Steve Morse: nj,com interview

Morse reports that a conductor will travel with the band on this tour, and regional musicians will play shows as geographically convenient.
"There are a few shows where they're going to travel a bit, but mostly, it's going to be local," Morse says. "Our arranger-conductor — since he plays violin, actually, very well — will be in charge of making sure they know what to do.
"Most important is keeping them on the beat with the music. A lot of classical players can read music great and everything, but the whole rhythm thing — maybe they don't feel how exact it needs to be to make rock 'n' roll rock."
Since the genre's birth, rock has utilized strings, from the Drifters' "There Goes My Baby" through the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony." While strings don't necessarily equate "classical," it is classical players who often play strings on rock songs. Morse's view? It's all music.
"For me," he says, "styles in music are very blurred. I don't see a line, really, defining them. But I know people do, so I try to be aware of them from time to time. Rock and classical styles seem to blend very well. You know, rock has always had the same chords, really, as classical music, the same notes — with the exception, possibly, of some of the bent notes on the blues scale.
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