Phil Keaggy - A (not so brief) Discography

[Ethan25]

Here you go,... start your commentary back up with this LP.
Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

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oh man, I guess I can take a break from going in order to address this album!

I wanted this album for years, but I had a difficult time finding it. A good friend sent me digital files of it back in 2010, as this album never released on CD that I am aware of (except maybe some sold at his concerts), and the LP was difficult to find (although I have found 3 of them since I found my original in 2012). The song SOUNDS is worth the price of admission for this album. IT has some heavy synthesizers on some of the songs as it is truly a mid 80s album (I think it came out in 85'). My dad never had this album so I didn't hear it till I heard it in 2007 when I really was getting into collecting Keaggy's albums.

It starts off with a slow ballad titled Look Deep Inside, then transitions to the fast-track song titled Where Has Our Love Gone and then Movie. These two are great mid 80's sounding tracks - similar in sound to Genesis maybe? I'm not well-versed into mid 80s music as I was born in 80', but that would be my best comparison. Movie has a nice guitar solo late in the song that showcases his electric playing well. Like an Island is great as many of the sounds that sound like synthesizers are sounds coming from Keaggy's guitar. Keaggy's ingenuity in producing different sounds with his electric guitars is quite astounding. I am thinking it would be even moreso if I knew how to play the guitar and knew what went into the music of a normal song.

Song 5 is titled Riverton and he has had this song on multiple albums....it is an instrumental and starts with a slow piano ballad, then transitions into a strong beat and Keaggy's guitar doing some stuff I initially thought was just a keyboard when I first heard the album. He really takes off later in the song.

The sixth song is titled Sounds and is just an amazing song. Probably classified to him as a worship song, the song has it's share of synths, but takes off with some amazing guitar playing that if it was on normal radio stations, would have easily been a hit. The last two minutes of the song are just incredible. Here's a link to the video starting at that part for you...

It's too bad that so few know about this great national treasure.

Here's a great live version of the song that I have easily watched no less than a hundred times.

 

[Ethan25]

Honestly, this is the 80s album you need to find for your collection if you want a good example of the sound and feel of 80s music.

 

[8xlaxx]

Nice job @Ethan25. I can appreciate your enthusiasm for Phil.
He's a really humble guy and fantastic guitar player. His acoustic playing is most excellent, he's certainly a multi-faceted player and songwriter.

Please note, I certainly don't nor intend to hijack your thread. You are the OP but I'll be following for sure.

Kinda funny but I stopped at the local GW store TODAY and look what was in the CD bin,... I snagged it!



I'm cranking Full Circle right now. Kick drum sounds good on this recording. Great lyrics, too!

 

[8xlaxx]

@Ethan25 Here's your next assignment!



BTW, I have found that Keaggy fans hold onto their Keaggy LPs. I've only seen 2 in stores that I hunt in.
-Glass Harp's Synergy: it was so rough and the cover was split.
-Play Thru Me: scratched badly, already have a copy so I passed on it.

Looking forward to your posts!

@8xlaxx

 

[Ethan25]

1971 brought many opportunities for Glass Harp, including radio shows. Pacific High Recorders out of Saucalito, California was one of these opportunities. Well over an hour, someone has recorded this and given out recordings of it. I was given a copy of this hard to find recording years back and now it is on youtube to listen to in it's entirety. Good sound quality of the recording as well! A little discussion in between some of the songs, but overall a great live set to listen to. Take a listen here:

 

[Ethan25]

@Ethan25 Here's your next assignment!

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BTW, I have found that Keaggy fans hold onto their Keaggy LPs. I've only seen 2 in stores that I hunt in.
-Glass Harp's Synergy: it was so rough and the cover was split.
-Play Thru Me: scratched badly, already have a copy so I passed on it.

Looking forward to your posts!

@8xlaxx

Yes, Keaggy albums can be hard to find....depending on the album. A lot just depends on how many were produced and who ended up buying them. At one point I had 8 copies of T\he Master and the Musician on vinyl. Good find on that album you ended up finding! There's a good mix of songs on that one.

In regards to this one titled Private Collection, this album was done all by himself in his home recording studio in Kansas City (think he was in Lenexa or Overland Park area back then). From 1983, the electric drum machine was heavy. Any keyboard was played by Keaggy as well. The song Ransom is all electric over a drum machine and some sort of Yamaha keyboard. I love listening to that one.

This album gave Keaggy his first "Indie" opportunity to do what he wanted with his music as I am guessing that the record company he was with at the time didn't like everything he brought to the table. A good mix of acoustic and electric on this album, the production quality is definitely lower than on his normal albums. However, considering what he had to work with, I am impressed. The song One In a Million sounds like something Paul McCartney would have done. Think About It has this funky beat and bassline that is different than anything he's done in the past.


