Beyond Nature

Phil Keaggy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 4, 1991)
• Original Release Date: 1991
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000027Q0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,475 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. In the Light of Common Day

2. County Down

3. Symphonic Dance

4. Addison's Walk

5. I Feel the Winds of God Today

6. Fare Thee Well

7. Fragile Forest

8. Brother Jack

9. As Warm as Tears

10. A Place of Springs

11. In the Light of Common Day (Reprise)

12. When Night Falls

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational, June 19, 2001

By 

Russell Diederich (Littleton, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Beyond Nature (Audio CD)

Jimi Hendrix is reported to say that Phil Keaggy was the best guitarist around. Listen to this solo-acoustical album and you just might have to agree. Purely instrumental, this is every finger-picker's dream. If this is your type of music, than this is one album that is definitely worth tracking down.

Keaggy has been blessed with lightning fast arpeggios, a command of alternate tunings, and right hand slap/harmonic technique that all adds flavor to his music. "County Down" is a playground for him to use his repertoire of skills. The song is brilliant in it's own right. "Fair Thee Well" is built around a theme comprised of both right and left and tapping, add in some fast runs, and you have another great tune. There isn't a bad cut on this album.

Another neat item about this album is that Keaggy provides the alternate tunings that he uses for each song in the liner notes. For you finger-pickers who would like to emulate him, you at least have a place to begin. If you like guitar, especially solo-acoustic, then this is a must have. The majority of the album is soft and quiet, but it will have you listening intently.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Reason I Fell In Love With The Acoustic Guitar!!!, July 30, 2005

By 

Patriculus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Nature (Audio CD)

I first heard this record back in 93 and it has been, in one form or another, in my collection ever since. It is to my mind one of the finest guitar recordings ever produced. I am a fan of Andres Segovia, Michael Hedges, Leo Kottke, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler, and a host of other FS guitarists, so I hope you can appreciate what I mean when I say this.

What Keaggy manages to do here, and sadly only here, is to weave a collection of tunes that provoke the emotions as much as the ear. He has said that he intended the songs on this album to be in the Impressionist veign. And I cannot think of a better decription.

Listening to "A Place of Springs" for instance, one has the impression of a mind struggling with the wieght of the world and with it's own weakness. And in Keaggy's arrangement of Grieg's "Symphonic Dance" we not only hear but truly feel the elation of the instrument (as narrator) at some joyous moment we will never fully comprehend (though I like to imagine it's a wedding dance, or a childs first steps).

It's almost as though the record contains an anthology of songs that tell a story of a life from the guitar's point of view, with the guitar as it's own voice. As always, Keaggy intermingles this collage with his deep spiritual conviction--in fact, every note drips with it.

This is work of a tremendous artist, a musical virtuoso, at the peak of his powers, letting his instrument explore spaces at once too private and too universal for words. It is an amazing and breathtaking way to pass a rainy afternoon. And it rewards frequent replaying. I cannot recommend to highly.

Phil, we are in your debt for this masterpiece.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truely a remarkable album..., March 1, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Beyond Nature (Audio CD)

This is one of those albums that has never really left my player since I bought it 4 years ago. Keaggy is truely a master of his craft and his songs bring a smile to my whenever I hear them. This is album calmed and relaxed me during some of the most stressful years of my life. Really beautiful and I cannot recommend it more highly.