2/5
Music to Paint By is a four disc set of albums. Each album has its own subtitle: Splash, Brushstrokes, Electric Blue and Still Life. Distributed by an imprint of Christian label Word, the albums are recorded, engineered and produced by Keaggy and he really needed someone else to be more involved. There is perhaps an album’s worth of good material that deserves salvaging. Word records would later reduce the set down into 2 CDs of material (with bonus tracks) as 2001’s Cinemascapes and In the Quiet Hours.
Brushstrokes is an oddity in the Keaggy cannon, an acoustic record that never connects. There are some decent tracks. “The Muse,” and “The Black Forest,” are both delicate acoustic numbers that could have been saved for a better record. “Watercolours,” is the standout piece of the album. It has a nice quiet melody that never loses its way. “Orange Yellow and Red” has some nice parts but at eight minutes long it never figures out what it wants to do.
Keaggy rereleased Brushstrokes on his Bandcamp with a bonus track in 2019.