Америкалық гитаршы және әнші Филип Кигги

American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist

Philip Tyler Keaggy (born March 23, 1951) is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 55 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. He is a seven time recipient of the GMA Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, and was twice nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album. He has frequently been listed as one of the world's top two "finger style" and "finger picking" guitarists by Guitar Player Magazine readers' polls, and due to his complex and virtuosic playing, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

Keaggy was raised Catholic in a small farmhouse in Hubbard, Ohio, with nine brothers and sisters. He went to high school at Austintown Fitch High School in Austintown, Ohio graduating in 1970. He is missing half of the middle finger on his right hand due to an accident at age four involving a water pump. Keaggy reflects on the incident:

We lived on a farm in Hubbard, Ohio which had a big water pump, and I was climbing up on it. As I was kneeling on top of the platform, it broke and the faucets came crashing down on my finger and cut it off. I can remember it very vividly—as if it happened yesterday, and I can see my dad running down the hill, rescuing me, and taking me to the hospital. I can recall having a white cast and bandage; it was gigantic! They tried to sew it on, but it didn't take, so I grew up with nine fingers. As a young kid, I was embarrassed about it a lot, especially when I was beginning to get into guitar. Initially, it was not the guitar that attracted Keaggy to playing music. "I asked my dad for a set of drums for my tenth birthday but he came home with a Sears Silvertone guitar."

Keaggy was a member of a mid 1960s garage rock band called the Squires; one of their songs ("Batmobile"), which he co wrote, appears on the compilation album Highs in the Mid Sixties, Volume 9. In 1966 he joined Volume IV, which in 1967 became New Hudson Exit. The band appeared frequently in Youngstown clubs and also released a Keaggy composition, "Come With Me", as a single on the Date label. At one point, New Hudson Exit had considered Joe Walsh as its lead guitarist. Walsh later established himself as the guitarist for The James Gang before embarking on a solo career and work with the Eagles. In 1968, Keaggy and longtime friend drummer John Sferra, along with bassist Steve Markulin, formed the band Glass Harp. The band gigged in and around the Youngstown, Ohio area and found work at school dances and clubs. The incarnation of the band recorded several demos, and released the single "Where Did My World Come From?" on the United Audio label in 1969. Markulin left the group to join his cousin Joe in another successful Youngstown band, The Human Beinz. Keaggy and Sferra then recruited bass player Daniel Pecchio. Pecchio, formerly of the band The Poppy, was also a flute player, a talent which later was showcased on several Glass Harp's songs. After recording a new set of demos and signing with new management, the band set out to polish their live act and shop for a recording deal. A major turning point for the trio was their winning of an Ohio area's "Battle of the Bands", One of the event's judges happened to be an associate of producer Lewis Merenstein, whom he alerted to the threesome. Merenstein was persuaded to fly down from New York to listen to the band in concert. Upon hearing Glass Harp perform, Merenstein's enthusiastic report resulted in Decca Records signing Glass Harp to a multi record deal.

