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  #1  
Old 04-07-2018, 10:35 PM
The Doc... The Doc... is offline
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Default Phil Keaggy

Just came home from seeing Phil Keaggy @ the Cup O' Joy Coffee House in Green Bay, WI.

Unbelievable guitar player....singer....performer. 2 hour show - Came out with his Olson guitar and proceeded to do the most incredible musical performance I have ever seen one man do. Simply fantastically amazing. Words can not do justice to his performance... A "You've got to be kidding me --- no way did he just play what I just heard" kinda performer.

Do not miss the opportunity to see/hear him live if he comes your way...Seriously.
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Old 04-08-2018, 02:32 AM
boombox boombox is offline
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Lucky you!! I've wanted to see him live for years but UK gigs are rare. I have most of his albums and like what I have heard.
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Old 04-08-2018, 07:39 AM
backdoc backdoc is offline
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I've not seen him recently. I saw him back in the late 70's when he was playing Christian rock and it was all electric guitar. His song Time is still one of my favorite songs, even though I am more of a deist than a religious person these days.

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Old 04-08-2018, 07:53 AM
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One of the best ever, for sure. He seems doomed to relative obscurity, however. I've always enjoyed his playing, but avoided his albums due to his singular focus on his spirituality. A lot of the world's great music has been inspired by faith, but maybe it falls a little flat when expressed so overtly and consistently. Too bad such a great musician gets relegated to the "contemporary christian" bin and otherwise overlooked.
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Old 04-08-2018, 09:17 AM
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yep hes one of the best. It is his Christian stance that keeps him down. Thats a complement cause he is true to what he believes.
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Old 04-08-2018, 11:50 AM
zombywoof zombywoof is offline
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When I lived in Kansas, Keaggy would sometimes put on workshops when he was in the area usually hosted at a local church. I was planning to go to one but for whatever reason he had to cancel it.
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Old 04-08-2018, 02:49 PM
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My all time favorite. Lucky to be in Nashville and see him at least once or twice a year.

My favorite song is thank you for today.

True story, bumped into Phil and told him I had been looking for chords/tab to that song to no avail. Said well I could write it down for you but don’t think that is what you need, let’s go next door to the music store and I will teach you. I have a video of Phil teaching me to play that song.

He is considered the best fingerstyle guitarist of all time by many and I agree. Bonus is what an amazing person he is. There is a reason why folks like Paul Mcartney make a point of having him around. He was the “wedding singer” at Paul’s wedding. There are some cool photos that appear to be Phil teaching Paul some stuff on the guitar. Phil would never admit such he is far to modest.
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Old 04-08-2018, 04:13 PM
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The actual story with Phil is that Laura Eastman, Paul's sister-in-law was getting married and wanted to have a world-class player. She knew Phil Keaggy through working with him for TV spots and asked him to play the wedding. He found a hole in his schedule and agreed. At that point, Laura told Phil that Paul would be a the wedding. Meanwhile James Olsen was finishing a lefty guitar that Paul commissioned and found out Phil was going to meet Paul. Phil is a good friend of Jame and plays an Olsen onstage. James asked Phil to deliver Paul's guitar.

It all lead to them meeting at the rehearsal, having about thirty minutes together, the day of the wedding, and having a good time. MORE.

Bob

PS. Laura went to all the trouble of setting up this once in a lifetime moment because she knew Paul was Phil's favorite artist. It was a typical gracious Laura thing to do. That's just the kind of lady she its.
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Old 04-08-2018, 04:29 PM
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David Eastwood David Eastwood is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mercy View Post
yep hes one of the best. It is his Christian stance that keeps him down. Thats a complement cause he is true to what he believes.
A compliment indeed - and I expect that he would be the last to accept the label of 'kept down'.

I'd recommend two of his instrumental albums for anyone who just wants to listen to his guitar talent - Acoustic Sketches and 220. I'm sure there are many others among his extensive catalogue.

Here's a lovely example - this one's on Acoustic Sketches, in a rather shorter form. Not the greatest video quality, but there's no mistaking the mastery.

