52 Guitars: Week 31
08/02/2014
Phil Keaggy
CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) is not the place you'd normally go to hear some shredding. That's part of the reason why Phil Keaggy's name is not widely known outside the circles of CCM and guitar aficionados and players. (He converted to evangelical Christianity as a rising rock musician with the band Glass Harp, and has remained committed to his faith ever since; that's impressive.)
Someone extracted that solo from an 8-plus-minute performance of a song called "Time." The whole song is on YouTube as well, and may help to explain the limited appeal of much of his music, even apart from its categorization as CCM. To my taste it's just not a very captivating song.
He's also staggeringly good as an acoustic guitarist.
Daniel Nichols introduced me to Keaggy many years ago via some good tracks on a cassette, but I can't remember their names now. The only album I ever bought was The Wind and the Wheat, a somewhat New-Agey one that came out in the 1980s. I haven't heard it for a while, but as I recall "The March of the Clouds" was one of my favorites from it.
There is a persistent story that Jimi Hendrix, when asked how it felt to be the best guitar player in the world, said "I don't know. You'd have to ask Phil Keaggy." It is apparently false. But he is mighty, might good. I imagine there is a lot of great playing to be discovered in his extensive discography.
Keaggy is a far better guitarist than he is a songwriter, and if all you heard was his records you would have no idea what a fine musician he is. I saw him once play an unaccompanied Les Paul for a something like twenty minute jam and it was transcendent. I met him when the coffee house I was involved in when a young zealot and am happy to report that he is a very likable and sweet guy.
Posted by: Daniel Nichols | 08/03/2014 at 07:31 AM
when the coffee house sponsored a Keaggy concert, that is.
Posted by: Daniel Nichols | 08/03/2014 at 07:32 AM
I've heard Phil Keaggy live three times and talked with him a few years ago after he performed at my alma mater. I was happy to the the college crowd just as enthusiastic to hear him as I had been back in the late 1970s. I enjoyed his early album, Love Broke Through, during my college days. In 1978, he recorded a completely instrumental album, The Master and the Musician, which challenged many in the evangelical Christian world -- they could not imagine music being "Christian" without having any words. It was a great example of letting one's art push the boundaries, challenging mediocre minds.
Posted by: Charles Kinnaird | 08/03/2014 at 08:16 AM
Yes, Keaggy's a staggeringly good player. He can do rock, jazz, folk, and classical all about equally well. And with only nine fingers to boot! I've never been very fond of either his songs or his voice, however.
The first rock concert I ever went to was a Keaggy show in September of '76, not too long after 'Love Broke Through' came out.
For the "blues" Keaggy you can check out his song "John the Revelator." And I remember that the "Emerging" album had some good jazzy stuff on it.
Posted by: Rob G | 08/03/2014 at 09:19 AM
I had to laugh at the title on that first video: "best Christian guitar solo". What does that mean?! What would make a guitar solo Christian? It's silly, but it points to a major weakness of evangelicalism, that need to stamp a label of "Christian" on something before it can be considered ok.
Here's a video I had considered including, which is fairly recent, judging by his appearance, and indicates that he's still got it.
"...a far better guitarist than he is a songwriter..." Yes, and that's all too often true of great instrumentalists in rock. They end up making albums that are sort of mediocre in every way except their playing, and it really limits their appeal. And Keaggy's got the double whammy of being in the CCM category.
I'm not surprised to hear that he's a very decent guy. Here's something I ran across yesterday--as the columnist says, a class act.
Posted by: Mac | 08/03/2014 at 09:35 AM
Yep. That sounds about right. Dude appeared to have no ego, unlike a lot of the other CCM stars we met.
Posted by: Daniel Nichols | 08/03/2014 at 05:13 PM
And it appears that he regrets the path he took, holing up in an inferior subculture. Glass Harp has, in recent years, done a number of concerts around NE Ohio, where they have long had a cult following. He is, by the way, a small man, an archetypal Black Irish. And he does not have an animus toward the Catholic Church, unlike a lot of former Catholics.
Posted by: Daniel Nichols | 08/03/2014 at 05:15 PM
I wondered if he had been raised Catholic. I don't think the Wikipedia article mentioned it, but as he was one of about 10 children in the 1950s it naturally crossed my mind. :-) Didn't recognize Keaggy as an Irish name.
I listened to a couple of Glass Harp tracks on YouTube. Good prog-rock, if you like that sort of thing.
Oh, and Rob, I missed your comment earlier, but I'd definitely like to hear him play some blues. I'll have to look for that.
Posted by: Mac | 08/03/2014 at 10:13 PM
The song "County Down" that you embedded above comes from a good album of acoustic instrumental songs called Beyond Nature. I've had it for years, and I really enjoy it. He does a version of "I Feel the Winds of God Today" that is just wonderful.
I'll second Rob's recommendation of "John the Revelator". But that about exhausts my knowledge of Keaggy's discography.
Posted by: Craig | 08/05/2014 at 01:57 PM
There's an album called Revelator. Would that be it? I see both it and Beyond Nature are on Rdio, so I'll give them a listen.
Posted by: Mac | 08/05/2014 at 07:02 PM