2008 - Phantasmagorical: Master & Musician 2

3.5/5

Phantasmagorical is a followup to the spirt of 1978’s Master & Musician. Keaggy recorded, mixed and produced the album in his home studio. He graciously allowed Richard Dodd to master it. 

The album features a capable band that includes Keaggy’s long time collaborator, Tim Shinness, on bass, mandobass, percussion, piano,  tambura, bamboo whistle and zither. The band is rounded out by session drummer Michael Radovsky. The album also features appearances by Keaggy’s son, Ian (formerly of Hot Chelle Rae), session extraordinaire John Catchings on cello and jazz musician Sam Levine on flute and clarinet. 

Just to get this out of the way, yes, the name of the album is a pun. Keaggy can’t resist transforming words that start with the letter “p” into a “ph” in reference to his name. Some think this is cute, others don’t. The album also has the needless subtitle, “Master & Musician 2.” Okay, got through all of that. Onto the music! 

Phantasmagorical starts off with the dreamy “The Snow Before The Sun” before settling down into the reflective “Journey Home.” The track features Catchings on cello and feels like a worthy successor to Master and Musician. The band picks up the tempo for “Cascading,” which manages to be darker in tone before exploding at the end into brighter colors. The track moves the plot of the album along. Up next is a more reflective, jazzy number, “The Wind and the Beat.” The title is a reference to Keaggy’s 1987 album, The Wind And The Wheat. The song does have a more prominent beat. t’s a catchy segue that feels like they recored it for a chase scene. Up next is “Caffeinated Desert,” the album’s standout track for me. The song is a complex interplay between Shinness on piano and Keaggy on guitar.   

“Lazy K” heavily features Levine on clarinet playing off of Keaggy’s guitar tones. “Oh Boy,” is a showy jazz number that morphs into an eastern influenced jam. While incredible, it doesn’t fit well with the tone of rest of Phantasmagorical. The album settles back down into the coffee house, “Far East of Cleveland,” one of the few tracks that feels like filler. “In My Father’s Time,” is an out of nowhere dream pop track that somehow manages to fit. “Father and Son” features Ian and Keaggy exchanging acoustic guitar melodies. It’s a very warm and hopeful number. The album’s coda, “Forever To Joy,” aims to end the journey on an uplifting note. The flute veres a bit too much into grocery store shopping for my ear. 

Final thoughts. Phantasmagorical tries really hard and mostly succeeds. Keaggy’s become a much better producer by this end of phase two of his career. The album doesn’t feel dated the way of the original Master and Musician but It loses some of the delicateness and space of Keaggy’s first instrumental record. Shinness and Keaggy work really well together on this record and his passing is a huge loss for Keaggy.     

1-The Snow Before The Sun (Keaggy)

2-The Journey Home (Keaggy) 

3-Cascading (Keaggy)

4-The Wind And The Beat (Keaggy)

5-Caffeinated Desert (Keaggy) 

6-Lazy K (Keaggy)

7-Oh Boy (Keaggy)

8-Far East Of Cleveland (Keaggy & Shinness) 

9-Waltz Written (Keaggy & Shinness)  

10-In My Father's Time (Keaggy

11-Father And Son Written (Ian & Phil Keaggy)

12-Forever To Joy (Keaggy)

2020 - Precious Gems - Muriel Anderson, Phil Keaggy and Stanley Jordan

2/4

Precious Gems is a record assembled from bonus material from 2003’s uncut gems sessions. The first nine tracks are by all three guitarists, Muriel Anderson, Phil Keaggy and Stanley Jordan. Anderson is a fingerstyle and harp guitarists and Jordan is a jazz guitarist. They’re all three nationally recognized as top talent. Two of the first nine tracks were initially released on uncut gems; the two tracks that featured Jordan as a guest. The rest of the tracks on Precious Gems are the uncut gems tracks but listed here as “bonus.” Only one track from uncut gems is not included in Previous Gems, “The Fawn.” Clear enough? 

