Phil Keaggy
 

For a guy with about 50 albums to his credit, he doesn´t get mentioned much on MB, so as a service to our community here´s a beginners´ guide to Phil Keaggy:-

> alive, American, plays the guitar.

> equally impressive on elec or acoustic.

> founder member of Glass Harp, who performed some pioneering rock jams in the seventies

> likes to mention Jesus in almost every lyric he writes

> is surrounded by rumours that this conversation once took place:
............................Interviewer: So, Jimi/Eric/Eddie, what does it feel like to be the world´s greatest living guitarist ?
.....Hendrix/Clapton/van Hallen: I don´t know. You´ll have to ask Phil Keaggy.

> his best selling album, The Master and the Musician, goes something like this:-



> yes, he is missing half a finger

> at the other extreme of his repertoire, he can play like this too :-

Amazing picker. Needs to STFU about Jesus.

^:rofl: Didn´t have the courage to say it, but in summary that´s my opinion too !

He's not mentioned because of his faith. No matter how good you are at something, if you're a Christian, you get panned. That's now, of course. In the past it was a different matter.

Fixed.

Phil makes me want to burn my guitars. He's so damn good.

^ Yes, mordwyr, I wondered about that too; how much his overt Christianity was working to his detriment.

I imagine that in some arts, Christianity is ok, but somehow it doesn´t sit well with rock and blues. Well, they were famously described as the Devil´s music, weren´t they? And although we may not want to hear lyrics direct from the Devil himself, rock is the music of rebellion, so we want some kind of subversive attitude and preferably a stage presence of strutting priapic menace. Poor old Phil K lets us down on both counts.

^ HaHa ! He´s a great player, and he´s got all these tricks, like the volumen knob twirl and the slapping of the body and strings which adds variety and interest to his playing. Didn´t know you played guitar yourself, Chula; have you tried that kind of stuff - or bought yourself an Ebow:-

People complaining that he needs to STFU about Jesus is bullshit. (1) No one tells other artists who sing about a particular topic--like love--to STFU. (2) He may sing about whatever the fuck he wants to.

^ Of course, STFU is an unneccesarily blunt way of putting things, but the same could be said about your own comment, I would´ve thought mordwyr.
In answer to your other points:-

I´m under the impression that we do that here quite often. Isn´t this thread a polite way of saying just that :- http://www.musicbanter.com/general-m...ove-songs.html On this forum, I´m always banging on about guitarists who sing too much. Rather like the fan who shouted "Shut up and play your guitar" during a Zappa concert, I´ve grumbled about the vocals of such venerable guitarists as Hendrix, Gallagher, SRV, Buchanan, Clapton and many others.
Absolutely! I don´t think anyone would deny that, but once you´re out there in the public domain your material becomes a legitimate target for criticism, doesn´t it?

Absolutely. One may criticize all he wants, but I still call bullshit on criticizing one artist for certain beliefs but not criticizing others for other beliefs simply because one happens to believe in the beliefs of the latter. The music should be taken for what it is, not criticized through the agendas of listeners that have nothing to do with music. If it's good, it's good, regardless of religion.

Bull****. Jesus is a HUGE agenda. You wanna wear that t-shirt you better be ready to deal with the blow back.