Neal Morse - Testimony

It's been a long time since I found an album that became and instant favorite for me, but I've just discovered Neal Morse's album "Testimony" and was completely blown away.

At One Way Street, our music projects are usually done by a very talented musician named Mark Bradford. Mark knows more about rock music than pretty much anybody I know. About a year ago, Mark and I learned that we shared a common appreciation for the chronically under-appreciated genre of Progressive Rock. It's a genre that merges rock with classical (and many other styles) to create very unique, almost epic type songs. Bands such as Yes, Pink Floyd, and Genesis (my favorite) were major forces in the genre. Mark is the only person I've encountered to recognize immediately that my online handle, "Squonk," came from a Genesis song.

At a recent mixing session, Mark let me borrow a DVD of Neal Morse's live performance of his album "Testimony." Morse was one of the founding members of Spock's Beard, a more recent group in the progressive genre. He left the band when he became a Christian. So now he does Christian Progressive Rock! I was excited to check this album out, since I'm very in to "Prog" and, I must admit, have never really liked most of the Contemporary Christian offerings out there. I don't know, I just never found most Christian rock to be very challenging.

Long story short, I really enjoyed "Testimony." It's a double album, in five parts that tells the story of Morse coming to the Lord. I highly recommend it!