The new tracks on Previous Gems are about 25 minutes in length. The opener, “Sunrise,” is a warm, quiet piece that’s a bit sleepy until the bridge and everyone wakes up. It feels like a warmup or practice jam. The second track “Chippewah,” goes nowhere, slowly. “Window To The Truth,” is an interesting interpretation of “Do You Know What I know?” “The Gathering,” actually has presence and purpose; a faster track that mostly succeeds. “Snowfall” meanders around in space for a while then ends without notice. “Southern Journey,” has some nice parts. It’s a very loose track with some mistakes and odd directions. Not a song so much as an exploration.  

Unfortunately, Precious Gems adds little to the world that didn’t already exist on uncut gems and manages to short shrift uncut gems’ superior material by placing it towards the rear of the album. Anderson and Keaggy made the right call on these sessions originally. Uncut gems should have been rereleased as a deluxe edition with the additional tracks as bonus material. I suspect that Keaggy couldn’t pass up being able to list Jordan as a co-creator of the album so we end up with a disappointing representation of what were pretty good sessions.  

2003 - uncut gems - Muriel Anderson and Phil Keaggy

4/5

Uncut gems is a collaborative album by Muriel Anderson and Phil Keaggy performing in Keaggy’s studio. Anderson is a fingerstyle and harp guitarist mentored by Chet Atkins. Many of the tracks here are improvised. It’s not always clear who plays lead. I’m going to use the writing credits as a guide. 

The album starts off with Anderson’s “Where The Heart Is,” a peaceful song with a strong melody which is followed by Keaggy’s “Tennessee Morning.” An incredible version that feels a lot more at home here than on Keaggy’s rock album 220. “Corazon De Fuego,” is the album’s highlight. It first appeared on Keaggy’s Lights of Madrid album. The classical guitar piece starts off lively then settles down into a quiet plod that swells into a fast bridge and a complicated coda. At over nine minutes, the duo make their craft appear easy. Deceptively so. 

Uncut gems slows back down for Anderson’s jazzy “Owl Psalm.” It would be rerecorded for her 2005 album, Wildcat. “Osaka” comes next featuring percussion credited to both Anderson and Keaggy. The song ups the tempo and has more sonic depth than most of the tracks on the album. “Groove Thing” feels a bit out of place. Its a spacey jam with what I believe to be looped in percussion that doesn’t fit well. It builds decently but ends up more showy than good. Probably the weakest track on the album. The album ends with “Spontaneity,” a quiet piece that meanders peacefully before ending in a surprise swell and laughter. 

Uncut gems is an amazing little album worth tracking down. Muriel Anderson released uncut gems as a limited release in 2003. Keaggy would put 7 of the 8 tracks onto Precious Gems in 2020.

2020 - Brothers & Friends

4/5

Brothers and Friends is an album Phil Keaggy released on his Bandcamp site in 2020. According to Keaggy’s notes on the site, he and the late Tom Shinness recored the album between 2002 - 2008. Keaggy assembled the album from songs they wrote together, jam sessions and a live takes. It’s intended to raise funds to help cover Shinness’ hospital bills.

Shinness and Keaggy had taken the Master and Musician on tour for the album’s 30th anniversary and worked together on Keaggy’s Phantasmagorical: Master & Musician 2. In fact, three of the songs on Brothers and Friends were first used on Phantasmagorical, “Waltz,” “Caffeinated Dessert,” and “Far East of Cleveland.” Shinness is a multi-instrumentalist and fills the record with piano, cello, mandolin, bass, percussion, guitar, flute, zithers and probably more. Keaggy lays down mostly electric and acoustic guitars and the occasional bass. He also often employs loopers. For instrumental purists, a warning that two of the 12 tracks have vocals. There is also a little bit of chatter on the live track. 

The album starts off with “The Ark,” a beautiful number that sounds like it could have been on Keaggy’s Master and Musician. Next is “Beautiful Collapse,” a piece recorded by Keaggy, Shinness and Jason Truby (formerly of P.O.D.). On this version, Shinness’ daughter sings very nice, haunting, vocals. “Caffeinated Dessert,” Is a super fun track that shows off how well Shinness and Keaggy play together. Up next is the fun “Mando & Guitar Improv.” The track led by Shinness on the mandolin and its incredible. Hard to believe this is an improvised track. 

