed.
Both these albums were originally released in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Natural Timbre was Steve Howe’s first entirely acoustic project, where he also plays mandolin, banjo and autoharp. The album contains 18 tracks, of which Howe wrote thirteen, and the other five include pieces written by Vivaldi, plus an interpretation of a 17th-century Galliard written by John Dowland. For the most part, the songs are either Howe performing solo on acoustic, though on tracks like ‘Golden Years’ and ‘Family Tree,’ Anna Palm adds some fine violin touches. The pieces themselves are all exquisitely performed, well produced and the touches added by Palm and son Dylan, drums, fill out the songs nicely. There’s some killer blues picking on ‘Intersection Blues’ and fine acoustic work on ‘Lost For Words’ and ‘The Little Galliard’.
For Yes fans, however, the main attraction will be the versions of three pieces from the mothership: ‘Your Move,’ from Close To The Edge, ‘Disillusion,’ from debut album Yes, and ‘To Be Over,’ from Relayer – all of which bear favourable comparison with the originals. But, as good as the playing is on this album, apart from the Yes tracks, few of the songs stand out and I suspect this will be an album only for Yes and Steve Howe completists.
Portraits of Bob Dylan, however, is a much more impressive album, one which is a sort of departure for a virtuoso guitar man like Howe, being a homage to someone Howe clearly has a huge regard for. Most of the twelve songs performed are well known, though ‘Well Well Well,’ sung by PP Arnold, doesn’t appear on any Dylan album, and rather than plagiarise them note for note, Howe took the opportunity to arrange the songs somewhat differently.
The playing and the slightly varied arrangements are, as expected, top class, and Howe is ably assisted by people like Geoff Downes, plus son Dylan, and Howe sings four of the twelve tracks himself, while using a diverse range of vocalists on the other tracks. A wise move, as Howe is not exactly a singer, but then, nobody ever went to see Dylan or Hendrix because they liked their singing.
The album opens with a gorgeous version of the lengthy ‘Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,’ from Blonde On Blonde, sung superlatively by Jon Anderson, and worth the price of admission on its own. Two other credible offerings include ‘Lay Lady Lay,’ sung by Keith West (vocalist in Howe’s 1967 band Tomorrow) and ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue,’ sung by Annie Haslam, sounding eerily like Joan Baez. There are a few other decent attempts, such as ‘One Too Many Mornings’ by Phoebe Snow and Steve’s version of ‘I Don’t Believe You’ but, mostly, they go towards proving the point made by Zac Holzman … “Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan”.
