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Welcome to another Classic Replay of Flashback Friday. Today's Post, which originally posted on April 20, 2012 can be found buy clicking on the link. Since there may be some broken link issues after two years, I am re-posting it below. Enjoy.
Here are some statistics for you. A career now in its sixth decade, over forty studio albums, seven live releases, and other music credits two numerous to mention in this blog post. And let's not forget the Seven Dove Awards between 1987 and 2002 (all for Instrumental Album of The Year). Is it any wonder why I called my award for the best guitarist in CCM the Keaggy Award.
Philip Tyler Keaggy (b. March 23, 1951 in Youngstown, OH), one of ten siblings. Though losing one of his fingers in a childhood accident, he took to the guitar. He started his musical career with the Squires in the 1960's, but he really came into his own as a member of Glass Harp. Here is a video of them from the 70's. Phil is the one with short hair and beard.
Glass Harp put out three albums: Glass Harp (1970), Synergy (1971) and It Makes Me Glad (1972). Keaggy left after the third album and the group never entered the studio without him. Since he accepted Christ at about the same time as he joined the band, the music of Glass Harp has been long accepted as a Christian Band of sorts, though it is officially a mainstream group.
What a Day (1973) was Phil's debut. The song is about the joy we will have in Heaven, and it is always masterful on acoustic guitar. This video is an extended acoustic version of around six minutes in length. Listen and watch in awe.
Three years elapsed in between Phil Keaggy's debut and his sophomore release. During that time Keith Green and Randy Stonehill wrote Your Love Broke Through, and legend has it that Green personally chose Keaggy to be the first to record the song. If that is true then he was a tremendous judge of the impact that this budding guitarist would have on the CCM community. Not surprisingly, Love Broke Thru (1976) was a breakout album. Here is Your Love Broke Through as performed by Phil. During his forty plus album career Phil has blessed us with several instrumental masterpieces. To me, one of the most memorable of these was The Wind and The Wheat (1987). I was in college at the time and when it was time to do my senior project, I used this album as my slide presentation soundtrack. I took the easy route. I just hit record and let it play. It was a whole lot easier than trying to find the right piece. When you hear his music, can you pick a wrong piece. This is a short one from the album.
As Steve Jobs would say "One More Thing". How about a live guitar solo.
While doing research for this post I discovered an album recorded by Keaggy that will be a shoe-in for the Platinum Vinyl Awards this year. Live From Kegworth Studio. It will definitely win the Keaggy award.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Everyone acknowledges that Phil Keaggy is one of the top 10 guitarists in the world. I wonder who #2 to #10 are? As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
We are returning to some sort of normalcy here at Night Beat HQ. With the Video and Song Awards announced on social media, and only wrap posts to do here on the blog, I thought it time to return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Welcome to the latest edition of Flashback Friday, where we bring the modern music enthusiast up to speed on some of their history. After all, if you don't know where you've come from, how can you know where you're going.
Round Two of Flashback Friday centers around the Classic Christian Song Love Broke Through. There were four people involved in the song, but we are concentrating only on three of them. Two were involved in the writing, Keith Green and Randy Stonehill. One made the song famous in the singing and performance, Phil Keaggy. Last week we covered Keith Green. This week it's Uncle Randy time.
Sometimes, in the straight laced world of Christian Music, and artist emerges which most people may think is (slightly?) deranged. Of course such non-conventional behavior just assure that the kids will love him. Such is Randy Stonehill, or as he is affectionately known, Uncle Randy. Musically he is stylistically linked to James Tayor, though his fans love him because he acts like Robin Williams. Of course, while he may have a crazy manic persona, he is still relatively down to earth. I mean, to my knowledge, Uncle Randy has never donned a dress and heels for a music video or in concert (Steve Taylor, Lifeboat. But that's another post altogether.
We will begin our musical tour with a live video of Randy performing Your Love Broke Through.
