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Features, Tours and Festivals

The Dixie Dregs Announce “Dawn Of The Dregs” 2018 Reunion Tour

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It was back in July that I first heard the rumblings about the reunion tour by all of the original members of the legendary musical group The Dixie Dregs. For those not in the know, this was a very unique and interesting musical collaboration that mixed, Rock with Bluegrass with Country with Fusion and Electric Jazz. I remember the first time that I heard them many years ago that my mental music database just rebooted itself a few times to try and figure it out. Check out the press release below about the full on “Dawn Of The Dregs Tour” that is coming our way in 2018.

The Press Release:
Critically acclaimed and six-time GRAMMY®-Award nominated musical virtuosos, THE DIXIE DREGS (a.k.a The Dregs), are gearing up for a national U.S. tour starting February 28. The performances will mark the first time in 40 years the original band–Steve Morse (guitar), Andy West (bass), Allen Sloan (violin), Steve Davidowski (keyboards) and Rod Morgenstein (drums)–will share the stage. Tickets are on sale now.

The “DAWN OF THE DREGS” 25-date tour–with additional dates to be announced soon–will take the band across the country starting on February 28 in Clearwater, FL and make stops in Atlanta, Charleston, Washington D.C., New York City, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, Boulder and Phoenix, among many others,before wrapping April 25 in Dallas, TX. For more information about the “DAWN OF THE DREGS” tour and to purchase tickets, visit:http://dixiedregs.com/.

“This tour is the result of the overwhelming requests we’ve received from a loyal audience of diehard Dregheads, and new fans who have never seen us perform live, but discovered the band for the first time through Steve’s membership in Deep Purple, or Rod as the drummer for Winger,” said Dreg’s bassist, Andy West. “We can’t wait to playfor them all,” adds West.

For guitar aficionados, Steve Morse needs no introduction, and his place in the pantheon of guitar greats is certain. But in fact, his career started with the DIXIE DREGS. The band traces its true beginnings to the band Dixie Grit, which started in a Georgia high school with Steve on guitar and Andy West on bass. Dixie Grit morphed into the DIXIE DREGS at the University of Miami School of Music, where Allen Sloan (violin) and Rod Morgenstein (drums) joined up with Steve and Andy, who were the “dregs” of Dixie Grit.
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Events, Reviews

Winger @ B.B. King Blues Club (6/20/2010)

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Logo - Winger

Artist: Winger
Venue: B.B. King Blues Club (New York, NY)
Opener: n/a
Date: 6/20/2010
Label: Frontiers Records

I probably said this before but I’ve always been more of a casual fan of what Winger does in the Hard Rock sense even though I owned their debut album when it was first released. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until the bands 2008 performance at this very venue that I finally caught them in concert. That was certainly an enjoyable show and the band was at the time supporting their newest album “IV”. The record did not seem to get the reception that was hoped and I myself viewed it as “ok at best” when compared to the musicians first and second offerings. Fortunately for all of the bands fans, Kip and company would follow up “IV” with an album entitled “Karma” and this was quite the release with a number of exciting tunes. The last time that Winger performed there was a band opening up but tonight this would not be the case. All we had was the music spinning over the PA and the eventual Winger set. To be honest, I feel that this is a little cheap for the fans with the ticket prices being what they are these days and at least a cover band of some kind would have brought some additional tunes and maybe people into the venue. After seeing so many shows in sequence with some being four to six band affairs I admit I am getting a little spoiled. Moving on.
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Events, Reviews

Winger @ B.B. King Blues Club (2/20/2008)

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Logo - Winger

Artist: Winger
Venue: B.B. King Blues Club (New York, NY)
Opener: Sonic Bliss
Date: 2/20/2008
Label: Shrapnel Records

In the heyday of the big eighties Kip Winger always managed to have some catchy material and the singing bassist was a staple on the MTV network with songs like “Headed For A Heartbreak”, “Miles Away”, Madalaine” and of course his blockbuster number “17”. I liked the music he did back then but was never more than the casual fan so when a show was announced at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, I was determined to get myself down there to bring the Hard Rock community the inside scoop. The show would be an early one and I didn’t even make note of the opening act Sonic Bliss because for this particular show it would be all about listening for the hits that I fondly remembered and enjoying some of the bands latest album “Winger IV” as well. The venue had set up their usual tables are various sections but the floor was open so the Winger fans could convene and get really close to the stage. The typical photo pit barrier was not set up tonight and instead a small cordoned off section allowed those who needed to take photos do their thing for a couple of numbers while the rest of the audience rocked and rolled. Winger would open up with a heavy intro from the album “Pull” in “Blind Revolution Mad”, and you could tell by the reaction on the audience in attendance faces that they were quite eager to be there. While “Pull” is considered a strong album from the band it is also the one that performed the least in the market so it was interesting to find one of its tunes kicking off the set. Joining Kip in the band would be original members Reb Beach on guitar, Rod Morgenstein on drums and newcomer John Roth who worked on the bands latest album with them on second guitar. The playing was tight this evening and I expected this right away from players such as Beach and Morgenstein most specifically. I don’t say this with a slight to Kip or John in any sense of the imagination but Morgenstein is a machine on the drums and proved his technical ability with The Dixie Dregs night after night and as far as Beach was concerned, a lot of his Winger downtime had been spent in a rebuilt Whitesnake who toured regularly and one does not lose their chops very easily given this circumstance.
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Reviews, Videos

“Live At Montreux 1978” (DVD) by Dixie Dregs

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Artist: Dixie Dregs
Title: “Live At Montreux 1978”
Label: Eagle Vision
Release Date: 3/6/2007
Genre: Fusion Rock/Bluegrass
Rating: 4/5

Filmed during the bands only appearance at the festival to date, “Live At Montreux 1978” captures the incredible set performed by the one and only Dixie Dregs. This is a great presentation of a band that was still a rising star in terms of their career and it’s a fantastic way to watch a younger Steve Morse and Rod Morgenstein show their stuff as well. The festival at the time of this film was still pretty much a Jazz oriented affair so their inclusion of the Dregs based on the bands musical merits was rather exciting and the historic appearance is offered up in full on the DVD. Clearly the bands marriage of Rock sensibility along with Fusion, Jazz and Bluegrass was rather new and interesting for any music fan of the day but it was also very widely accepted and quite Progressive when it came down to it. Opening up with the smooth “Freefall”, Allen Sloan’s violin drives the tune and acts almost as the bands vocalist while Morse adds a duet factor to this. The rest of the guys keep the time flowing and solid with slight flair for good measure. The full lineup of the band was Steve Morse (guitar), Rod Morgenstein (drums), Allen Sloan (violin), Andy West (bass) and Mark Parrish (keyboards) and I am sure that this type of sound was a refreshing change of the way things were done at the festival. Rock bands of all sorts perform there nowadays but back during the filming of this show it was not as commonplace. If you are already a long time fan of the group you might recognize how many of the performances come from the album “Night Of The Living Dregs” and I mean this in the sense that they are the actual versions that you hear on the album itself. The album that the band would have been touring in support of during this time is “What If”.
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