Dave Larue (Steve Morse Band/Dixie Dregs)
Interview- 1999

Used with Permission from:
Philly Kid's Guitar Shop - Mondays from 10-11 p.m.
KPSU 1450 AM, Portland Oregon
Email the Guitar Shop at: guitarshop@pcez.com

PK:Near the end of September, you played the Royal Albert Hall in London, with Steve and Deep Purple. And the London Symphony Orchestra. Tell us what that was like.

Dave: Oh, that was a once in a lifetime gig, it was really special…I don’t know how much people here knew about what was going on, but it was kind of a 30^th anniversary celebration for Deep Purple, and 30^th anniversary of Jon Lord’s piece that he wrote for group & orchestra, and of course….well, they organized this big benefit, I’m not exactly sure how they did it, but Purple organized it, and they got the Royal Albert Hall for the gig, and the London Symphony, but needless to say, Jon’s piece didn’t take up the whole program. So they all did little solo bits from various records they’ve done throughout their careers, and they were gracious…when Steve asked, "Well, what should I do?" and they said, "Bring your band over!" So that was great, we scored with the assistance of people over there, Night Meets Light for the London Symphony, and they played that with us. Also, one of the highlights was, we did Take it Off the Top with the Kick Horns, who are …they’ve been Clapton’s horn section, and they’ve gone out with Peter Townsend and the Who….incredible horn section! So we had a blast, it was really fun. And everything was just done really well, and everybody was very nice…it was a blast. Just really great.

PK: That’s great….I read the reviews, and it seemed that everyone said it was an excellent show.

Dave: Yeah, I think we put our little stamp on it.

PK: You graduated from Berklee…I wanted to ask you a bit about your experiences there, if you have a favorite story about that particular time in your life.

Dave: Well, it was a great experience….I started playing music late in high school, and decided kind of quickly that that’s what I wanted to do, but I knew I needed to play catch up here, and get an education. I had a couple good teachers, where I was (I grew up in New Jersey) and I took a year off after high school. I actually went to Rutgers University for a minute, hated that, and then started working with a band six nights a week..[laughs] and saved all my money and went to Berklee. Some friends of mine from school, whom I idolized, were going there and they were raving about it. And I went up, and it was great…I mean, they just laid the material out, it was a great program, I learned so much so fast…it was really a worthwhile endeavor. Any kind of education is worthwhile, and also being thrown in among a thousand hyperactive musicians who are all trying to share material and ideas and music…it was great, it really helped me along. I would never be able to do what I do today without having had that experience. I certainly accelerated my progress, that’s for sure. I don’t know about a favorite story….

PK: Oh, that’s fine. I asked that because sometimes people have a favorite story about college….was it a 4 year program?

Dave: Yeah, I had a Bachelor’s degree from there. Steve Smith was there when I was there, he was getting ready to graduate…I saw so many great musicians play when I was there…just awesome. It was really inspiring. And I got so many different experiences, I got to play in a big band. Once I figured out, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be able to read to play in a big band’….there was this one professor who ran this ensemble that was all this crazy odd meter stuff. That was one of my favorite things….I mean it was nuts! We would go in there and we would read these charts and sometimes it would be this really hilarious train wreck because people would get confused….’Oh, that was part 13? Oh, okay…’ It would be so funny. It would sound so cool, and then the next thing you know, it was total cacophony…

PK: …come to a screeching halt….

Dave: …Yeah, but first it would be like we were all falling down the stairs. That’s one of my favorite memories. That was a great experience too, you had to read for that one. He didn’t believe in 4/4. And it was funk fusion, weird heavy stuff, but it was cool. It wasn’t typical Berklee straight-ahead jazz.

PK: So, you graduated Berklee, and then later on, you joined the Steve Morse Band…but what were you doing prior to that? Was that when you toured with Stretch?

Dave: Yeah, I did a lot of work with Stretch. I came back in the early 80’s, to Jersey, and I studied with a great guitar teacher here, I studied jazz theory. One of the things about Berklee was that I had gotten a lot of information, but I couldn’t really play as much as I knew, if you know what I mean….I had all this information in my head but it didn’t translate musically…

PK: …into your fingers…..

