Phil Keaggy at GMI NAMM Concert

Working at a guitar company, you hear a lot of great guitar players.

Heck, half the guys on our assembly line can shred as well as just about anyone on the radio these days--better, come to think of it.

Considering the standard of excellence I'm subjected to, it's extremely rare when I hear something that literally blows my jaded ears out of my head. At GMI's NAMM concert, that rare experience happened.

There was a brief awkward moment when Raul Malo of the Mavericks was charged with the task of keeping the momentum of the show going while the stage hands fiddled with a small rack case. When they got some signal happening, an unassuming Phil Keaggy shuffled out onto the stage with a Gibson Montana Blues King Electro and struck a chord.

There was nothing unassuming about his playing as the entire Nashville Arena became magically filled with sound--all coming from one solo acoustic guitar. Fingerpicking, fingertapping, harmonics, sweep picking and drones were all techniques used by Keaggy to coax a dizzying array of textures out of one instrument. Whereas many players might play a song, stop, then begin another song, Keaggy's music more resembled a story, where one melodic theme drifted into the next then into an improvisational segue, then into the next theme.

While perfectly capable of creating enough orchestration on his own, Keaggy added another dimension to his music with sampled loops. In other words, he would digitally record a passage as he played it, play it back, and add a melody on top of the playback. Sometimes the playback would be in reverse, creating a unique and intense sound. The way it is explained might sound like a tedious process, but Keaggy seamlessly incorporated the loops into the songs without skipping a beat.

To the non-guitarists in the audience, more specifically, those not familiar with the looping technique, this must have seemed especially impressive. Regardless, Keaggy is a rare talent who can blend a formidable display of chops with a keen ear for melody.

Note: While you can't sell talent like Keaggy's in a box, those interested in exploring the use of loops might want to check out an Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro!