Phil Keaggy (and band)
Landmark Baptist Temple
Cincinnati, OH
Februrary 8th, 2008

The Master & The Musician: 30 Years Later - Opening Night Pt. 1

The show opened with several minutes of very soft and beautiful warbling from Ms. Lautenbach's flute accompanied by just an occasional chord from her brother's keyboard. A very unique and atmospheric way for a Phil show to begin, but then this was of course a very unique event. The full band opened with a nice version of 'Thank you for Today', then followed that an excellent rendering of 'Love Broke Through' which I'm sure no one ever tires of hearing.

Next was something I haven't heard Phil play in many years, 'Noah's Song', and the band really nailed it. I especially enjoyed the flute work, and Tom Shiness' cello as well. This truly is an awesome collection of musicians Phil has assembled, including our very own monk, Ric Hordinski. He took center stage himself next to perform one of his songs, which I'll call 'Only Your Soul That's Crying Out'. Excellent song brother, great guitar playing and the interplay with Mr. Sferra really rocked. It fit perfectly into the entire set.

Phil came back to play one my all-time favorites, 'Let Everything Else Go', which I don't think I've heard with a band in close to 30 years. More great flute here, and obviously Phil's playing and singing couldn't be better.

Tom Shiness introduced us to his harp guitar next, a nearly one-hundred year old Gibson model that still looks and sounds amazing. That man can play anything with strings it seems, and he had the audience enthralled with with his command of his instrument. Phil complimented him with 'pretty good for 10 fingers'!

The band continued with a brand new song from the forthcoming release Phantasmagorical, called 'Forever to Joy', which I predict is destined to become another phan phavorite. A beautiful instrumental that once again allowed the whole band to shine. They were collecting names and email addresses for Phil's mailing list by offering a free MP3 of this song to those on the list.

Our old buddy John Sferra stepped out from behind his drums to play guitar and sing his 'Eastern Star' from Glass Harp's Hourglass CD. Phil added his own guitar touches of course. Phil grabbed his old buddy, the Olson, to do a solo version of 'Salvation Army Band' next, but the minor sound and technical issues that were evident during the whole set seemed to finally take their toll, leading to the shortest version of SAB ever heard. Oh well, we've all heard that one a thousand times anyway.

Phil closed the opening set with a solo version of 'Beyond The Screen', the vocal version of 'Golden Halls' from M&M. He spoke of his long term association with Compassion International, how fulfilling and gratifying it has been. Behind him on the large screen were images of the kinds of children around the world that Compassion exists to help. The song was an introduction for Melissa Lautenbach to talk to the crowd before the break about the cause and to encourage us to consider sponsorship. Well my Saturday is getting away from me so I must close for now. I promise to come back soon with my review of the actual M&M set, if you're interested, which not surprisingly was incredible. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Phil and the gang for another wonderful evening of music!

To those of you who will be unable to attend this tour, you have my pity.

Go to part 2

Page Last Updated: Feb 17th, 2008