Dave: Yes! I went to this guy, Harry Leahey (sp?), great jazz guitar player, and he had a great little system, we kind of worked it out together, to apply to electric bass, and he really showed me a lot of great stuff about harmony, melody, and applying it more. I knew all that he was talking about, but he had a great system that really just put it to practice. So, I studied with him, and I started working with a lot of other bands. Right out of school, I was working with a composer/guitar player named Mike Santiago, who is one of my main influences. He wrote a couple of songs on my first record, and I’m going to do two of his tunes on my next record. I was working with his band and doing just about anything I could, I taught, worked weddings, I did whatever I could. The main thing I didn’t want to do was get a job that didn’t involve music, that was kind of a promise to myself. So I did whatever I could and managed to make a living and eventually was able to sort of, move things to where I was doing want I wanted to do, you know, all of the time.

PK: Instead of doing just the wedding gigs or whatever.

Dave: Yeah, I was really never at that point but I finally started doing projects of my own, that I really liked doing. Stretch came along a little while after that. I was still always playing in lots of different bands and it was great. At that time you could play progressive music or jazz or even progressive rock music in a number of venues. I was playing in seven bands at one time, but none of them worked more than once or twice a week so I was working six nights a week. It was great. I worked a lot in Philly, a lot in New York, a lot in New Jersey and I would just drive around and play with all these great musicians and I had a blast.

PK: Excellent. How did you hook up with Steve Morse and were you familiar with the Dregs at the time?

Dave: You know I was actually never very familiar with the Dregs. I didn’t find out about the Dregs until…….I don’t even know where they were at but, I was working with a guitar player named Doug Markley in Pennsylvania, who was kind of, I came to realize, a Steve Morse clone, but I didn’t know it at the time. The guy was really good. He turned me on to the Dregs, he let me borrow the Unsung Heroes album. That’s how late along I was. I was really more into jazz in my early stages of development. I mean I grew listening to rock and roll and played Zeppelin and stuff and then I got into progressive bands like Yes and that kind of thing. Then I sort of made this transition into jazz, because I wanted to learn how to improvise and I was playing way too much and everybody was saying "You should play jazz……you know…..you’re way over playing here…so try this". So I got into that and historically, I mean going back to the bebop stuff with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, then early Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderly and Dexter Gordon, all the way up through Coltrane and the later stuff with Pat Metheny and I got into Weather Report really heavily. They were a major influence and I was more into that than I was to what the Dregs were doing at that time. I mean I wasn’t aware of what the Dregs were doing really, but that’s where my head was and I was exploring and listening to that a lot. Stretch was more influenced by that and by Allan Holdsworth, the more eclectic……less….…I mean we rocked pretty hard but it wasn’t like the Dregs, it was more the jazzier side, real dense harmony.

PK: So how did you hook up with Steve?

Dave: I love telling this story at clinics because it’s one of those things about being prepared to do a lot of things and doing as many things as you can and showing up on time and being prepared and all that kind of stuff. A guitar player in Jersey hired me to do his record, this fusion guy…....and he also hired T. Lavitz.

PK: Oh really? What was his name?

Dave: John Macey. He was just a local guy, but he had a good following in Jersey. I did some gigs with him and stuff and he said, "hey, I’m doing this album and I want you to play on it." I said, sure. I met T on that, we had a good experience playing together and we laughed a lot and had a great time. We maintained a relationship after that and I got him to play on Stretch’s first record, then he hired me to play on a couple of his records, at which time I met Rod, because Rod was also playing on his records, so it’s one of those things were you just kind of keep working. T is a great guy, we had a great time together doing all that stuff and I was never really thinking that "Oh gee, maybe someday I’ll play with the Dregs", because that never seemed to be an option at that point.

PK: It seemed like the progression of things when you met T and played with him and then you met Rod.

Dave: And then when Andy didn’t want to do it, and some dates came up, T recommended me and Rod seconded it, because they both knew me and they worked with me and they said "This is the guy you should try out, so that’s how I met Steve.

PK: That was ’84?

Dave: ’88

PK: Some of the people from the mailing list gave me some questions to ask you and this is one of them. How much and in what ways has Steve’s playing influenced you?

Dave: Steve’s influence on me is far reaching. I was fairly young when I met him. It’s almost more………..I mean…….Steve’s one of a kind, he’s one in a million, he’s a genius. I don’t want to over…….Obviously I’m biased, I work with the guy. But it was really unique for me not even so much in the fact that this guy could play this incredible stuff, but his work ethic and the way he approached things, learning that enabled me to get better at playing his material and get better at being a musician. Plus I learned so much about composition and thinking compositionally from him and working out records with him when we were doing new stuff. I saw how he went through the process and the things he do. It was a huge discovery thing, it was so much cooler than going in and having somebody hand you a chart and saying "play these bass notes here…..OK……bye" A lot of the songs we would work out, he would have an idea and we’d work on that and then we’d have to somehow add another section, it wouldn’t be a complete tune. And I’d see him go through these changes and have me try stuff and see then what he’s doing over that. To see the compositional process and learn the tricks was just great.

