Where are they now? - Steve Howe

Where are they now? - Steve Howe

This page last updated: 26 Jun 2009

YES and projects with several Yesmen Jon
Anderson Chris
Squire Steve
Howe Alan
White

Rick
Wakeman Bill
Bruford Tony
Kaye Peter
Banks Patrick
Moraz

Trevor
Horn Geoff
Downes Trevor
Rabin Billy
Sherwood Igor
Khoroshev

Anderson & Wakeman Asia CIRCA: (with White,
Kaye & Sherwood) Oliver Wakeman Others associated with the band

On this page: Solo projects - Guest appearances

On other pages: Yes news - Asia - Billy Sherwood's Pink Floyd tribute albums (with Howe) - Where Are They Now? front page

Steve Howe's official site: Homepage - News - MySpace page

Yes & Asia
Howe is touring with Yes and Asia—see details on main news page. He is also continuing other work in the original Asia reunion with Geoff Downes, John Wetton and Carl Palmer. Asia have a new album in Phoenix—see details here.

The Steve Howe Trio
The Steve Howe Trio brings together Steve on electric guitar, son Dylan Howe on drums and Ross Stanley (Dylan Howe Quintet) on Hammond XK3 organ. The band toured the UK in Jun in support of their debut album, The Haunted Melody, now out; tracks: "Kenny's Sound" (originally by Kenny Burrell), "Mood for a Day", "The Haunted Melody" (originally by Roland Kirk), "Siberian Khatru", "Blue Bash" (originally by Jimmy Smith with Burrell), "Momenta" (originally from Quantum Guitar), "Laughing with Larry" (original solo guitar piece dedicated to the cover artist), "Travelin'" (originally by Burrell with Smith), "Dream River", "Close to the Edge" (based on the opening section of the piece), "Sweet Thunder" (originally from Pulling Strings). Pieces are arranged for the trio format, so some depart significantly in form from the originals. On the UK tour, performances began with a solo set by Howe (largely playing material from Motif Vol. 1—see below), with the Trio's set being close to their album and to last year's shows. The 15 Jun set, to a capacity crowd at Ronnie Scott's, was: Howe solo set—"Intersection Blues", "Masquerade", "The Golden Mean", "Concerto in D 2nd Movement", "Ram", "Sketches in the Sun", "Laughing with Larry", "Trambone", "Clap"; trio set—"Sweet Thunder", "Dream River", "Travelin'", "Siberian Khatru", "The Haunted Melody", "Blue Bash", "Momenta", "Kenny's Sound"(?), "Mood for a Day", encore: "Close to the Edge" (opening section). Eastern Canadian dates followed in Sep/Oct, with 4 solo shows in Quebec and Ontario (2 Oct show sold out), then 5 Trio shows in Ontario (7 Oct show sold out with audience of ~130). The set was again most of the album; on 7 Oct, the first encore was a solo piece by Steve. The band played an excerpt of "A Venture" before "Close to the Edge".

The band played their debut UK tour in 2007. The set list varied slightly over the tour, but on 17 May was: first set—"Travelin'", "Dream River", "Chitlins con Carne" (originally by Burrell), "Distant Seas" (originally on Natural Timbre), "Mood for a Day", "Blue Bash!", "Close to the Edge" opening section; second set, acoustic section—"Bareback" (Not Necessarily Acoustic), medley "Smile/Whispering/Trambone" ("Smile" originally by Charlie Chaplin; "Whispering" is a 1920s piece but Howe referenced Les Paul's version as how he first heard it; "Trambone" originally by Chet Atkins), "Cactus Boogie" (The Steve Howe Album), "Sketches in the Sun", "Intersection Blues"; second set, trio format—"Kenny's Sound", "Momenta", "The Haunted Melody", "Sweet Thunder", "Clap"; encore—"Siberian Khatru". The London show had an audience of ~200, while the Birmingham show had an audience of ~50. Read my review of the 2007 London show.

Howe is compiling a live album that will include 2 tracks played live and not on The Haunted Melody, due "perhaps this year [2009]" according to a May Billboard article. In a Jan 2009 interview for Notes from the Edge, Howe said the Trio may not do any dates in 2009, but that they would "definitely" tour in 2010, hopefully longer legs and including the US. The band are looking to expand their repertoire. There is also a plan being considered for a joint Asia/iCon/Steve Howe Trio/Carl Palmer Band tour for 2010. See under Asia for details.

Solo
Howe is performing a solo set on 7 Aug at the Memories of Woodstock Festival in the West Midlands, UK. The same day, his Asia compatriots are also performing (Downes and Wetton as iCon; Carl Palmer with his band), and Asia are headlining the next day. See under Asia for details.

Howe did four recent Canadian solo dates before touring with his Trio in 2008, as described above. The Toronto date was sold out. The first set was all on Spanish guitar and the second set all on acoustic, with encores on dobro steel and lap-steel. Pieces included his version of "To be Over", "Leaves of Green", "Australia", "Distant Seas", "Masquerade" and "Soon" (with vocals).

