COVER TO COVER

Singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse maintains a certain decided legacy.

- LEE ZIMMERMAN

Wait…let’s revise that. He maintains multiple legacies in fact. Rightly revered for his early efforts with the essential ’90s art-rock ensemble Spock’s Beard, and a prolific career that’s included later outfits such as Transatlantic (a superstar collaboration featuring Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy and Marillion’s Pete Trewavas), his Beatles tribute band Yellow Matter Custard, its successor Flying Colors, and his own Neal Morse Band, he’s become a foremost champion of today’s progressive posturing.

At the same time, he’s maintained a sense of fierce devotion — both as a practicing Christian and as a cover artist whose passion for classic rock became his financial lifeline in the mid-’90s while performing solo in clubs and pubs at home and abroad. His latest project, aptly titled Cover to Cover Anthology — also featuring Portnoy and another continuing collaborator, bassist Randy George — was initiated a dozen years ago and has now expanded into three volumes, which have been bundled as a triple album. Featuring faithful interpretations of signature standards by the likes of The Beatles, Yes, King Crimson, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Cream, The Who, Jethro Tull, and Steely Dan, it finds Morse and company reaffirming their love for the seminal standards that inspired them early on.