PK: It was really a collaboration.

Dave: No, I wouldn’t say that. He’s writing the stuff. We throw in ideas definitely and it depends on the song, sometimes he says "play this" (laughs) and nothing else….. and sometimes it’s like "here’s the changes, we need this kind of groove here". Van and I will make little arrangements and suggestions and try them out and sometimes we’ll use them or sometimes we’ll adapt it like he’ll say "that’s kind of the idea, but maybe make it like this" so it might steer it in a direction. But he’s the composer, let there be no mistake about that. Not that some of the bass lines that I come up with aren’t mine or whatever, but he’s guiding us the whole way. The bottom line was that I learned a lot about being musical from watching him write. It’s an incredible experience.

PK: The creative thing.

Dave: Yeah, and the precision thing is just something that comes from just trying to keep up with him and thinking how he approaches that too, but it was really more the whole musical experience and hanging out with him as an individual and seeing how hard he worked and how intelligently he approaches things that I learned the most from. It’s an incredible experience. I’m truly blessed to work with him as intimately as I have. It’s an incredible learning experience, always, to this day.

PK: Just on a personal level, I’ll say that I enjoy what you guys do just in the studio and every time I’ve see you live, it just seems like you’re having the best time. And that really comes across.

Dave: Yeah, I’d like to take this opportunity……..I’ve been hearing about……I don’t know if it’s on the site with Eric or what, but some guy is kind of bad mouthing Steve. Mysterioso or something?

PK: What that was, was several months ago on the www.stevemorese.com there was a person that posted something, apparently he’s around Atlanta and has known Steve a long time and posted this kind of thing where Steve was ignoring him and Steve wrote back a very nice, intelligent and concerned response and of course everybody else jumped in because he’s such a class act and he wouldn’t deliberately be rude to anyone anyway. I think that person’s gone away especially since they took down the bulletin board, that was quite a while ago and I think Steve was concerned about it. I felt bad because I saw his response and I thought ‘oh dear, that’s really a shame’ because there’s so many idiots out on the Internet. I’ve had so many wonderful experiences, but there are the idiots and this guy just had some kind of an axe to grind.

Dave: Well that’s basically what it is. I just want to say for the record that my experience with Steve is great, he’s tough on us, but he brings out the best in us because of that and it’s never rude or nasty, ever. I mean, he’s concerned about our feelings, you can tell. It’s hard for him to criticize, but he can’t not, he’s so honest and forthright. You can almost see him when I’m playing something that’s really lame or I’m dragging like crazy. It’s like ….Oh, I have to tell you this because it really sounds crappy….. "You’re dragging, man" He won’t hold back, but he also feels it when he has to criticize somebody, he feel like he’s going to hurt their feelings. And I’ll say "I’m glad you told me, you’re hearing things I’m not hearing" and it makes me better. He brings out the best in us. One of the things I’ve learned from him too is that he tries to give something back to everybody all the time. Sometimes people have to understand that due to time constraints or the day we’ve had or what we have to do tomorrow, we can’t always stop and just hang out and give everybody what they want. As much as we’d like to, sometimes it’s relaxed, sometimes we’re stressed to the max and we might not be in a good mood or we might have played crappy.

Before somebody criticizes Steve, they need to see the whole picture, because he’s a very giving guy and we all try to do that. Sometimes circumstances don’t permit.

PK: Exactly, or you have your lives and like you said, things happen and there just isn’t time.

Dave: Sometimes one of us is just dying up there (from illness) but we get up and we do the show.

PK: And you don’t have any energy left over to do anything else and that’s understandable.

Dave: Yeah, you barely get through the show and then it’s time to go home.

PK: Most Dregs fans that I’ve met seem to be really OK that, but there is that element of people wanting and wanting.

Dave: Sometimes we don’t get to everybody, but I wish they would understand that it’s not through a lack of trying. There’s a reason for that. Steve will sit until everybody goes home.

PK: I’ve seen him do it.

Dave: Sometimes we’re trying to leave (laughs) and he’s still talking. I mean it’s great.

