Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy, and Randy George have gathered a bunch of friends to create the ultimate bar band. Their 3-volume “Cover to Cover” anthology features three discs of mellow gold, mostly-faithfully reproducing hits of a recently bygone era. There’s a bit from the 60s, a smaller sampling from the 80s, and a whole lot from the 80s. For the youngsters of 2020, this is the equivalent of Elvis Presley, The Big Bopper, Bill Haley and His Comets, etc. for Gen X, which our nostalgic Boomer parents played during our childhoods.

Is this blended mash of Classic Rock old Pop and Prog even a genre anymore? It’s been omnipresent on almost all stations since forever, even moreso during the “We Play Anything” era of radio. (Aside: those stations lie. Call up and request “Metropolis - Part I;” see if they play it during their all-request lunch hour). But even with the personnel involved, this is decidedly not Metal. It’s usually Rock n’ Roll, but sometimes, it’s closer to Soft Rock. The horns and frequent saxophone appearances are extremely well-used, but never in a Metal way. If you’re looking for headbanging, then look elsewhere in the Portnoy and Morse catalogues.
The musicianship on these three albums is every bit as perfect as you’d expect, given the primary players, but most of the songs are softballs. That’s fine, though; great hitters can do great things with easy pitches. Sometimes they get on base, sometimes they slug ‘em out of the park. In this cases, even across three full albums, there are no foul balls or strikeouts. Thus enduth the baseball metaphors.
I should also point out that there’s some occasional flexing of skill, as in the Neil Young and Who medleys and the Yes and King Crimson covers. Proggers gonna prog. But mostly, these are songs pulled from your cousin’s set last Tuesday at the bowling alley (he asked you to help carry some amps, but you made an excuse to get out of it). Interestingly no Beatles - - though a handful from each of the individual Beatles solo careers.
No matter how deeply you love Classic Rock music, listening through these three albums will be a journey of rediscovery and renewed appreciation for a number of these songs.