Keaggy followed Sunday's Child in 1990 with an all out rock album Find Me in These Fields. The project was produced by Lynn Nichols and received a Grammy award nomination. In 1992, Keaggy released what has become a landmark acoustic instrumental album, Beyond Nature. His third instrumental project reflected a Celtic influence and earned the guitarist his second Dove Award in the "Instrumental Record" category. The album's title, Beyond Nature, was derived from a quote in C. S. Lewis' book Mere Christianity. A long time fan of Lewis' work, Keaggy also referenced the author in several song titles ("Brother Jack", "Addison's Walk" and "County Down"). In 1993, Keaggy worked with a group of talented musicians on a project. The recording sessions reunited Keaggy with former Glass Harp bandmate John Sferra on drums. Keaggy said, "I started Crimson & Blue with a two fold purpose: To record something more aggressive and to work with John again. We recorded all the basic tracks together and most of the leads were recorded live. It's just your basic four piece group." The band that toured in support of the album featured Madeira on Hammond B 3 organ, Sferra on drums, and Wade Jaynes (of Chagall Guevara) on bass. In June 1994, Keaggy released a heavily revised version of his 1986 album Way Back Home. The 1994 edition featured new recordings of ten of the original album's eleven songs, including the moving classics "Maker of the Universe" and "Let Everything Else Go". The updated version also included four brand new tracks: "It Could Have Been Me". "She's a Dancer", "Father Daughter Harmony", and "The 50th". Keeping with the album's family motif, "Father Daughter Harmony" was a moving duet with daughter Alicia while "The 50th" features Keaggy's guitar playing over excerpts from a vinyl record of his grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary in 1948. In 1995, Time: 1970 1995., a two volume compilation project was released. The anthology has selections from throughout Keaggy's career, including several classic instrumentals. Several unreleased tracks are featured, including a live version of "Do Lord" with Glass Harp, a live version of "Shouts of Joy" from the Crimson and Blue tour, and "We'll Meet Again", a song he wrote and recorded as a teenager. An alternate version of "Time" was also included as was a new solo recording of the Glass Harp song "The Answer". Also in 1995, he was voted by Guitar Player Magazine readers as the No. 2 Best Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitarist. That same year, Keaggy released what has become one of his best selling albums, True Believer. The title track was written by producer Alan Shacklock and reached number one on the Christian radio charts. It won Shacklock the EMI Songwriter of the Year award. Shacklock's production work on the album was a departure in style and sound for Keaggy. It proved to be Keaggy's lone work with Shacklock. Years later, in reflecting on the album, Keaggy said that True Believer "is really the most unlike me of any album I've ever done, in my personal opinion. It was more of a manufactured concept: "We're gonna make a pop album for you that's going to launch you into the next ten years". I don't know if it did. It's an unusual album to listen to for me, but there are a couple of good songs on there, though." On the Fly was also released in 1997, arguably his most ambitious instrumental project to date. Released through Canis Major Records, highlights are Spanish flavored "Praise Dance", the hypnotic groove "Firewalker", and the six part epic, "Way of the Pilgrim". Also in 1997, he teamed up with Wes King and Out of the Grey's Scott Dente for the mostly instrumental album Invention. The album would win a Dove Award the following year. Keaggy would then go on to sign with Word Records. Phil Keaggy, Keaggy's last vocal album of the decade came out in 1998. Lacking the slick production style of the previous vocal album, True Believer, Phil Keaggy was a strong return to form for Keaggy in terms of recapturing his usual organic, live sound. Several songs reflected a Beatles influence, including "Days Like You", his last single to receive considerable airplay as Christian radio seemed to move towards a more youth oriented format. He also appeared as a guest singer on the Ragamuffins' "All the Way to Kingdom Come", on his friend Rich Mullins' last original work, The Jesus Record (which contained demo tracks recorded by Mullins just before his 1997 death, and renditions of those songs by the Ragamuffins and other artists). In 1999 there was a flurry of Keaggy instrumental releases. The double album Premium Jams is a stunning collection of previously unreleased electric instrumentals dating back to the recording sessions for Crimson and Blue and 220. Majesty and Wonder, a Christmas album featuring the London Festival Orchestra, includes Keaggy's take on standards such as "Oh Holy Night" as well as a three part original, "Nativity Suite". Majesty and Wonder garnered him a Dove Award. He later released the four disc collection Music to Paint By. The project was composed of Still Life, Electric Blue, Splash, and Brushstrokes.

Re Emerging, Keaggy's first album of the new millennium, came out in April 2000. Describing the concept of the project, Keaggy says, "I've always loved hymns. They're great melodies that still stand on their own, and are still sung, even after centuries have passed those melodies are even more appreciated when you know the lyrics. The writers of the hymns were great wordsmiths; they could be so concise and so eloquent in their expression of truth theirs is music that speaks to every generation". Yet Keaggy's label at the time, Word Records, did not share his vision for the project and asked for it to be an instrumental album. Keaggy said, "It's the oddest thing to me, hymns should be really sung. I had a conflict with it because, here I am, I can sing, and yet they didn't want me to sing I offered I went to management about it and it was pretty much, "No, don't do that. That's not want they want." Phil Keaggy and guitarist Mike Pachelli released an acoustic instrumental project titled Two of Us. Also in 2006 Phil released a vocal album, Dream Again. It includes his son Ian, who co wrote, sings and plays guitar on "Why" while his daughter Alicia sings a duet with her father on "Micah 6:8". He also released Acoustic Cafe, an album, that with the exception of "You Have My Heart", is a collection of covers ranging from Bob Dylan ("If Not For You", "Make You Feel My Love") to Cyndi Lauper ("Time After Time"). Many of the songs are duets, such as the Beatles' "In My Life" with Randy Stonehill and the Everly Brothers "All I Have to Do is Dream" with Jeremy Casella. Later that year Keaggy released another acoustic instrumental album: The Song Within. Recorded using a McPherson acoustic guitar, the album revamped two Keaggy classics, with "What a Day" being transformed as "Water Day" and "Noah's Song" undergoing significant revision as "Noah's Shuffle". 2007 also marked the 30th anniversary of the landmark instrumental album, 1978's The Master and the Musician. The album was re released with a bonus disc of outtakes, alternate versions and a recent interview. Keaggy also toured in support of the album's anniversary with a band that featured Glass Harp drummer John Sferra. The tour was chronicled on the subsequent live DVD: The Master & the Musician: 30 Years Later Tour. The next year Keaggy released the album Phantasmagorical: Master and Musician 2, the sequel to his 1978 masterpiece. In 2008, Keaggy received the Gold Level Award as the "Best Spiritual / Worship Guitarist", as voted by readers of Acoustic Guitar Magazine, as well as appearing in the form of vocals and lead guitar on the Richard Cummins CD, Moments, which was nominated for "Best Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year" by the Canadian GMA's, Covenant award. In June 2009, Keaggy and Randy Stonehill released a new studio album titled Mystery Highway. In support of the album, the two musicians, along with guitarist Mike Pachelli and Glass Harp's Daniel Pecchio and John Sferra, played several concerts as "The Keaggy Stonehill Band". The year also saw Keaggy contribute a soaring re recorded version of "Passport" on the album CPR 3; a compilation of musicians from the Christian Progressive Rock (CPR) scene. The original version of "Passport" appeared on Keaggy's 1985 album Getting Closer. In October Keaggy released an instrumental album with pianist Jeff Johnson titled Frio Suite. December saw the release of the guitarist's third Christmas album, Welcome Inn. Featuring mostly original compositions such as the title track, Welcome Inn also includes the classic "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and an acoustic instrumental version of "In the Bleak Midwinter". The project also includes a new recording of "On that Day", a song co written with Glass Harp drummer John Sferra for Keaggy's True Believer album in 1995. On March 27, 2010, Glass Harp released their fourth live album: Glass Harp Live at the Beachland Ballroom 11.01.08. The ten song project included material from Phil's solo career: "Sign Came through a Window" and "John the Revelator". The album is a recording of a benefit concert that Glass Harp headlined for Roots of American Music (www. rootsofamericanmusic. org), "an organization dedicated to the preservation, performance and education about traditional American music in our schools." Also in late 2010, Keaggy did some session work with former Monkees member Micky Dolenz for Dolenz's solo album King for a Day. In addition to recording and touring regularly, Keaggy is currently working on a record with former Living Sacrifice and P. O. D. guitarist Jason Truby.

