Live in Concert: Glass Harp!

I had the rare and distinctive privilege of seeing a phenomenal rock band in concert last night. Glass Harp is a power trio that released three albums back in the early 70's and provided the springboard for Phil Keaggy to become one of the legendary founding figures of the contemporary Christian music scene. The band broke up when Phil and the other members couldn't agree on just how far to go in becoming a "Christian" band. The group always had Christian themes quite apparent in their lyrics, but they played in secular arenas, opening for many mainstream rock bands. Keaggy is an amazingly gifted guitarist and the band itself were seen as promising stars in the making, due to their impressive ability to jam and improvise with the best of 'em. In fact, Glass Harp just this past Thursday released a 3 CD set called "Stark Raving Jams" that features over three hours of them winging it in various settings, in recordings going back to 1970 on up to last year (2003.)

The band members are now reunited, and released an all-new studio CD last year, titled Hourglass. They only play occasional gigs, mostly in the Midwest it seems (they're originally from Ohio.) This year their "summer tour" consists of six concerts, and one of them was just a 5 minute drive from my house, at a little club called The Intersection, where I saw the English band Spiritualized last October. (And that band is a whole 'nother story in itself.)

So Julie and I went there last night, thrilled to see Phil Keaggy again - we've been to over a dozen of his concerts over the years, I'd imagine, and I am really glad that he has such a strong connection to Grand Rapids due to the Christian publishing/media establishment in this city. Plus some of his favorite guitar makers live close to here so he's come around about as regularly as a fan could ever hope. But usually he does solo shows, just him and his guitar and his assortment of effects boxes, e-bows and other toys that make his guitar do funky amazing things - though most of the magic is in his fingers. (He only has nine, missing the same middle finger on his right hand that Jerry Garcia lost.)

I can't capture in words how much fun we had or how remarkable the band's performance was - it was a "you had to be there" moment, which we and a few hundred others totally enjoyed. So I will just say, follow the links and consider purchasing a CD - the website should have some good sound samples available if you want to hear what they do before putting the money down. But I'll say, Glass Harp does it all - sensitive ballads, flat out rockers, crazy spacy lead guitar excursions, even a vintage arena-rock drum solo that really had me grinning as I recalled sitting through so many of those back in the day... Yeah, it was a really cool night and I feel very blessed to have had the chance to follow Phil Keaggy's career as a fan for all these years.