Sat, Feb 9; 8pm, FAC
$10 w/ Calvin ID, $20 public
Conversation: 2:30pm, FAC 224

Would Phil Keaggy appreciate being called the father of CCM?  Perhaps not.  But his story as a musician reveals a history of both affinity and tension with the movement.

In the late 1960s, Keaggy was a member of the band Glass Harp.  They were signed by a major label and being hailed as a very promising group, in large part because of Keaggy’s incredible skill as a guitarist.  However, when Keaggy became a Christian in the early 70s, he quit the band as part of a conversion that was not just spiritual, but artistic.  Desiring to take the focus off of himself and his skills, he re-emerged with a simple folk style and explicitly Christian lyrics to play in low-key settings like coffee houses and college dorms.  For Keaggy, shedding his old self required him to shed the influence of ‘worldly’ music.  The CCM movement was in its early years and Keaggy was a contemporary of Larry Norman and the bands Love Song and Second Chapter of Acts.

However, a sort of second conversion seemed to emerge as Keaggy began to push the boundaries of CCM.  Electric guitar crept back into his work and his dormant instrumental skills once again saw the light of day.  In 1978, while living in a Christian community in upstate New York, Keaggy released The Master and the Musician.  As an all-instrumental album, it was groundbreaking within CCM—for how could an album be Christian if it didn’t have any lyrics?  It was the beginning of a signature style that reflected Keaggy’s belief that being a great guitarist was in itself a way to glorify God.

Keaggy has never rejected CCM with the force of his rejection of secular music in the late 60s, but he’s always been a renegade within the movement, pushing for artistic excellence and trusting the music to communicate.  His current tour celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of The Master and the Musician.  Along with other master musicians who share his perspective on art and faith, Keaggy will perform the album in its entirety and then give the stage to each of his fellow travelers for a few songs—perhaps a fitting symbol, as the father of an artistic movement passes on his engaging vision to younger generations.

• Phil Keaggy's website

• Phil Keaggy on Wikipedia

• Phil Keaggy playing “Shades of Green”

  
  

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