Lest anyone thinks the title of this blog post holds unsavoury connotations, let me hasten to reassure you that this has nothing to do with books! This is the title of an instrumental guitar piece by Phil Keaggy, one of the pieces performed at Abbey Road Baptist Church, London, last night (though the video is from an earlier performance).
‘Shades of Green’, Phil Keaggy
Phil Keaggy is one of Garry’s all-time heroes. Some time ago, Mark did a sermon on ‘Heroes’ (March 2011) and I could imagine Garry citing Phil Keaggy as one of the major influences on his life to date. Phil is an amazingly skilful guitarist whose solo career has spanned more than 30 years, including over 50 solo albums, both vocal and instrumental, as well as 8 releases with his band, Glass Harp. According to his website, “one of the most sought after studio guitarists, Phil also continues to sell out concerts all over the United States, with his ever-changing style, ranging from rock-and-roll to fully orchestrated instrumental compositions.” It’s extremely rare for him to visit England, so you can imagine the cold sweat with which Garry greeted an email last week informing us that he was doing 3 concerts in the UK this week before heading over to Europe for more concerts!
One of those concerts was in London on Friday 7th June. We immediately contacted a friend of ours who lives near London and who also is a big Keaggy fan, but vicarious enjoyment wasn’t enough for Garry! He decided this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend a concert in person and an opportunity not to be missed! I wasn’t able to go because of work commitments, but from the buzz of conversation in our household this morning, I missed a treat (but have CDs to compensate to some extent!)
The concert was held at Abbey Road Baptist Church, not far from the famous Abbey Road recording studios of Beatles’ fame:
Phil Keaggy getting ready to play:
Signing autographs for Garry:
Garry & the maestro:
I have trained people well to ask for ‘photos for the church blog’, so this is the official blog photo: