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I remember during the eighties progressive rock revival,
there was a certain badge of honor bestowed on a band who
could faithfully reproduce the Genesis song “Suppers Ready.”
Times change and today the focus has shifted more to The Lamb
Lies Down of Broadway. This perhaps is a tougher act to bring
about, after all this is a double-disc work that has a lot
of music. Enter Mark Hornsby and Nick D’Virgillio. Under the
name Rewiring Genesis these two have assembled quite a cast
of musicians to literally re-interpret this classic album.
The core band consists of D’Virgillio (vocals, drums), Dave
Martin (bass), Jeff Taylor (keyboards), Don Carr (guitars)
and Hornsby’s production skills. In addition there are some
18 musicians from the Nashville area that contribute their
musical talents on all sorts of string, reed and woodwind
instruments. As you might imagine this brings a very different
vibe to the “lamb.”
Fundamentally everything that is familiar about these
23 compositions is here. There is a core sincerity in reproducing
these very well known pieces and yet, fans will notice many
subtle differences, especially in the use of those other instruments.
Where we’re all used to hearing Tony Bank’s keyboards, instead
we hear real strings performing runs and horns creating the
staccato musical stabs. This becomes really obvious as one
listens to the very familiar “In the Cage” [8:35] where the
strings and horns are everywhere. In a very subtle way, what
this does is change the general feel of the song, taking it
from a straight-forward complex progressive rock number and
turning it into a piece that sounds more like musical theatre.
It sounds like the Lamb re-done for Broadway or the West End.
Now this isn’t a bad thing. The Lamb is nothing if not musical
theatre set in the prog-rock idiom. The proof of the strength
of these compositions is that they translate themselves so
well into another musical style. But it’s jarring none-the-less
to take a piece which is so familiar and change it up in this
way. And I think the project might have generated more negative
reaction if the core intent hadn’t been so faithful. These
guys love the original and are simply looking to ‘re-wire’
the project. Changing up the music in this fashion makes certain
musical elements stand out more than on the original and brings
to light other subtle motifs that were buried in the mix.
I’m amazed at the vocal variety employed by D’Virgillio. While
not sounding at all like Peter Gabriel he manages to infuse
an amazing tonal range to this varied character-landscape.
A Tribute to the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is one of
those records that’s bound to both please and anger. Some
will see the work as an honest modern take on a classic progressive
rock recording and others will be offended at the subtle but
distinct changes in instrumentation. I’m in the former category.
After repeated listens this record really stands out as a
quality musical effort. The sincerity and faithfulness to
the original is more than obvious and yet they’ve been able
to put their own spin on it. Check it out, Rewiring Genesis
gets my recommendation.
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