Phil Keaggy\u2019s career as a guitar icon comes in three distinct phases: instrumental electric guitar (see Jammed<\/i>!), instrumental acoustic guitar (see Beyond Nature<\/i> or The Wind and The Wheat<\/i>), and my personal favorite, vocal pop\/rock. Crimson and Blue<\/i> is the highlight, musically, lyrically and vocally of this third phase.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Keaggy and Myrrh released this disc in three separate formats, with Crimson and Blue<\/i> as the main piece. Blue<\/i>, marketed as \u201cthe rock\u201d version, and Revelator<\/i>, a collection of outtakes and extended jams of several of the tracks, are each worth having because of the different focus they bring, but grab up C&B<\/i> for the best.<\/p>\n
From the opening of \u201cShouts of Joy,\u201d which briefly echoes U2’s opening of \u201cZoo Station\u201d from Achtung Baby<\/i>, through the soft, delicate closer, an acoustic version of the classic hymn “Nothing But The Blood,” Keaggy is in top form. <\/p>\n
\u201cShouts of Joy\u201d is a call for the peace and brotherhood found in service to Jesus Christ: “The King of all the earth has made his message known \/ That we should offer Him ourselves and everything we own \/ We do this by the way \/ We live through everyday \/ So live each day in peace and joy.” <\/p>\n
Throughout, the guitars are clanging and the drums are driving and the song moves and rocks. Keaggy has some serious technique; especially considering the second finger of his right hand is cut off at the first knuckle (see back cover photo). But he plays with such skill that not only do you never notice his technique (unless you take time to analyze the tracks \u2013 which you should), but it never seems like grandstanding. As they say, \u201cit ain\u2019t bragging if you can do it\u201d \u2013 and man oh man can Keaggy do it.<\/p>\n
From \u201cShouts of Joy\u201d the disc moves into another highlight of this album, \u201cWorld of Mine.\u201d Keaggy begins the song talk\/singing about how everyone he meets wants to know what it\u2019s like to be him. But he barely knows himself, he\u2019s just an observer, pointing the way to Christ, helping others to see what he\u2019s seen and know what he\u2019s known, in lines like “Standing on the corner, watching as the world goes by \/ Sometimes I connect and sometimes I reflect and cry \/ To see myself in a wounded heart \/ And be of help if I can do my part \/ To be a flicker in this fallen dark world of mine.” <\/p>\n
Like many of his contemporaries, Keaggy sometimes wears his influences on his sleeve. The delightful \u201cLove Divine\u201d is 2:24 of 1965-era Beatles. On the next song, \u201cReunion of Friends,\u201d he moves up to the Sgt. Pepper<\/i> era, to great effect. But he never simply apes his influencers. He borrows and extrapolates, and adds his own unique spin on the sound. Even in his cover of Van Morrison\u2019s \u201cWhen Will I Ever Learn To Live In God,\u201d Keaggy breathes his own life into the song.<\/p>\n
Other highlights? Forget that reviewers trick, because I can\u2019t say that there is a track on here not worth hearing. Thirteen tracks, thirteen highlights, for thirteen different reasons. Let\u2019s do this instead:<\/p>\n
Highlights from Blue<\/i>, the \u201crock\u201d version of this classic: A cover of Badfinger\u2019s \u201cBaby Blue\u201d and a Keaggy original that doesn\u2019t appear on C&B<\/i>, \u201cAll Our Wishes,\u201d where he shares the heartbreak he and his wife Bernadette went through trying to conceive and carry a child to full term. <\/p>\n
Highlights from Revelator<\/i>, the extended jam EP version: (caveat: I am not fond of extended guitar jams) The shorter, radio-ready version of \u201cJohn, the Revelator\u201d and two shorter, untitled instrumental jams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":28790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7958],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40288","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-phil-keaggy","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40288"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}