Phil Keaggy - Town to Town

Town to Town was the first Phil Keaggy album I bought brand new when it came out. My first introduction to Phil was on the triple live album How the West was One with 2nd Chapter of Acts. It was a gift along with a few other Christian records I got from a girl at a youth conference. Apparently she had been gifted them and she didn't want them. Her loss, my gain. Although there were some clunkers in the pile I've since forgotten about and lost, it was that live album that blew my mind. "What a Day" and the casual chord progression Phil pulls of still bends my brain. Phil was (is) a jaw dropping player, and I still find it odd that he resonated so much with me as he wasn't really a rock and roll guy - he was a mostly soft rock guy who played a mean guitar.

When Town to Town dropped it featured a lot of truly jaw dropping guitar work that accompanied by his sweet almost McCartney like vocals. The songs were at times deeply spiritual but there was something about his delivery that didn't seem overly heavy ham fisted. I still get a goosebumps when I hear him sing "Let Everything Else Go" and his rocked up version of "Rise Up O Men of God" is awesome.

It's the songs though that are so good. The early '80s was still a sort of free for all in terms of quality in the Christian music realm. You got the good, the ugly and the horrifyingly bad that wasn't just brutal to listen to, the theology was often questionable, but was unassailable because the artists in question weren't artists, they were using music as ministry. Therefore much like the golden tablets Joseph Smith received with the words all nicely written out, these songs were as equally divinely inspired and to question the message was to question god (little g there baby). As you can tell I'm veering wildly off topic, but the age old question of art versus ministry and where is the intersecting line for Christian artists remains a hard question to answer for a lot of people.

For me it's always been a little simpler - mainly because I'm not a deep thinker, and simple is more betterer. It's music by Christians, expressing their faith as it pertains to them and their journey. In short an artist who happens to be Christian. Of course it's not always so black and white. For me though, it's about the music and the song. Shit is shit whether it comes from a saint or a sinner. Getting back on topic, Town to Town was a fantastic sounding album and the players were all top shelf and this was about the artistry required to service the song and the message. It was a beautifully balanced album.

The album's opener "Wished You Were There" was one of those songs that took a while to grow on me when I first got the album. It was, and is still a sort of the odd duck on the album but it's a wonderful song that documents The Glass Harp reunion concerts in Cleveland in the spring of 1981. The other song that I really like that's more autobiographical is the title track "Town to Town" that speaks to a life on the road and the accompanying loneliness. It's one of my favourite songs on the album along with the aforementioned "Let Everything Else Go" that seems to channel elements of Christopher Cross' "Sailing" without becoming maudlin.

I would continue to buy Phil's records as they came out and he would be consistently good, the albums would resonate with me a little less each time. It doesn't diminish the love I have for Town to Town, and when I found the record again after over forty years it was like catching up with a long lost friend.