Customer Reviews

The Best of Dixie Dregs - 20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This collection captures the first three albums of this Georgia hard-fusion, prog band. Given the lack of alternative collections out there, this one will have to do. Andy West's remarkable bass runs remain intact, and sound as great as ever. The "hit" Refried Funky Chicken is there, as is the wistful, romantic What If.

That said, this great prog/jazz/fusion band deserves a better, more comprehensive collection. They did release a great deal of solid music after 1982, can someone please pull it all together and give these guys their due?

This cd based on material from the 3 first albums released 1977-79 is a good collection of songs. Even if carachters of sound differs from record to record they do work well together on this cd. The digital re-remaster is excellent.

I didn't like all the selections on this cd but its still worth getting just to hear Steve Morse and the band wail!

I bought this CD not knowing much about the Dixie Dregs. I only knew that the band had produced some great guitar music in the 1970s. Not being able to find any of their 70s albums at a local music store, I had to settle for this. I guess it serves well as an intro to the band. If you have never heard the Dixie Dregs, they were an instrumental band at their peak in the late 70s and early 80s. Their music combines elements of prog rock and jazz with some Steely Dan and "Hot Rats"-era Zappa stylings thrown in. However, for all the players' runs along the fretboard and rolls around the drum kit, I would have preferred a simpler, dirtier, more direct sound. The band hits a lot of notes, but the cumulative effect is surprisingly quiet. There's little feel for the blues, and even the band's jazzy flourishes seem muted. The music, while technically impressive (all the musicians are virtuosos), has edges that are too rounded; the playing is overly precise and overproduced. Sometimes the CD sounds, dare I say it, like elevator music. And for a group with name like Dixie Dregs, you'd expect more of a southern sound. Not so. That's not to say this CD is not enjoyable. It is. Perhaps this collection doesn't do the band justice. Despite my tepid reaction, I'll give one of the band's studio albums a try (I've heard "What If" is the one to own).