NEAL MORSE: Jesus Christ The Exorcist Live
Yes, I am aware that Doug did a review of this in the past few weeks (read it here if you want to start there), but I want to add my two-cents on it with a different approach. First off, Doug did simply review the audio version of this live album. But I have made a video on my personal YouTube channel where I react and review this based on the watching of the DVD version of this musical journey. This live performance event occurred at the 2018 Moresfest show.
Morsefest
Morsefest is an annual event, giving the attendees an amazing weekend filled with special musical performances by acts featuring the fabulous Neal. If you’ve even been to those “a night with” type concerts, where a single band plays for multiple hours — this is a weekend like that, but on steroids. It is put on by Neal and his crew each year, in his home town, at his home church.
On this occasion, Neal and company performed a new musical that he had been working on for years and that he was shopping around for a possible record company distribution. Essentially, it is Neal’s approach to providing an updated version of the 1970’s classic musical Jesus Christ Superstar. And then, as was announced at this show, just shortly before this weekend event took place, Neal inked the deal to have the record made and distributed.
In 2019 we were given the studio edition of this great event, but for this 2018 performance, things were still in flux and coming together — though you’d never know it from this performance. Most everyone involved had never even met each other prior to this event. Each participant had been sent their parts to learn, they then all of them came together the week of, and after a few quick rehearsals, put on this spectacular show.
The Cast
The live show is filled with talent, many names of which you may recognize. We have performances from Matt Smith (Theocracy), John Schlitt (Petra), Jake Livgren (Protokaw, and Kerry Livgren’s nephew), Ted Leonard (Spock’s Beard), Mark Pogue, Rick Florian (White Heart), Nick D’Virgilio (Spock’s Beard) and Neal’s son, Wil Morse, plus many more.
For those of us who were not able to attend this live show in 2018, and who have only been absorbing the studio edition since 2019, seeing this amazing, visual representation, was a real treat. Here is my reaction, right after watching this performance:
Clips from the DVD show
Now, here are some additional video clips of Neal explaining the idea behind the project in general.
Find these project, and so, so much more, by visiting Neal’s site HERE.
About Author
Bravo! Way to go, Jeff. So glad that we can offer an above-and-beyond approach to the review for such an excellent and deserving performance and product.