For decades rumors have circulated which say many guitar icons have made comments regarding Phil Keaggy. The most common rumored statements are attributed to Jimi Hendrix. On March 19, 1970, an advertisement appeared in the Mansfield News Journal for an Iron Butterfly Concert at Ashland College the next evening, with Glass Harp listed as the opening band (erroneously printed as "The Grass Harp"). Underneath "The Grass Harp", a caption read "They Jam with Jimi Hendrix". Glass Harp had not appeared anywhere with Jimi Hendrix (they were at the time still a local band to Northeast Ohio with little or no following nationally). It is not known whether or not the promoter or Glass Harp's management at the time had the phrase put in the advertisement, but it is believed to be the first instance of any rumor regarding Hendrix in relation to Keaggy/Glass Harp. In a February 5, 1971, feature on Glass Harp in Cleveland's The Plain Dealer, the paper's rock music critic Jane Scott cited unnamed "record people" who recounted a story of Hendrix saying (in 1970) "That guy (Phil Keaggy) is the upcoming guitar player in the Midwest". In later years, rumors became stories of Hendrix appearing on various television programs where he mentioned Phil Keaggy. A common variation says that during an episode of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson asked Hendrix, "Who is the best guitarist in the world?" Hendrix is said to have answered, "Phil Keaggy." Since then it has been proven to be untrue, as evidenced by the available audio from Hendrix's (only) appearance on The Tonight Show on July 10, 1969, with guest host Flip Wilson. No mention of Keaggy or Glass Harp is made. Another version has Hendrix being asked, "Jimi, how does it feel to be the world's greatest guitar player?" Hendrix supposedly replied, "I don't know, you'll have to ask Phil Keaggy!" The account is sometimes attributed to a magazine interview in either Rolling Stone or Guitar Player. Occasionally the story has the setting for the question being a Hendrix appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, which is also untrue, as the clip from the show (in 1969) contains no mention of any other guitar players. Other examples have the question being answered by Eric Clapton. A more recent variant has Eddie Van Halen being asked the same question by David Letterman or Barbara Walters. Keaggy has continually insisted that such stories are completely unfounded, noting that "it was impossible that Jimi Hendrix could ever have heard me We recorded our first album at Electric Lady Studios two weeks after his unfortunate death, so I just can't imagine how he could've heard me. I think it's just a rumor that someone's kept alive, and it must be titillating enough to keep an interest there I don't think it was said that's it for that!" In a July 2010 interview, Glass Harp bassist Daniel Pecchio commented on the ongoing Hendrix rumors saying "It's a true urban legend. I still have people coming up to me claiming to have a Dick Cavett Show tape where Hendrix says that. We never pushed that rumor, you know, but it didn't hurt us."

Phil Keaggy's son Ian was the bass player for the band Hot Chelle Rae, which had a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2011. Ian left the band in 2013 to pursue a solo career. Phil Keaggy's nephew was married to contemporary Christian singer songwriter Cheri Keaggy. Phil Keaggy's sister is former American television and film actress Mary Ellen Kay, who passed away in 2017. Keaggy credits her for introducing him to the Christian faith, although he was raised Catholic.