“BCC Soundcheck,” ups the tempo for the bridge of the album. The track is a Shinness and Keaggy showing off on guitars with loopers and improvising. There’s a bit of laughter on the track as they enjoy themselves. “Guitar and Bass Improv,” is a an almost ten minute track of two masters. It’s actually an intricate piece that has lot of openness and space. A real treat. “Old Friends,” first appeared on Keaggy’s Music to Paint By: Still Life. Hearing the track out of context on the Still Life album made me appreciate it more. The album ends with a Keaggy vocal track from 2006’s Dream Again album that features Shinness. 

The album’s a bit hodgepodge but It has some amazing new tracks on it that deserve attention.  

2001 - In the Quiet Hours

2/5

Another collection of songs form the Music to Paint By series with a couple of extra tracks thrown in. It includes some of the better songs from the series including, “The Blue Planet,” “Waterfall,” and “The Black Forest.” Keaggy adds the decent new acoustic number, “As It Is In Heaven,” which can be found on the Bandcamp rerelease of Music to Paint By: Brushstrokes.  

2001 - Cinemascapes

1/5

A collection of sad sacks from the Music to Paint By series with some lackluster new material. Even though Word records released the album, Allmusic Guide didn’t review it which is usually a bad sign. Cinemascapes is spacey dribble that manages to leave out almost all of the standout tracks from the original collection. Only “A Mother’s Son,” is worth the ticket here. The disc contains three new tracks including a decent slow blues number, “The Road Home.” Once again, however, a decent track is almost ruined by a drum machine. The aforementioned song and the new “For the Love,” appear as bonus tracks on the Bandcamp rerelease of Music to Paint By: Electric Blue. The additional new song, “Lighthouse,” is added as a bonus track to the Bandcamp rerelease of Music to Paint By: Splash.  

1999 - Music to Paint By: Electric Blue

1/5 

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.

Electric Blue is the weakest record of the series. A jazz rock, blues record that’s too derivative and cheesy. Keaggy used a midi to sample horns and strings on the record to ill effect. The album is also filled with bad percussion and the elements aren’t mixed together very well. “Paintin’ the Town,” is a slow blues number that feels ripped from an 80s Noir revival crime drama. “Acadenia” is the standout track. The second half of the record falls back into jazz fusion and smooth jazz. Electric Blue is just cringy. Tied with Splash for Keaggy’s worst Allmusic Guide review at 1.5/5.  

Keaggy rereleased Electric Blue on his Bandcamp with a couple of bonus tracks in 2019. 

1987 - The Wind And The Wheat

2/5

It’s not clear why Keaggy waited nine years to release his second instrumental record.. The gap would turn out to be the longest in his career. This album is my least favorite of his major label releases. Recorded in the mid 80s, it sounds like soundtrack work from popular movies and TV shows of the time. A lot of smooth jazz guitar here.

Side B holds up better than A with slower more acoustic pieces. The standout track on this album is the acoustic masterwork “The Reunion,” with its slow build to an incredible jam.  Keaggy released a remastered version of the album to Bandcamp in 2018. 

1978 - Master and Musician

3.5/5  

Keaggy’s first instrumental record. Not his best work but not a bad place to start. On the 1989 rerelease, Allmusic Guide gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and called it “groundbreaking.” Master and Musician brought Keaggy to the attention of many in the larger secular world. 

On Master and Musician, Keaggy mixes acoustic and electric guitars with surprising ease. Some of the guitar tones are “70s” sounding but the album holds up pretty well. There are some very delicate tracks here but the album’s never boring. The production allows the songs to breathe without needless tweaks or overly present percussion. There is some keyboard work on the record but it never overwhelms. 

Master and Musician is a bit of an A side/B side record. The A side being stronger. “Pilgrim’s Flight,” and “Suite-Of Reflections,” are some of the best.“Mouthpeice,” the opener on the B side, never should have made the cut. The next track “Follow Me Up,” feels cut from a 70s car chase. The record then gets back onto its timeless track. Perhaps sensing the weakness of side B, when Keaggy rereleased the record on CD in 1989, he added a new coda to the album, “Epilog/Amazing Grace.” A great track, it rebalances the quality of the album.

A wistful, emotional record worth the effort to track down. Keaggy released a double disc 30th anniversary deluxe edition in 2008. The bonus disc includes outtakes, commentary and alternate versions. He even took the album back out onto the road and made a live DVD.