Ok fellow CRM'ers - here is the deal.  My vocation is a CRM consultant, my avocation is a musician.  I play piano, guitar, and sing for my local church. I have been doing it for many years and it takes up most of my free time.  So I am constantly working on new music, listening to new bands, attending worship conferences, writing music, practicing, and teaching others the "how to" issues with playing piano in a modern church setting.  With that said, I want to share my love of music with others.  So you, my dear reader, are now going to be exposed to this passion of mine.  I see that many of my fellow computer geeks are also musicians. So please indulge me.

To start us off, I thought that I would mention 2 weeks ago when I attended a concert with Phil Keaggy. Phil Keaggy (born March 23, 1951 in Youngstown, Ohio) is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 50 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. He is a seven-time recipient of the GMA Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, and was twice nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album. He is frequently listed as one of the top fingerstyle guitarists by Guitar Player Magazine readers' polls.

Anyhow, I took my son, Jacob, and my brother-in-law, Henry.  We sat right behind the sound guy so sonically the audio was exquisite. On stage were approximately 20 guitars, they definitely needed a guitar tech on this tour.   With this group he recreated his instrumental masterpiece called Master and Musician.   Rock, Jazz, folk and Celtic influences melted together to a watershed album released in 1978.  What was so ground-breaking about that album was the idea that you could use music alone as a vehicle to relay the Christian message.  Because after all there are no lyrics, no preaching, just a musical journey.  Nothing had been done like that before in modern music.  Well, the album was great then, and it was accurately recreated during this concert.   

The evening featured Keaggy joined by John Sferra on drums, Brian Lautenbach on keyboards, Rick Hordinski and Tom Shinness on guitars, Joe Jimenez on bass and Melissa Lautenbach on flute. The concert opened with the  Lautenbachs playing flute and keys.  From the beginning you knew you going to go on a musical journey.  She painted an ethereal sonic canvas, in a non-melodic tone poem.  Next Tom Shinness played his Harp Guitar. You can see him here playing.   One thing you couldn't avoid was the obvious influence Keaggy had on Tom's style.

They did every one of the songs from the album, weaving in all the little nuances, and riffs that are signature to Keaggy's albums. At one time during the show there were 5 guitars being played.  Again, couldn't help but wonder that anyone on stage with Keaggy that hadn't spent hours as a teenager trying to figure out the riffs, and now to be able to play with their musical master.   It was a very detailed performance. Although the evening was not without some missed queues on stage, this was their second gig on the tour, so that is forgivable.   One thing that I wished they would have done though is to have used some creative staging and lighting.  Calvin College Field House has a great video system and they could have really used the lighting and the background to reinforced the musical moods that were created.  Additionally, I wish he would stay on topic with this music.  Phil has such a personal style that he can tend to be chatty between the songs, which works some times, but here it kind of spoiled the mood he is working so hard to create musically.

I will not give you a run down of each song.  You can get that from Dr. Bob J. Keeley's blog. http://drbobk.blogspot.com/2008/02/phil-keaggy-master-and-musician-tour-at.html  But If you want to get a flavor of the music style, youtube.com has a ton of his performances.  This is one of the songs they played. 

Overall a great night of excellent music and it was good to finally see Phil play with live musicians in Grand Rapids.  He plays so well "in the pocket" when other musicians are around him. Keep up the great work Phil! 

Pierre is currently rockin' to " Del's Bells" By: Phil Keaggy - on the  Acoustic Sketches album.