This is a great video if your purpose is showing off Randy's Acoustic Guitar talent, which is beyond question. It does little to show the twisted sense of humor that he has. So from the sublime to the ridiculous, we will go to one of the DJ favorites during my college days (and the bane of the administration. He belches in the song) American Fast Food which was on Equator (1982)
A straight up Christian Song, but the Concept Video shows his sense of humor nicely. This is gods of men from Love Beyond Reason. (the video isn't great, but the song is)
One more humorous video. This is the title cut off Love Beyond Reason. I'm only disappointed that the beginning was edited. It had Randy asking to drive the tour bus ("How Hard Could It Be") and the long and winding road they took until it said, "from our Lost Somewhere in Central America Tour".
Randy Stonehill has quite a body of work. The link is just to mp3 albums alone. Discovered by the great Larry Norman, he released his debut album (and it was an album at the time), Born Twice, way back in 1971, and he is still recording. His latest is Spirit Walk, which was released last September. He's still got it. FYI, this is his 24th Studio Album. Rock On Uncle Randy.
It is probably appropriate to have a post on one of the more unbalanced fathers of Christian Rock be somewhat unbalanced itself, but I still apologize. Next weeks Flashback Friday should be a bit more even as we move on to Phil Keaggy. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
Here are some statistics for you. A career now in its sixth decade, over forty studio albums, seven live releases, and other music credits two numerous to mention in this blog post. And let's not forget the Seven Dove Awards between 1987 and 2002 (all for Instrumental Album of The Year). Is it any wonder why I called my award for the best guitarist in CCM the Keaggy Award.
Philip Tyler Keaggy (b. March 23, 1951 in Youngstown, OH), one of ten siblings. Though losing one of his fingers in a childhood accident, he took to the guitar. He started his musical career with the Squires in the 1960's, but he really came into his own as a member of Glass Harp. Here is a video of them from the 70's. Phil is the one with short hair and beard.
Glass Harp put out three albums: Glass Harp (1970), Synergy (1971) and It Makes Me Glad (1972). Keaggy left after the third album and the group never entered the studio without him. Since he accepted Christ at about the same time as he joined the band, the music of Glass Harp has been long accepted as a Christian Band of sorts, though it is officially a mainstream group.
What a Day (1973) was Phil's debut. The song is about the joy we will have in Heaven, and it is always masterful on acoustic guitar. This video is an extended acoustic version of almost eight minutes in length. Listen and watch in awe.
Three years elapsed in between Phil Keaggy's debut and his sophomore release. During that time Keith Green and Randy Stonehill wrote Your Love Broke Through, and legend has it that Green personally chose Keaggy to be the first to record the song. If that is true then he was a tremendous judge of the impact that this budding guitarist would have on the CCM community. Not surprisingly, Love Broke Thru (1976) was a breakout album. Here is Your Love Broke Through as performed by Phil. During his forty plus album career Phil has blessed us with several instrumental masterpieces. To me, one of the most memorable of these was The Wind and The Wheat (1987). I was in college at the time and when it was time to do my senior project, I used this album as my slide presentation soundtrack. I took the easy route. I just hit record and let it play. It was a whole lot easier than trying to find the right piece. When you hear his music, can you pick a wrong piece. This is a short one from the album.
As Steve Jobs would say "One More Thing". How about a live guitar solo.
While doing research for this post I discovered an album recorded by Keaggy that will be a shoe-in for the Platinum Vinyl Awards this year. Live From Kegworth Studio. It will definitely win the Keaggy award.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Everyone acknowledges that Phil Keaggy is one of the top 10 guitarists in the world. I wonder who #2 to #10 are? As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.
put out three albums: Glass Harp (1970), Synergy (1971) and It Makes Me Glad (1972). Keaggy left after the third album and the group never entered the studio without him. Since he accepted Christ at about the same time as he joined the band, the music of Glass Harp has been long accepted as a Christian Band of sorts, though it is officially a mainstream group.
. It will definitely win the Keaggy award.