He actually did 5 more "Underground" albums if you will, but released them solely through his Fanclub in the late 80s to early 90s....doing an additional 5 albums with the titles of Back Room Trax. I will cover those albums in their entirety later. I will include this from his backroom trax 3 which has him and Peter York performing Taste and See, and excellent rendition I must say! This is from 74' as his Backroom trax weren't limited to just being his recordings from his private studio, but had stuff from the 70s and early 80s as well that he deemed fit.

 

[toxcrusadr]

A singer-songwriter-guitarist friend of mine once jammed with PK (probably 25+ years ago). Apparently Phil offered him one of his guitars to play, a rather nice one. So they're jamming and all of a sudden the guitar broke. Or cracked, anyway. I don't remember what kind of guitar it was. Phil was cool about it, and my friend ended up writing a song in which the chorus goes "I can't believe that I cracked a $7000 guitar..."

 

[Ethan25]

A singer-songwriter-guitarist friend of mine once jammed with PK (probably 25+ years ago). Apparently Phil offered him one of his guitars to play, a rather nice one. So they're jamming and all of a sudden the guitar broke. Or cracked, anyway. I don't remember what kind of guitar it was. Phil was cool about it, and my friend ended up writing a song in which the chorus goes "I can't believe that I cracked a $7000 guitar..."

Great Story! Keaggy is great with his fan-base, and I've heard so many stories like yours that outline something humorous that happened between him and a fan. Very cool and thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Ethan25]

This is a list of Glass Harp (and The Squires) songs that were never officially released on an album, but were recordings that they put together at one point and released on their website as an after the thought album and titled it "Where Did My World Come From" - all are early recordings. They released at no charge.

 

[Ethan25]

In 1972 they released the album It Makes Me Glad. If the pictures on the front of the album look familiar it is because they were taken during a concert that was recorded in I believe early 72'. THat concert was released on DVD in the 2000s finally for everyone to view and is quite the concert footage. I will review that DVD at a later time but will put a link to a song from the concert here for everyone to view at their leisure.

regardless, the album It Makes Me Glad was a more refined album for Glass Harp and didn't have as many of the lengthy jam sessions that their earlier albums had. The song Sea and You was more of a psychedelic sounding song that utilized some of Phil's amazing electric guitar sounds no one could replicate. That's probably my favorite on the album. To be honest, that song would be at home on the two-disc set of Inseparable.

someone finally uploaded that song to youtube...so here it is. John Sferra was on vocals (Glass Harp's drummer)

 

[Ethan25]

Here's the album cover.

 

[Ethan25]

The album was much more melodic and got away from the arena rock that they were capable of. This would be the last LP they would release of new material for about 30 years. Keaggy would go to the CCM/Jesus Music market after this to pursue a solo career.

 

[Ethan25]

so, this was just posted online. It's a life event on JamPlay on June 15th on Youtube. You can also purchase a Master Course that is on DVD as there is a link on the youtube page! So thrilled about this, guys!

 

[Dusty Ol'Man]

Keep em coming Ethan. I am really enjoying this.

 

[Ethan25]

In 1972, like I mentioned, Glass Harp was getting some national notoriety. They appeared on a radio show with George Gates at WMMS that was called Coffee Break Concerts. At about an hour long, George interviewed them in-between songs about their music and how their Christian faith interacted with their music at this point in the band's history. It was later on that year that Glass Harp disbanded as Phil sought to move into the burgeoning Jesus Music industry.

Here's the song list - I cannot find the album anywhere online to share a song from the recording with you.

 

[Ethan25]

Here's Keaggy with Glass Harp doing Do Lord just a few years ago - great video

 

[Ethan25]

Keep em coming Ethan. I am really enjoying this.

Never seen this video before today....taken with a pocket camera a few years back but a good example of what Glass Harp still does today

 

[Ethan25]

So, in 2004 Glass Harp released a boxed set of 3 discs containing amazing jam sessions and live recordings of various released and unreleased songs of theirs from the years 1970-2003. This set is called Stark Raving Jams. Some of the recordings are from audience recordings...all excellent. Glass Harp loved to improvise, and this 3 disc set really shows that ability off!

 

[Ethan25]

Here's a great song from the set.

 

[Ethan25]

In 1974, a year or so after Phil left Glass Harp, he released his first solo album - vocal with predominately acoustic guitar, titled What a Day. Quite the departure in sound compared to Glass Harp, the album was filled with pleasant melodies and distinctly Christian lyrics. The song titles are below:

• That Is What the Lord Will Do For You
• King of the Jews
• Walking With Our Lord
• A Time and A Place
• Rejoice
• What A Day
• Now I Can See
• Behold, All Things Become New
• Hallelujah
• I Will Sing

My favorite song is toward the end of the album titled Now I Can See.