RE: Phil Keaggy

[Hans Lindauer <hans@ernieball.com>]

Hans, could you please post the following to the list, RE: Phil Keaggy
(I'm getting posts forwarded here, but can't post from this address).

I'm sure that Phil's techniques are fascinating to loopers, and are
suitable for freaking, but I would humbly submit that the thing about
Phil is that he is quite simply, one of the most musical beings ever to
be born of woman.  In my book, easily the equal of either Bach or Mozart
(not a 'lesser' version).

Whether doing one of his solo gigs with the JamMan, or playing his Les
Paul with a band, he is equally freaking to me.  Others have equally
sophisticated (and way 'beyond') looping technique and gear, not to
mention chops, but I'll repeat myself and say that very few musicians
have ever moved me as Phil has.

A couple of anecdotes:  don't know if any are true, but...

1)  Supposedly Hendrix was being interviewed by either Johnny Carson or
Dick Cavett, and responded to a question about his own 'status' by
saying something to the effect of, "I'm not the greatest - Phil Keaggy
is".

2)  An old friend of mine, who grew up a few doors down from Phil in
Youngstown, OH, once told me that Phil, being self-taught, went to a
local teacher who turned him away, saying she couldn't teach him
anything.  Maybe I'm combining two different stories here, but it may
have been for her that he was said to have played Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band, the album, from memory, after hearing it for the first
time...

And he does all this without a full set of fingers, btw.

And then there's that voice...never have I witnessed such beautiful,
joyous music making.

I wish it were captured more on his recordings though.  Check out the
cds 'Blue' (the 'secular' version of Crimson and Blue), or his very
first solo album, 'What A Day'.

What a guy!

Tom Heasley