"Repaying the Tribute" - Steve Hackett's Tribute album re-issue reviewed by: Alan Hewitt
In the recent documentary on his career, Steve states that of all his albums he was most proud of 2008's Tribute. Given the sheer diversity of the music that Steve has released over the years this may come as a surprise to many but it shouldn't really.
The influence of the Classical/Baroque masters such as Bach has lain heavy on most of his musical endeavours even if it has not been easy to spot and so it was only a matter of time before he brought those influences kicking and screaming (in a suitably retrained fashion of course) out of the closet. The resulting album was a delight to my ears back in 2008 and this re-issue only reinforces that opinion.
Here we have many of the pieces of music which have inspired Steve not least several by the chord smith of chord smiths; J S Bach including the awesome Chaconne which is a tour de force performance demanding total commitment from the performer on so many levels. Other pieces might not be of such magnificent stature but they deserve their place purely for the musical delight they provide. Steve's own compositions which are sandwiched in between some of these fit seamlessly into the over all flow of the album and Cascada and Sapphires in particular will be familiar to anyone who saw the acoustic trios shows back in 2005-07.
