Wow it’s been almost two months! It took me a long time to figure out what to write about next,
but I finally got it!
So the poll for music ended in a tie between Folk and Oldies
(Speaking of, how did I come up with that genre? that could literally mean
everything before 2000…)
Anyway, I decided to go with an artist who blends a bit of
both, hopefully he’s someone you’ll know!
I’ll give you a few hints…
He’s a guitarist.
And a Christian.
And he’s considered the greatest Christian guitarist of all
time.
You know him, right? A music blog couldn’t be complete
without him.
His name is Phil Keaggy, and he is truly an incredibly
gifted musician.
I don’t really know how to categorize his music, somewhere
around folk-jazz-funk-rock-middle-eastern-mountain music…just amazing and
beautiful. It was difficult trying to choose a song, but I eventually settled
on “Shades Of Green” because, well, listen for yourself…the creativity and
diversity of it is simply brilliant!
This is a song you could easily get lost with because it’s
so easy to listen to. The intro is an improvised acoustic solo with that
mountain echo sound, something you’d expect to be background music for an introspective
movie scene. You get that feeling that you’re floating in the clouds, or on a
steady ocean wave…
And suddenly our feet start dancing a jig! Of which…we can’t…really…stop…
But then the music
does?
Wait—nope it’s starting a new movement. A jazzy little cadence
opens to a couple maracas which join to create the foundation of a very
contagious rhythm—and there’s that dancing guitar again!
Now there are a trio of sounds weaving a strong rhythm-based
melody in the echo. Or maybe four?
Every sound and string overlaps each other in a way that’s hard
to keep track of, but Keaggy’s playing all of them. Very impressive. His
creativity in this piece seems to have passed all boundaries! Not only that,
but his use of syncopation and ability to counterpoint existing melodies amaze
me.
The music slowly fades…and fades…
And fades…
And then—what is that?! What is that sound?! Did he just put
guitar strings on a steel drum?
Okay there must be some kind of other percussion going on
here…this is way too complicated! Is the music laughing at us? It seems you can
almost hear Keaggy laughing because he was having so much fun with this! The
music just wants to go on dancing forever, and it wants to take us with it!
Now the music begins to rest…for real.
The mountainous echo returns to enfold a relaxed, rather lonely
guitar outro, as the melody fades.
Such a fun piece, don’t you agree?