PK: I want to ask you about your own solo work and some of the other things you’ve done like the Essentials column for Bass Magazine. You’ve been writing that for a while now, when did you start and how did that come about?

Dave: I started with their first issue once they began to publish regularly. Right from the get-go, I was there. That came about because I did an interview with Jim Roberts who was going to be the editor of Bass Player before it was actually in publication. We’re talking about stuff and Berkeley and my education and that I taught a lot. He asked me if I wanted to do a column. I said "I would love to do that" I think I actually said "Hey, if that magazine starts, I’d like to do a column" And he said, "that’d be great" When he called me, he said that basically all the guys were into their own thing and he needed somebody to cover basic stuff, nobody wanted to do that. I said "yeah, I’d love to do that, I’ve got a lot of stuff that I think will help guys that are just starting out and I think I can express it fairly well, so let’s try that", and off we went.

PK: You teach as well and on your web site you have the correspondence course and the bass licks. Let’s plug the web site a little bit. www.davelarue.com Is the correspondence course something new?

Dave: I’ve been doing that for a while now. I have maybe 10 or 12 students a month and we do it by tape. I have a questionnaire and I try to figure out where they’re at. For their first lesson I try to get them to send me some of their playing so I can see what’s going on and what level they’re at. I have a bunch of stuff on computer and I hand write most of it, because everybody’s different. I make a tape and I demonstrate some stuff for them and talk to them and send them a bunch of written stuff to work on. The they record it for me and send it back and then I criticize it, give them the next lesson and move along. I make it a private lesson only we have to do it by tape.

PK: On your first solo album "Hub City Kid" (1988) You played with Mike Stern.

Dave: I’d done some gigs with him because I was living up there and did a lot of different Jazz stuff. I asked him if he’d play a couple of tracks on my record. He said "sure". I said OK. It was really a pleasure working with him in the studio too. He was so cool, he did what I asked him to do and at that point he could have said "give me my money, I’m going home", but said "Hey, you know what would sound cool here? How about if I double this part up an octave and then put an octaver (?) over here" So we stayed and added guitar tracks, little stuff, not solos, just extra parts and he was really cool like that.

PK: But he gave you some of his ideas and energy.

Dave: Yeah, once he was there, he was into the project and he’d say "hey, this would sound good, can we put that on tape". I would say "Well, of course" He could stay as long as he wanted and as long as he wanted to keep putting stuff on tape was fine with me. Watching him solo was great, he got so fired up. We were all just sitting in the control room, he was sitting on a chair and as the solo progressed and he started getting into it, he started rising off the chair and by the end he was standing up, just wailing, it was great. He would do two to three solos for each tune. They were all keepers and I was trying to decide which was the best one.

PK: Hub City Kid is available on your web site and it’s also available at the shows. I heard it’s available at a bass shop that you own in Florida, is that true?

Dave: I’m kind of a silent partner at Bass Central, which is in Orlando. I’m not very involved in it. The CD is available at the shop.

PK: You’re in the middle of a second solo album. How’s that coming along.

Dave: It’s great. I’d hoped to have it done, but the Van was touring in Europe all summer. He’s just got back and they’re just about to have a baby so now I’ve got to wait for that. Once he’s allowed out of the house again I’m going to go up and do the drum track, probably right after Thanksgiving. All the material is done and I’m really excited about it, it’s going to be fun.

PK: Excellent. The Steve Morse Band with you just completed an eastern seaboard tour, in late August the Dregs did the reunion gigs in California and you’re getting ready to mix that, right? And it’s going to be called?

Dave: I don’t know.

PK: I heard it was going to be called California Screaming.

Dave: Oh….Maybe…….OK…..You know more than I do.

PK: The Dregs are supposed to be doing an extended tour next spring. Do you have details?

Dave: There’s no definite dates yet. I believe it starts at the end of January, though and I think we’re doing a bunch of dates with Dream Theatre. There’s a third act and we’ll be in the middle. There’s quite a few shows.

PK: Do you know what areas you’ll be in?

Dave: Probably everywhere.

PK: I know a lot of people are going to be really looking forward to that.

Dave: I don’t know much other than that’s what they’re working on. I believe it’s January and February.

PK: So, the live CD’s coming out and then the extended tour. When are they going to be releasing the live CD?

Dave: Probably right around January 1^st.

PK: What’s happening with LAX? That’s another project band of yours and it’s a New York blues based band?

