Glass Harp at the Beachland Ballroom
in Cleveland, OH on March 23, 2003

-- by Joe Petelin

Nestled in an East Side Cleveland, workingclass neighborhood beteween the Collinwood Railyards just to the south and the Lake Erie Shore line just to the north, Glass Harp played to a sellout SRO crowd at the Beachland Ballroom on Waterloo Rd. A very intimate setting for the concert where every seat in the hall was in prime view of the power trio plus Chris Queen on the Keys. What a perfect setting for the fabulous show which included a mix of new songs to be released on an upcoming CD Hourglass, (which is about 90% complete) and many GH classics from the past.

It truly was a special evening to celebrate phenomenal lead guitarist Phil Keaggy's birthday and the band opened accordingly with an audience birthday sing-a-long to the honored one. Phil appeared to have an older and wiser look about him sporting the facial hair and no hat-hair. Phil was outstanding tonight and looked healthy and strong as he vibrantly played his heart out for the crowd who gave the band many standing ovations.

The following is a list of songs that were played this evening. Hopefully I got them all?......

1) Happy Birthday Phil (by the audience)
2) Sign Came Thru the Window
3) 7 in A Box
4) WeatherBoy
5) Village Queen
6) Children's Fantasy
7) You Whisper Something - dedicated to Gordon (Gabriel) from
Rochester & and co-written by Alicia's friend Jeremy
Exceptional harmonies on this 60ish sounding ala Roy
Orbinson/Bryds like ditty.
Excerpt: You hold the future in the palm of your hand, You
whisper something my heart will understand.
8) Changes
9) Trilogy : Awesome and Beautiful, harmonic and moving. Cool percussion John (stutter step) type beats How do you do this?

Intermission

Acoustic Set with John playing acoustic guitar, singing lead vocals, Phil, Dan and multi-talented Chris Queen on Drums:

1) I Love All Life, - Excerpt: Look what you've done to me, You are
. __ A mellow and joyous song.
2) Eastern Star Excerpt: I'm following an Eastern Star.....
3) Everlasting Light: a neat sing-a-long, clap-a-long style number.
4) Happy Birthday Jean Amey! Congratulations! Beatles "Birthday" led by Phil on Guitar.

Phil Keaggy Solos:

1) Shades of Green - a Keaggy Classic
2) George Harrison Here Comes the Sun - Just beautiful. The best version yet we've heard by Phil. Getting better all the ti-i-ime.
3) True Believer - Phil recieves one of his standing ovations after this one.

G.H. Returns to rejoin Phil for the rest of the evening.

1) Turn to the Light - a fast moving, driving, rocker. Dan Pecchio on lead vocals - excellent.
Excerpt: My God is Good, Turn to the Light.
2) From the Beginning - Chris Queen who has been excellent all evening on the keys does an outststanding solo. John who seemed to be smiling all night and thoroughly enjoying himself, does his usual tremendous, crisp, driving drum solo and then tops off his solo with an innovative, sound out mouth piece percussion stint. And Phil proceeds to join in on John's percussion act while the audience marvelled and chuckled with the beat.
3) Can you See Me? A broken string doesn't slow Phil down as Ted Karum switches off the Les Paul for the Fender for Phil to play and PK brings the crowd to a rousing cheer.

Phil determines he is somewhat spent for the evening.... Gee Phil I wonder why? but pleases the crowd by playing one more rocker - the classic John the Revelator.

4) John the Revelator - The finale - Phil has the Les Paul again and I'm hearing a bit of James Gang's Walk Away in one of Phil's licks....

While playing JTR - Phil invites a young 11 year old lad from Rochester sitting in the front row, to join him on stage for the final jam. Gabriel or (Gordon as Phil called him), confidently climbs up to the stage, gets geared up by Phil with the Fender Strat, and proceeds to treat the unexpecting crowd to a phenominal jam session accompanied by Phil and GH. What a surprise and what talent! The crowd at the Beachland was once again brought to their feet. Congratulations Gabriel!

Cathy and I had the pleasure of meeting Gabriel, his younger brother Matthew, and their mom Mary Jane while waiting in line at the front doors to the Beachland. Gabriel, Matthew and MJ had been waiting,(first in line) at the front doors to the Beachland since 3:30.

Gabriel is already working on original material. BRAVO to Gabriel and Best of Luck in the future. We hope our picture of you sitting at the front doors turn out so we can send them to you. Very nice meeting you Mary Jane.

Closing notes and I'll try to keep them brief.

Daniel Pecchio who was playing the bass with style and grace all night, (nice new hair style Dan), asked the concert goers how they liked the Beachland Hall and all gave a thumbs up and hurrah on this location. It would be great to hear another gig at this location guys! Come back to Cleveland soon.

Cathy and I thouroughly enjoyed this relatively smoke free concert hall setting (thanks to GH for that!). My family members, friends, co-workers all loved the show. It was great to see so many Special Friends: Neal Williams - Happy birthday on your upcoming special day! Mike Gerski and smiling daughter Katelyn. Hey Mike - Your daughter mentioned to Cathy at intermission that her heart was pounding through the whole first half of the show. Yeah Katelyn, I think everyone else's heart in the crowd was pounding too, while the guys played their music rejoicing in the Lord's Goodness.

We met Andy Luddy and his wife Mary for the first time and we are glad you could make it to the concert at such a great venue. We also met Mike and Kristina while waiting in line. Nice chatting with you (amazing how many nice people we meet waiting in line at these concerts!). Hi Potter Rick and wife Regina! Another great show eh? Congratulations again to Jean Amey on your birthday! Must have been a thrill to hear Phil and GH sing Birthday for you. Nice seeing your husband Bill and Bill Jr. Good Luck in school Bill Jr.. You'll do great with the Hospitallity Mgmt career.

Cathy and I saw Tom Wood who stood in line at the front doors waiting to get in right behind us and Tim Studecker all the way from Michigan. I waved to the Skons and I'm glad Cathy had a chance to talk with you. Nice to see Mike Brown with the TV camera, and the "A1 steak sauce guy" (Armand) who we see at all the concerts (He was in row A, seat 1 at the Agora) - his son was seeing GH for the first time at the Beachland. Missed you Robin - see ya next time and missed friends Roman, Julie, and Coleson. Also missed Val and
Marsha.

God bless you all.
Joe Petelin