Neal Morse

In 2020, he joined Matt Smith of Theocracy in a song released under Project Aegis, titled "And the Rest is Mystery".

In 2003 Morse, Mike Portnoy, Paul Gilbert and Matt Bissonette formed Yellow Matter Custard as a Beatles tribute supergroup. They took the name from a lyric in The Beatles song "I Am the Walrus": 'Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye...' On March 26, 2012, Morse released the first album of the newly formed band Flying Colors (Mike Portnoy on drums and vocals, Dave LaRue on bass, Neal Morse on keyboards and vocals, Casey McPherson on lead vocals, and guitar, and Steve Morse on lead guitar). In 2014, he gave life to another group, The Neal Morse Band (with Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette and Bill Hubauer), that released its first studio album The Grand Experiment in 2015. The group's second outing, The Similitude of a Dream, was released on November 11, 2016, and the sequel to that album, The Great Adventure, was released on January 25, 2019.

Immediately following Sola Scriptura, Morse released the acoustic folk album "Songs from the Highway". The studio album Lifeline followed on September 30, 2008. Morse was once again joined by Portnoy and George, just four months after the release of the Sola Scriptura live DVD. A live album, So Many Roads, recorded with his European band, was released on June 30, 2009. Testimony 2, a follow-up and expansion of the autobiographical story from the first Testimony album, was released May 23, 2011. As had become Morse's pattern, he followed the album with a tour and live DVD. He followed up with Momentum on September 11, 2012, an album that, in structure, featured several shorter songs and one epic.

In 2006, Morse issued Cover to Cover, a collection of cover versions by himself, Mike Portnoy, and Randy George recorded during the production of ?, One and Testimony, proving that despite the new focus of his solo career Morse wasn't completely averse to tackling songs with non-religious themes. In early 2007, Morse released Sola Scriptura, a concept album detailing the life and struggles of the German theologian Martin Luther, and corruption within the medieval Church. Portnoy and George once again teamed with Morse and were joined by Paul Gilbert (of Racer X and Mr. Big) who contributed a few solo parts.

In the summer of 2005, a member of his church approached Morse to tell him that he should make an album based on the tabernacle and that he should keep it a secret. Morse mentioned that he was working on a secret project before he had written a note or was convinced that he should do the project, and mentioning it during a radio interview created enough buzz to convince him to make the album. There was a contest on his message board to guess the participants, theme, and meaning of the album based on a series of clues. The secret project was finally revealed to be ? (also known as The Question Mark album, rumored to be influenced in title by The White Album) and is about the tabernacle in the wilderness and the tabernacle of the heart. The studio band is Neal, Mike Portnoy, and Randy George with guests Mark Leniger, Alan Morse, Roine Stolt, Steve Hackett, and Jordan Rudess.

Morse has been a guest musician on several 2005 albums, including Ajalon's Threshold of Eternity, Roine Stolt's Wallstreet Voodoo, Salem Hill's Mimi's Magic Moment, and Mark Leniger's Walk on Water. Morse was one of several musical guests to appear on Dream Theater's 2007 album Systematic Chaos, on the song "Repentance". These guests were recorded apologizing to important people in their lives for wrongdoings committed in the past. Morse provided vocals for the first track on Jordan Rudess' tribute album The Road Home.

In 2004, Morse wrote and recorded a new concept album featuring Portnoy and Randy George (on bass guitar). Guitar virtuoso Phil Keaggy made a guest appearance on guitar and vocals. The album, titled One, is about man's relationship with God from his Christian perspective and was released on November 2, 2004. In 2005, Morse released two non-prog Christian albums. In January, Morse recorded Lead Me Lord with the Christian Gospel Temple Choir, his children, and his friends. Morse wrote about half of the tracks. This was released in February and is available for a donation. In July, Morse released God Won't Give Up, which was written around the Snow period. This is a pop album similar to It's Not Too Late, but with Christian lyrics.

Morse became a born again Christian in 2002. He left both Spock's Beard and Transatlantic immediately following the release of the Spock's Beard album Snow, since he felt a calling to make his personal faith more prominent in his recorded output and felt that this would not be possible or appropriate in a band context. The period leading to this decision is described on the solo album Testimony (2003), an epic, introspective composition which features Kerry Livgren of Kansas and Mike Portnoy. One part of his conversion to Christianity, omitted from Testimony but described in full on Testimony Live and later in the song Jayda on Testimony 2, was that his daughter Jayda had been diagnosed as having a hole in her heart that required open-heart surgery. However, before Jayda received surgery, the hole disappeared following a church service in which Morse's wife and others prayed for God's healing.

While with Spock's Beard, Morse released two solo albums of generally straightforward rock music. In 1999, he joined former Dream Theater co-founder Mike Portnoy, Flower Kings' Roine Stolt and Marillion's Pete Trewavas to form the supergroup Transatlantic. The band has released four studio albums (SMPT:e, Bridge Across Forever, The Whirlwind and Kaleidoscope) plus live albums from the tours behind each studio disc: Live in America, Live in Europe, Whirld Tour 2010: Live in London, More Never Is Enough, and KaLIVEoscope. In concert, the group has included Daniel Gildenlöw of Pain of Salvation, and occasionally Ted Leonard, Morse's eventual replacement in Spock's Beard.

In 1997 he became a member of Eric Burdon's I band. They also released the concert film Live at the Coachhouse. In 2000, Morse provided vocals for the song "The First Man on Earth" on The Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer, one of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Ayreon albums. Neal Morse tracks have also appeared on the CPR Volume 1 (2004), CPR Volume 2, and The Tsunami Projekt anthologies. Morse also participated in recording the ProgAID single "All Around The World". The profits for both The Tsunami Projekt and the ProgAID single were donated for victims' relief from the 2004 Asian tsunami.

After about ten years, having played in small Californian clubs with various groups including Burlesque, Morse founded Spock's Beard together with his brother Alan , to give body to his great passion for Progressive Rock. Their first album, The Light (1995), was moderately successful. After having published the first two Spock's Beard albums with good artistic results Morse however found himself without any economic feedback. His brother Richard then advised him to go to Germany to play hit songs as one man band in pubs, accompanying himself with piano or guitar, a good income source. Morse then began to travel periodically between California and Germany, where from time to time he remained for several weeks to work as a pub musician. At his travels in Germany, Morse continued to alternate the work on new compositions for Spock's Beard, and to perform with them. At that time Morse was also part of the Eric Burdon band and he toured with them too. Meanwhile, Spock's Beard's popularity grew and they would soon become one of the most successful progressive rock bands of the late nineties (along with Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and The Flower Kings).

Neal Morse (born August 2, 1960) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and progressive rock composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1992, he formed the progressive rock band Spock's Beard with his brother Alan and released an album which was moderately successful. In 1999, he joined former Dream Theater co-founder Mike Portnoy, Flower Kings' Roine Stolt and Marillion's Pete Trewavas to form the super-group Transatlantic. In 2002, Neal Morse became a born again Christian, left Spock's Beard and began a Christian rock solo career, releasing many progressive rock concept albums about his new religious faith. In the meantime, he continued to play with Transatlantic and formed three new bands with Portnoy, Yellow Matter Custard, Flying Colors and The Neal Morse Band.