Dave: It’s kind of on a back burner right now. We hope to record some stuff, I’ve just been busy with so many other things. Everybody has, so it’s been tough to keep that together. We may do a couple of gigs when I’m up recording. Glenn’s going to play on my record too and he’s the guitar player in that band and the main composer for LAX. We’ll work on some stuff for that project while I’m up there.

PK: Just a couple of quick questions because I know you have to leave. What’s going on with your book?

Dave: It’s almost done, at least as far as the transcribing and getting it set up on computer. We’re over 60% done with that. I just finished Vista Grande, Sleaze Factor’s going to be in there, Collateral Damage, Brave New World, a bunch of tunes. I’m going to 9 or 10 songs that I’ve done with Steve and probably one of the tunes from my first record.

PK: Anything from the new record?

Dave: No, I have the tunes written but I don’t know what the solos are going to sound like yet. I’d like to have this out before I’m finished with the record, because we’re close with the book.

PK: Do you have a working title for the book?

Dave: Not really. How about Dave LaRue’s bass parts on a bunch of Steve’s songs?

PK: That’ll work.

Dave: Here’s the notes you couldn’t figure out.

PK: Every now and then on this show I do a bass shop and I play various people. If you were going to put together a bass shop, who would you choose?

Dave: You gotta play some Jaco stuff, he’s the man. There’s so many great guys. I don’t know if you have Marcus Miller’s album, I think it’s ‘The Sun Don’t Rise’. Great record, every bass player should have that record. He’s the groove meister without over playing. He can also play, he just knows where to put the notes so he doesn’t have to play sixteenth notes all the time, which I really dig. It’s very musical, it’s not ‘hey ma’ – look at me’ which so many guys do.

PK: What’s your favorite Steve Morse Band tunes to play live?

Dave: There’s so many great ones. Right now we’re doing this thing in Rising Power in that we just jam a lot and Steve has this big open section and we get into this monster groove, then it breaks down again and I get this big open section, so that’s a lot of fun. I never know what’s going to happen. That’s our big 20-minute spontaneous thing, so that’s always great. I never know what Steve’s gonna pull out of his hat.

PK: That keeps it interesting. Is there anything you’d like to add?

Dave: No, I think I said my editorial bit about Steve and that bimbo who was writing all the letters. I wanted to make that point.

PK: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to us.

More Information on Dave Larue:

Dave has been touring and recording with the Dixie Dregs and the Steve Morse Band since 1988. When not working with the SMB, he is keeping busy with the New York based blues-rock band, L.A.X., which features Glenn Alexander on guitar and vocals, and SMB mate Van Romaine on drums. Dave is in the middle of producing his second solo record, due out later this year, and is also writing, playing and producing for various artists in his home state of Florida.
Education is a big part of Dave's career, so he will continue to write his "Essentials" column for Bass Player Magazine (for whom he also serves as a member of the Advisory Board), do clinics nationally for the Ernie Ball/MusicMan Co. , and teach privately in the Orlando area when his schedule permits. He has also done seminars at the National Music Expo's and the National Guitar Summer Workshops.
In addition, 1998 will see the release of Dave's two volume bass method book, which will be distributed by the Ernie Ball Co., and a second instructional video to follow up his internationally released Warner Bros. video, also titled "Essentials".
If you would like to study with Dave, click here for information on his correspondence course.

Recordings/Performances:
In addition to 4 Steve Morse Band albums, and 2 Dixie Dregs albums, Dave released a solo record entitled "Hub City Kid". In 1984, in collaboration with Glenn Alexander, he toured the USA and recorded a self-titled LP with the band "Stretch". There are many other projects LaRue has been associated with, but suffice it to say that Dave has recorded or performed with artists ranging from Ace Frehley to Mike Stern, and has covered much of planet Earth while on tour. For information on how to obtain "Hub City Kid", and other recordings, click here.

Equipment:
Dave plays fretted and fretless MusicMan Sterling and StingRay 5 basses. One Sterling is equipped with a Kahler tremolo bridge, and one has a HipShot de-tuner. One of his StingRay 5's is strung high, from low E to C. All of his basses are strung with Ernie Ball Extra Slinky strings.
For amplification, Dave uses Ampeg SVP Pro preamps, into the new SVP 1500 mosfet power amps. His speakers are the SVT Classics, which are 4 x 10 cabinets with a bullet. The rig also contains various signal and effects processors.

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