Search - Phil Keaggy :: Way Back Home

A tribute to God and family that rocks.

Mark E. Morelli | Cuyahoga Falls, OH USA | 01/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Too bad you can't see Keaggy play guitar -- I have -- and his body language and musicianship exhibits praise for his muse. Still you can listen, and his work here is buoyant. If you have moved away from where you grew up, and would like to rekindle sweet memories of your hometown, just listen once and let your mind wander back. If you are a parent of boy or girl, it doesn't matter, Keaggy's "Father Daughter Harmony" illustrates why contemporary children need not follow the suit of eye-rolling sitcom kids, who instead can feel the glee of being with their parents. And the final track, which Keaggy overlays with guitar work, is an old reel-to-reel recording of his grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary, which took place in '49, a year before Keaggy's birth. It is what one would imagine if Studs Terkel provided sound tracks for his books. I gave my copy of this CD away, and didn't have the heart to ask for it back (they enjoyed it so much), so I bought two more (just in case I wanted to loan out another copy.)"

The original vinyl version was mostly better

DM | 12/10/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"With this 1994 reissue of his 1986 LP "Way Back Home," Phil violates a rule I wish I could impose on musicians: When putting out the only CD version of any given album, you can add bonus tracks, but otherwise DON'T MESS WITH IT! Here, Phil has heavily revised several of the songs from WBH, generally making them more stripped-down and, occasionally, shorter. The ONLY track that gets at all improved in the process is "Maker Of The Universe." The rest range from suffering slightly to getting downright ruined. A few songs don't seem to have been changed noticeably but these were generally relatively weak songs to begin with.



Of course, WBH was never Phil's best album in the first place. Part of this is because of a common weakness in Phil's output: songs whose lyrics delve too much into specific personal details.



The four new songs here are a mixed bag. The best is "It Could Have Been Me," although it doesn't fit the album's tone at all. "She's A Dancer" is McCartney-esque & OK, "Father-Daughter Harmony" is sappy in the extreme, and "The 50th," while fitting the "too-personal" criteria (it includes excerpts from a homemade vinyl recording of his grandparents' 50th anniversary celebration in 1948), is still musically pleasant and historically interesting. (BTW, Phil's ACOUSTIC SKETCHES has a version of this with the music only, minus the old record excerpts.)



Get it if you're a Phil fan, but first see if you can get someone to put the original vinyl to CD for you! (BTW, the original cover was a lot better too!)"