Phil Keaggy’s Roundabout

I’ve been a fan of Keaggy’s since I first heard Love Broke Thru in 1975 so when he releases a new album I usually snatch it up quickly and play it a lot. Roundabout is an exception to that. One of the highlights of PK concerts is his improvisations and they often feature his JamMan – a looping device that allows him to lay down guitar tracks live on an endless loop and then build up a short section. It’s almost always fascinating and interesting. Over the past few years he has been using his sound checks to create new loops – this is a particularly creative time for him and he enjoys trying out new things and just seeing where the muse takes him. His road manager has been recording these and Phil takes them back to his studio to see what he has. He did some editing, (although no overdubs) picked out what he thought were some of the more interesting pieces and named the album Roundabout.

This is an album that sounds just like you might think it does – lots of “wow, that’s cool” moments but it doesn’t particularly stand up to repeated listenings. I’ve had it in my car for a few weeks now and it soon got ejected and replaced with something that has a little more staying power. This album just doesn’t work for 50 minutes. When a three minute song pops up on my ipod in shuffle mode its fine but to listen to the whole album is, frankly, a bit of a chore. Phil’s next album is scheduled to be a regular vocal album. It’s about time – he’s released so many “different” albums recently that I’m starting to wonder if I’m willing to hang in there with him.