Howe's latest solo album is Motif Volume 1 (Howe Sounds). This solo guitar album consists of existing pieces plus four new compositions. These are all solo performances recorded in 2005 and 2007, without overdubs, played on a variety of guitars (electric, folk, Spanish, 12-string and dobro slide). Tracks: "The Golden Mean" (new piece, premièred as the opening number at the Steve Howe Appreciation Society evening in Feb 2008), "Intersection Blues", "Corkscrew", "Trambone" (Howe's version of the Chet Atkins piece), "Devon Blue", "Clap" (on electric guitar), "Australia", "Part & Parcel", "Sketches in the Sun", "Second Initial", "Concerto in D 2nd Movement", "Diary of a Man Who Vanished", "Cat Napping", "Ram", "Provence", "Winter 2nd Mov' 4 Seasons", "Meadow Rag", "Heritage", "Bareback", "Dorothy". Howe explained that the album:

is the first part of a collection that will cover all my solo "one man" guitar tunes. Several solos have premiered on group CDs, or live CDs. There seemed no one place to go to reference this most enjoyable aspect of my work. These tunes have become my exclusive repertoire, allowing my writing a long leash, arranging opportunities, and the pick of any tune that I want to interpret.

[...] This was to build up a complete overview of my solo guitar music, afresh in the studio. I've occasionally changed the style of guitar used on previously released tunes, and recorded the first studio versions of others.

He is now working on a second volume, due "perhaps this year [2009]" according to a May Billboard article. In his NftE interview, Howe talks about wanting to spend a few months in 2010 focusing on live solo work.

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So Far is the name given to a planned 3CD anthology of Steve Howe's career to date with accompanying DVD which was originally due in 2001. This appears to be the same project earlier tentatively entitled Headstock, being compiled by Howe for Rhino. At least at some point, So Far was to include "Traveller" (written by Currie/Howe—Currie: keyboards, viola; Howe: guitar, bass; Toby Anderson: synth) from Billy Currie's 1988 Transportation. Comments from Howe suggest So Far may also include some Yes or Yes-related material. It has been many months since anything was heard of this project. However, in his Jan 2009 interview for Notes from the Edge, Howe talks about "a lot of my films that I've been preparing for many years that will eventually come out on a DVD" (including performances of "Corkscrew"), which may be the same project. Howe has previously talked about a documentary of his career, concentrating on his solo work from 1975-1994, which may also be somehow related, and two new books, one called "The Guitarist's Survival Kit", the second a collaboration. At the Steve Howe Appreciation Society workshop in Jun 2005, Howe read a chapter from an autobiography that he is writing (which I guess may be related to some of these other projects).

There are long-standing reports of plans for a guitar and orchestra project. In a Nov 2002 interview, Howe referred to "an orchestral project that would likely turn some ears".

Guest appearances
Matthew Sweet (MySpace page) and Susannah Hoffs (The Bangles) (collaboration's MySpace page) have recorded a cover of "I've Seen All Good People" with Howe for their forthcoming, 16-track Under the Covers, Vol. 2 (Shout! Factory), due 21 Jul in the US and 27 Jul in the UK. Sweet said in a Feb 2009 interview:

We’ve recorded a really wide range of crazy stuff, like 40 songs. I don’t know exactly what’s going to make the final cut, but we did “Your Move / I’ve Seen All Good People” by Yes and we got Steve Howe to play lead guitar on it, through the internet. So that’s gotta be on [Vol. 2] for sure. It was glorious. Sue’s got the Jon Anderson register covered, and I just tried to make everything sound like a slightly modern Yes.

Sweet and Hoffs produced the album, which entirely consists of covers of songs from the 1970s. Also guesting are Lindsey Buckingham and Dhani Harrison.

Howe appears on two Pink Floyd tribute albums organised by Billy Sherwood: Back Against the Wall, based on The Wall, and Return to the Dark Side of the Moon, based on Dark Side of the Moon. He also appears on a cover of "Starship Trooper" by Sherwood et al. on Jim Ladd's Headsets album From Here to Infinity—see details for all three here.

Woman Transcending is a 16-track rarities compilation from Annie Haslam including "Lily's in the Field", co-written and performed by Howe and only previously released as a limited single. David Biglin plays keys on the piece.

Anderson, Howe and White appear on Johnny Harris's 1973 All to Bring You Morning, now released on to CD for the first time—see on the main page.

Other news
Jonathan Mover, drums in GTR, is planning a "a two volume collection of works from various artists that I've played with over the past twenty or so years. Mainly, a variety of tracks that are dear to me in one way or another and have not had the chance to see the light of day." On his website, he refers to "unreleased GTR (1985)". As GTR was released in 1986, presuming this is not a typo, Mover would appear to be referring to material before the first album.

As well as playing with Yes, Howe joined Frankie Goes to Hollywood for "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome" at the Produced by Trevor Horn concert in 2004. A DVD is out—details under Horn.

Howe appears to have formed his own record label, Howe Sounds, who released Motif Volume 1 and the Steve Howe Trio's The Haunted Melody.

Howe has collaborated with guitar makers C.F. Martin & Co. to create the MC-38 Steve Howe Special Edition acoustic guitar, inspired by the early 1980s MC-28 guitar that Howe has long used.

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YES and projects with several Yesmen	Jon Anderson	Chris Squire	Steve Howe	Alan White
Rick Wakeman	Bill Bruford	Tony Kaye	Peter Banks	Patrick Moraz
Trevor Horn	Geoff Downes	Trevor Rabin	Billy Sherwood	Igor Khoroshev
Anderson & Wakeman	Asia	Circa: (with White, Kaye & Sherwood)	Oliver Wakeman	Others associated with the band

Any news, additions or corrections, please e-mail Henry Potts. Thanks.