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Last edited by David Eastwood; 04-08-2018 at 04:45 PM.
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Old 04-08-2018, 04:57 PM
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Thank you to each of you responding to this thread. I am enjoying everything each of you are contributing...enlarges my knowledge base!!!

I had never heard of Phil Keaggy until a few days ago, and then I saw him at the Cup O' Joy coffeehouse last night....Well like I said earlier, I could not in my wildest dreams invision what or how he played. His Olsen is spectacular, as all Olsen's are, but in his hands it was phenomenal spectacular. All the tapping and looping he did to paint the canvas for his jamming.... was fantastic!

He was a terrific story teller as well, very humble, friendly, highly interactive with the audience, funny ---- and man --- could he jam. He started out with about a 10 minute jam on a blues tune called "Mercy" that was incredible in guitar style and tone. He played a song for an encore call "The Salvation Army Song" he played for about 12 minutes that completely blew me away.

I mean, I am just floored by what he could do, and so surprised- no matter what his spiritual take - that he is not a "star"....even if he doesn't want to be.

I've heard a lot of really good - great - guitar players in my 64 years, but this guy was the best...IMHO.

I mean - the dude can play.
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Old 04-10-2018, 03:47 PM
Gordon Currie Gordon Currie is offline
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If you'd like to explore more of his instrumental side, you NEED to hear:

Beyond Nature - all acoustic guitar pieces
The Wind and the Wheat - electric and acoustic pieces. Has one of my all time favorite compositions (I Love You, Lord)

I find there to be a huge stylistic difference between his instrumental and his vocal material. I don't care for the vocal material whatsoever, but I love his guitar playing.
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Old 05-18-2018, 01:55 PM
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An absolutely great guitarist. I saw him in the early 70's when he had left the band Glass Harp and was doing a swan song tour with Lovesong. It was at a church in Houston, and there were only about 150 people there. I sat on the floor and was about 4 yards away from him. He blew all of us away.

I saw him two more times; once in the 70's and once in the 80's. I have seen Zeppelin, Grand Funk, and some others. He is, hands down, the best guitarist I have ever seen.

As to his vocals, to me, he sounds a lot like Paul McCartney.

He never made huge amounts of money, but I think he is a legend.
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Old 05-28-2018, 03:08 PM
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Totally agree with all the above about Phil. I've been fortunate to play with him a couple times (once he invited me to his home studio to jam, and recently we played a gig).

Here's a photo I will always treasure. We were playing a private event at BB Kings in Nashville with Johnny Neel and a bunch of other folks. No rehearsal, no set list. Johnny Cash's grandson - who sounds uncannily similar to Johnny Cash - sang HURT. Neither Phil nor I knew that song and we played hot potato, each wanting the other to play on it. I drew the short straw and ended up playing on the tune. Phil offered to hold my phone so I could read the chord changes. How often do you get one of the world's best guitarist to hold you phone so you can read the chords to a tune?

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Old 05-28-2018, 03:41 PM
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All this and Phil is an incredibly nice guy to work with. 815C, tell me about the mods to your G&L. I play an S-500 with the "all" switch.



Bob
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Old 05-28-2018, 03:53 PM
815C 815C is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
All this and Phil is an incredibly nice guy to work with. 815C, tell me about the mods to your G&L. I play an S-500 with the "all" switch.

Bob
Hey Bob, yes you are right - Phil is the kindest musician I've ever met.

In regards to my guitar, that's a 1998 Legacy Special I ordered new from the factory. I soon after replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan JB-4 humbucker and installed a mini-toggle switch to split the humbucker. Also installed another mini-toggle to turn on the neck pickup (no matter where the 5-way pickup selector was set. One of my tone knobs fell off and I haven't replaced it (just turn the shaft without a knob).

Here's a better shot of if from the same gig. Phil asked if he could play it on this tune as he really liked the tone (he'd been playing a Les Paul that night). I have to confess I was getting a killer tone that night, but I believe 90% of it was coming from the pedals I was using (Zen Drive --> Strymon Timeline --> Strymon BigSky)



These mods have served their purpose over the last 20 years, but I'm thinking about a total rework of the pickups/controls - and refretting with stainless steel frets.

Last edited by 815C; 05-28-2018 at 04:10 PM.
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