The Song Within
Artist: Phil Keaggy 
Label: Autumn Records
Time: 16 tracks /  49:50 min.
 
There seem to be three types of projects that Phil Keaggy produces these days: 

• The ‘loop’ album: this would be Phil creating stunning, amazing music using little more than his imagination, a guitar, and a device to record and play back  ‘loops’  that can be layered one on top of another in a ‘live’ context, to create textured, often spontaneous compositions. 
• The ‘jam’ album: this is Phil, usually in the studio, with various friends filling in (usually) on drums or bass, creating stunning, amazing tracks based on riffs and chord progressions that allow for startlingly dynamic soloing. 
• The ‘pop’ album: this would be Phil creating stunning, amazing music (do you detect a pattern here?) incorporating not only his guitar skills, but his amazing voice and ability to write memorable, melodic songs with great lyrics. 

The Song Within combines elements of all three of the above, and will satisfy and delight long-time Keaggy fans of all types. For the guitar playing fan there’s beautifully-recorded guitar work, featuring Phil playing (mostly) the McPherson MG-4.5 acoustic guitar; for the fan that wants to hear Phil demonstrate why he’s a legendary player, there are dizzying, clear, fluid runs and solos throughout the disc; for the long-time fan of Phil’s music through the years, there are echoes of classic Keaggy songs that reach as far back as the seminal What a Day album, as well as new, beautifully melodic pieces that recall some of the classic songwriting of earlier chapters of his career.
 
Co-produced by Phil Keaggy and Dennis Patton (who also contributes bass, percussion and keyboards on various tracks), _The Song Within_ has a warm, rich sound that perfectly showcases the layers of virtuosity and the sweetness of tone that Phil manages to coax from the McPherson acoustic - and how pleased the folks there at McPherson must be to hear how wonderful it sounds! Guitar students will thrill to the technique on shorter, more improvisational sounding pieces like, “Trailwalker,” or the wonderfully-titled, “McPhernought,” perhaps a word-play on ‘fear not,’ or even ‘fear naught?’  Keaggy certainly fears nothing when it comes to re-imagining his own compositions, as he does right off the bat, on the opening track.  “Water Day,” is not only homage to his classic song, “What a Day,” but homage to the guitar style of the legendary Django Reinhardt, who practically invented the guitar solo with his Hot Club of France in the twenties. 
 
Although there’s plenty of soloing, and technique to spare on this project, Keaggy has not neglected good song structure and melody. Tracks such as,”The Song Within,” and “Secure,” will take you back to the feeling established on earlier works such as Beyond Nature, and even Way Back Home. It’s refreshing (as well as being a tribute to the quality of the compositions) to see Keaggy looking back at some of his past songs and feeling free to use them as a jumping-off point for new inspiration: “Noah’s Shuffle,” uses the chords from the transcendent and beautiful “Noah’s Song,” and transforms into a wonderful Beatle-esque tour-de-force, complete with very ‘sixties’ keyboard work from Patton and drums from Mike Radovsky; track eleven turns “Addison’s Walk,” from Beyond Nature, into “Addison’s Talk,” and, as if it emerged from the recesses of our emotional memories, the plaintive, glorious riff from “Your Love Broke Through,” establishes itself in the new context of the appropriately named, “Sense of Time,” which closes the album.
 
There are many special treats among the rest of the songs here: Consider the clean, sweepingly beautiful guitar lines on “Secure,” the slow-tempo return to old-school Keaggy song-writing, or the signature multi-string tapping technique displayed on the guitar workout, “Trailwalker,” and “Addison’s Talk.” Listen to the surprisingly funky band-sound on “Early One Day,” with its exciting guitar runs and delightful solo on the Wurlitzer; the medieval feel of “Duet,” and the guitar duet between Phil and Muriel Anderson, on “New Year’s Eve,” where the two players seem to mesh perfectly, producing an intriguing interplay of notes. 
 
This is an instrumental guitar album for anyone who is a fan of instrumental music, Phil Keaggy, or both. Certainly, no Keaggy fan – no guitar fan – and certainly, no guitar player, should pass up The Song Within.  
 
By Bert Saraco  
www.myspace.com/expressimage