By Nick Tate
For classic Genesis fans, 2025 has been a year of celebration and surprises. The band’s 1974 concept album, “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,” was reissued in a deluxe five-disc remastered edition in September. Dave Kerzner’s Sonic Elements collective released a dramatic reworking of the album as a semi-orchestral film soundtrack, “IT — A 50th Anniversary Celebration of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis” last spring. And guitarist Steve Hackett put out a new live album over the summer, “The Lamb Stands Up Live at the Royal Albert Hall,” recorded during his current Genesis Revisited tour, reprising select tracks from the original album he helped co-write when he was on the Genesis payroll.
Now comes the latest and arguably most creative “Lamb” retrospective of the year: “Rewiring Genesis — A Tribute To The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” from ex-Spock’s Beard drummer/vocalist Nick D’Virgilio and master producer Mark Hornsby. Unlike this year’s other “Lamb” releases, “Rewiring Genesis” strays about as far from the original double album as you can imagine. But it still pays homage to the ground-breaking artistry of the classic Genesis lineup that produced “The Lamb” — Peter Gabriel (vocals), Tony Banks (keys), Phil Collins (drums), Steve Hackett (guitar) and Mike Rutherford (bass). First issued in 2008, and remixed and expanded this year, the album delivers plenty to satisfy longtime Genesis fans hungering for a nostalgic fix as well as newer prog audiences wanting something more.
What is most notable about this audacious collaboration is that D’Virgilio and Hornsby did not turn to trusted progressive-rock artists for this project. Instead, they hired a host of talented Nashville musicians, most of whom had never even heard the original “Lamb,” to reinterpret the album’s 23 tracks. Many of the recordings here abandon traditional prog-rock motifs entirely to incorporate big-band, folk, funk, country, bluegrass and even doo-wop elements, lending fresh colors and contexts to this classic album.
Also noteworthy: The album features a newly recorded cameo performance from Hackett and additional orchestral string sections, laid down at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London, giving many tracks an added depth not present on the 2008 release. The net result: “Rewiring Genesis” embodies the same creative, boundary-pushing chutzpah that powered Gabriel & Co. back in the day, but with wholly different and unexpected results.
D’Virgilio explains the project started out as a lark that grew into something bigger.
“Mark Hornsby and I had the crazy idea to get a bunch of Nashville’s top musicians together and record ‘The Colony Of Slippermen,’ ” he says. “We thought it would be fun to put a countrified or bluegrass twist on that classic progressive rock song. I know it sounds nuts because it doesn’t get more prog than ‘Slippermen.’ How on Earth would we turn that into a bluegrass song? That seems ridiculous, right?” But, in fact, what happened at that first session, nearly 20 years ago was “simply magical,” D’Virgilio recalls.
“The way the song turned out was way beyond what I could have ever imagined,” he says. “After we heard the finished ‘Slippermen,’ we knew right away that we should attempt the entire record. The songwriting on ‘The Lamb’ totally lends itself to some fun and creative interpretations. We feel we’ve been faithful to the original material but managed to create a version of ‘The Lamb’ like you’ve never heard it before.”
That sweet spot D’Virgilio references — breaking new musical ground while also being respectful to the original “Lamb” tracks — is most evident on the best moments and highpoints on this double-disc set.
Among them:
• Tracks like “In the Cage” and “Back in New York City” have been virtually reinvented here, with Banks’s elaborate synthesizer runs replaced by taut brass-and-horn sections that call to mind Tower of Power and Chicago.
• The two romantic ballads on the album, “Cuckoo Cocoon” and “The Lamia,” are stripped to their foundations, with D’Virgilio’s introspective vocals layer-caked over clean acoustic-guitar lines — suggesting how these tracks might have sounded had Hackett’s virtuosic fretwork replaced the dominant keyboards on the originals.
• “The Carpet Crawlers” is recast as a smoldering piano-voice-violin trio that builds to a restrained but powerful climax, showcasing Genesis’s knack for creating radio-friendly melodies within the most elaborate symphonic-rock pieces.
• The haunting “Fly on a Windshield/Broadway Melody of 1974” is enhanced with a blistering new solo from Hackett, giving the two-part piece an updated sheen and shimmer. (Check it out here: https://progreport.com/nick-dvirgilio-shares-fly-on-a-windshield-broadway-melody-of-1974-with-steve-hackett-on-guitar/)
• And, in perhaps the biggest surprise, “The Colony of Slippermen” is reimagined as bluegrass/country-swing workout that showcases D’Virgilio’s melodic drumming and features — of all things! — an accordion solo in the middle bridge.
Stitching the whole thing together are D’Virgilio’s boyish, muscular vocals, which in places seem better suited to Rael’s surrealistic coming-of-age travels than Gabriel’s ancient-mariner croon. He also brings a remarkable versatility to his vocal delivery, alternating between high theatricality and singer-songwriter intimacy to emphasize the dynamic range of these classic tracks.
Not everything here will please ardent Genesis fans. The sax and horn lines that replace Banks’s majestic synth runs here and there sound thin, by comparison. And the bizzarro vocal theatrics Gabriel lent to “Counting Out Time” and “Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging” (tweaked and treated by Brian Eno’s “Ennosification” studio effects on the original “Lamb”) have been supplanted by more straightforward vocal performances, which take away a bit of the creative edge that defined the originals.
But you have to give D’Virgilio and Hornsby credit for attempting to do more than merely ape “The Lamb,” while not straying so far off course that the effort becomes laughable or irrelevant. With the release of the new deluxe reissue of the original album and other tributes released this year, here’s yet another way to experience this classic masterwork, with some surprising and celebratory new twists.
Released on Nov 28th, 2025.
Order here:
https://burningshed.com/store/english-electric-recordings
https://nickdvirgilio.bandcamp.com/
Track list:
Disc 1:
1. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
2. Fly on a Windshield
3. Broadway Melody of 1974
4. Cuckoo Cocoon
5. In the Cage
6. The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging
7. Back in N.Y.C.
8. Hairless Heart
9. Counting Out Time
10. The Carpet Crawlers
11. The Chamber of 32 Doors
Disc 2:
1. Lilywhite Lilith
2. The Waiting Room
3. Anyway
4. Here Comes The Supernatural Anaesthetist
5. The Lamia
6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats
7. The Colony of Slippermen
8. Ravine
9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway
10. Riding The Scree
11. In the Rapids
12. It
Personnel:
Nick D’Virgilio — lead vocals, drums, percussion
Mark Hornsby — engineering, mixing
John Hinchey — arrangements, trombone
Don Carr — guitars, sitar, banjo
Jeff Taylor — piano, accordion, whistle, keyboards
Dave Martin — bass
Doug Moffet, Sam Levine, Leigh Levine — saxophone, clarinet, flute
Anthony Lamarchina — cello
Prentis Hobbs — trombone
Jeff Bailey, Steve Patrick — trumpet
Kristin Wilkinson — viola
David Angel, David Davidson, Pam Sixfin — violins
Steve Hackett – The Lamb Stands Up Live at the Royal Albert Hall (Album Review)
