Brad Birzer and Tad Wert are having a listen to Steve Hackett’s new live set, Foxtrot at 50. Here are their reactions to this latest offering from one of the most important artists in the world of prog.

Tad: Ok, Brad, you are the one who wanted to discuss this album. I had not heard it before you shared it with me, and I am really impressed. For a guy in his 70s, Mr. Hackett can really cook on the guitar! He has assembled a crack band for this tour, and I love the format: a mix of solo and Genesis tunes on the first disc, followed by a complete performance of Genesis’s classic album, Foxtrot.

I think it’s terrific how Hackett has come into his own the past few years. While Genesis seems to have effectively retired from the music scene, and Peter Gabriel releases an album once a decade or so, Steve Hackett has built a thriving career on his solo albums as well as offering contemporary takes on classic Genesis cuts.

Brad: Dear, dear Tad.  So glad to have this conversation with you, my friend.  A few years ago–back when we were with Progarchy–I had the chance to interview Steve Hackett.  Somehow, I’d messed up the time (yes, me being a humanities guy, big surprise!), and I was an hour off.  It didn’t matter.  I think I had messed up Hackett’s dinner time, and he was still a total gentleman with me.  I had already loved the guy, but this made me love him even more.  So very gracious.

Over the past 11 years, Hackett has done a brilliant job of re-imagining Genesis, 1970-1977.  In 2012, he released Genesis Revisited II, including contributions from Steven Wilson and Neal Morse.  I think this was an album that helped define a moment in progressive rock history–a recreation of prog wave 1 into prog wave 3.  Since then, Hackett has continued to make his own music, but he does so by reforming the past rather than revolutionizing it.  In other words, Hacket holds the distinction of being a man of piety–one of the three most important virtues for the republicans of Rome.

Genesis Revisited II is a gorgeous album.  

Since then, he’s been releasing live albums with his band.  In each live album, he has excellently mixed his own original and new genius music with that of the music of Genesis.  Honestly, it feels like he never left Genesis (Peter Gabriel-era and immediately post-Peter Gabriel era).  Instead, his music–especially the newer material–feels like an incredible extension of what Genesis did so gloriously in the early to mid-1970s.  Again, as noted above, there’s that brilliant level of piety, a virtue I hold in highest esteem.

I’m proud to proclaim Hackett’s music as simply the best of past and current prog!

As the latest album indicates, Hackett and his superb live band had decided to celebrate Foxtrot, now a little bit over the half-century mark in age.  As such, the band plays, live, Watcher of the Skies, Time Table, Get ‘Em Out by Friday, Can Utility and the Coastliners, Horizons, and Supper’s Ready.

 

While all six songs are extraordinary, it’s the deftness of the last three that really make one long prog track, a contrived track worthy of celebration.  Even thematically, these last three songs go together, looking at and examining the sycophancy surrounding King Canute to the Apocalypse and the second coming of Our Lord, Jesus Christ (the “eternal Sanctuary man”!).

I’ve often joked that I want Big Big Train to play Supper’s Ready at my funeral.  However, hearing Hackett’s live version, I might want his band.  Or, better yet, maybe Big Big Train and Steve Hackett’s live band playing at my funeral.  I’d also like Supper’s Ready to be a forty-minute version (complete with Spawton’s brass band) rather than the typical 28-plus minute version.

And, for what it’s worth, Tad, I absolutely love to bake bread.  One of my favorite things in the world.  What does this have to do with Genesis?  Here’s my explanation.  Foxtrot is my go-to album when I’m baking.  It’s exactly the right length of time and has the right cadences to not only mix the bread but to knead it and set it into the oven, allowing it to rise.  So, no album has more permeated my kitchen than Foxtrot.  I assume my kids associate it with the smell of yeast and beer (to raise the bread properly).

Tad: Brad, what a wonderful application of Foxtrot! I agree that Hackett does not merely recreate the old masterpieces of Genesis’s heyday, but he reforms them, updates them, and puts his personal stamp on them. I see that Nad Sylvan is the vocalist. He sounds terrific – he has a bit of Peter Gabriel’s rasp, but he also makes these familiar songs new and interesting.

For a live album, I am really impressed with how good the sound is overall. There is some venue ambience, but the instruments and vocals are all clean and well-defined. The audience is obviously attentive, appreciative, and respectful. The “Watcher of the Skies” on this album is really stunning, and then comes “Time Table”, which is even better!

Finally, I love having such an excellent performance of “Supper’s Ready” that was recorded with the most up-to-date technology.

Brad: Yeah, Tad, I’m not exactly sure how Hackett does it, but he does have the uncanny ability of melding his own music–whether from the 1970s or from his most recent album–with that of early Genesis.  Maybe his sound from Genesis was so unique in its contributions, but he simply continues to contribute to that sound. . . which NEVER sounds dated.  In fact, if there’s one thing that can be stated with absolute certainty is that Hackett is always and everywhere a class act.  A true gentleman in prog world.

I would like to note here that I think his original tracks, Ace of Wands, Tower Struck Down, and, especially Shadow of the Hierophant sound not just as good as Genesis, but sound as if they could’ve come from Gabriel-era Genesis itself.

I especially love Shadow of the Hierophant, a classic progressive rock track.

You mentioned Nad Sylvan as the perfect singer for Hackett’s latest incarnation, and I couldn’t agree more.  On Shadow, he has Amanda Lehmann sing, and she has a gorgeous voice.  While this isn’t from Foxtrot at Fifty, it does capture perfectly the power of the song live:

Lehmann, drummer Gary O’Toole, and bass pedalist Nick Beggs especially make this version come alive.

 

Tad: Well, Brad, I think we can both agree that Mr. Hackett is enjoying a well-deserved career renaissance! I really appreciate the fact that he is nurturing so many younger musicians on his tours. There are very few people whose career has spanned so many years and remain vital, creative artists. May Steve Hackett have many, many more years to delight us!