Found a very interesting tidbit courtesy of an article on The South African website regarding the latest release from South African singer/songwriter/guitarist Steve Louw, whose latest album Headlight Dreams was produced by fellow countryman and acclaimed producer Kevin Shirley.
First, as context let's recall this mention from the 2020 PROG interview/profile with Malcolm Dome:
There's every chance that Trevor will have at least two opportunities to work live with orchestras in the next year or so. Although nothing is yet confirmed, these possibilities clearly excite him.
"One performance would concentrate on my own work, while the other would give me the chance to get involved with a very big name from the rock world. I can't say more about either concert right now. However, I feel confident both will happen, with at least one in London."
As my readers are already aware, Lee Pomeroy commented on one of these opportunities in an interview he gave to Yes Music Podcast that same year, and Trevor elaborated on it to me when I interviewed him in July; it involved appearing with an orchestra to perform what would presumably be a variety of his scoring compositions and perhaps some other songs as well.
Back to the aforementioned article, it appears that this is the other project which was planned while the world was still in the pre-pandemic state of things. Having completed work with Shirley on his latest album in Nashville, Louw and his producer then go their separate ways:
I flew to New York on the 3rd of March, en route back to South Africa, and Kevin headed to LA to film with Trevor Rabin who was scoring Joe Bonamassa songs with a full orchestra for a live concert film they were going to film last August at Red Rock in Colorado.
Hence the "very big name from the rock world" descriptor. I'm assuming the filming referred to had to do with creating bonus material for what would likely have been a home video/streaming release of the proposed show. Alas, the best laid plans of...well, everybody, at that point.
Besides being fellow expats, Kevin and Trevor do have a long acquaintance, and it's very easy to imagine Kevin turning to Trevor when this particular opportunity presented itself in regards to one of his long-running clients, Shirley having produced or co-produced all of Bonamassa's albums since 2006.
Hopefully, as our live music landscape here in the US begins to slowly but surely return to normal, this project will be revived for a potential late 2021 or '22 release.
