Sunday, October 31, 2010

Dixie Dregs - The Great Spectacular (1975)



Dixie Dregs featured/features (they still get together, now and again) guitar picker extraordinaire, Mr. Steve Morse. Steve plays with Deep Purple these days, and has in the past played with Kansas. And all the while, off and on, he's been playing with the Steve Morse Band. But Dixie Dregs was where it all started, as far as releases go (to my knowledge anyway). And this, "The Great Spectacular", was their debut. Issued as an independent record, this was recorded at the university where they were students at the time. This is a nice piece of raw enthusiasm with some expert playing. Nothing like you might expect from Southern Rock, then again, in the early 70's anything went. Dixie Dregs were from Georgia, and there are definite Southern qualities to be found here. But beware, overall this has more to do with Jazz Fusion than regular Rock. Great stuff, though. Dixie Dregs later were signed to the Capricorn label, and all their albums are well worth checking out. Wages of weirdness...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank You so very much for posting this! I've been trying for years to get a copy of this! Man, I have gotten some really cool stuff off of
your site. Once again, many thanks.

Mickey P. said...

Gotta say, Dixie Dregs are one of the tightest bands on the Southern scene.
Incredibly creative too, I would love to have seen them but, to my knowledge, they never came to the UK. This album was re-released in a re-recorded format on Capricorn, I believe.

BTW
"RebelJam78.rar.html was not found on this server."

Mick ;-)

Skydogg said...

BTW, Rebel Jan 78 has a new link. Enjoy!

Mark said...

I have an unopened copy of the Dixie Dregs "The Great Spectacular" white album... 1975 unopened in the original plastic covering. I attended the University of Miami at the time and my girlfriend was a roommate of a girl that was close to the band. I was given two copies... one of which I played and the other I kept for posterity (I was, and still am, a big fan of Steve Morse). I'm not sure I want to part with it (great memories of my time at UofM and seeming the original Dixie Dregs (also known and the University of Miami Rock Ensemble) almost every week on campus or at The Rathskeller... but if I was to sell it... any idea what it would be worth??

Skydogg said...

I don't know Mark. I have seen it on Ebay going for around 50 USD. That was in good condition, whereas yours is obviously in mint condition and still sealed. On the other hand, it has been released on CD, so that will have some people (myself included) prefer the CD version. Still, you could try selling on Ebay and set a reserve of 50 USD?