Customer Reviews

In the Quiet Hours

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album delivers exactly what its title implies. The whole album is full of excellent, soft instrumental music which is perfect for background while working, reading a book, taking a nap, hosting guests, etc.

If you're looking for beautiful background music, this is a great album to get.

All of the songs on this CD (except for one track, "As It Is in Heaven") were previously released in 1999 as part of Keaggy's 4-CD Music to Paint By series: Electric Blue, Still Life, Brushstrokes and Splash. What you get here is nearly an hour's worth of instrumentals from one of the music world's truly gifted guitarists.

Of the fourteen instrumentals on this disc, a couple are under a minute ("Growing Grass" and "Foreshadow), but most are fully conceived songs averaging about four minutes each. The closing song "The Blue Planet," however, is more than twice that long at nine and a half minutes.

Keaggy works in a variety of settings, playing both acoustic and electric guitars, as well as performing solo and with additional musicians, including a second guitarist (Tom Shinness) on a couple of cuts as well as adding percussion and saxophone.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable album and with the Music to Paint By series currently out of print--except through Keaggy's website--this is a wonderful introduction. RECOMMENDED

In the Quiet Hours is fittingly titled; it is Phil Keaggy's most understated instrumental album to date. Gleaned from his Music To Paint By series (with a few new pieces added), the music here is more than suitable for soothing the soul while reading a good book. Phil clearly went for simplicity and a light touch throughout, caressing the ear with various acoustic and electric brushstokes. Among the most poignant are the gently cascading acoustic "Waterfall," with its joyful refrain, and the nocturne "The Apprentice," in which a warm, intimate electric lead deftly tiptoes over the surface of the acoustic lullaby and sways and stretches, runs and leaps aloft like a ballet dancer. Guitar doesn't come any more delightful than this.

"As It Is in Heaven," with its hammer-on-pull-off pirouettes, is another fine number, and its bridge surprises the listener with a sudden burst of flamenco fire followed by a variant trickle of "Rivulets" (from the Acoustic Sketches album). Most of the other selections are quite unobtrusive; the title cut, with its silky saxophone, suffers from a lack of imagination (as much on the saxophonist's part as on Keaggy's) but is nonetheless pleasant if one isn't listening closely for musical development. "Phantasy," an adaptation from Ralph Vaughn Williams, sounds like it should be a driving electric chorus backed by progressive rock drumming; what Keaggy offers here, unfortunately, is an anemic "quieted down" rendition, with some sweetly poignant electric tones but no backbone.

One surely cannot complain of too little music on this CD; the last (14th) cut, "The Blue Planet," is about 10 minutes of supple and subtle electric jamming over Tom Shiness' dynamic 12-string strumming. Dynamics carry the day on this piece; the music swells and subsides in both speed and volume, seeming to fade away, then surging back to life repeatedly. Keaggy weaves together sprinting stilleto-step runs with lush harmonies and volume swells suspended from thin air. The guitar aficionado will want to listen to this one with headphones on to fully enter into Phil's improvisational world.

All that said, if you're expecting the kind of variety and energy found on Beyond Nature or Acoustic Sketches, you're bound to be disappointed. Get this one for background music and for an occasional close listen when you're in a pensive mood.

Phil has taken his 4 cd set "Music to Paint By" and made a best of cd with this album. You can still get the Music to Paint By set from Phil's web site Philkeaggy.com, which I would highly recommend. Quiet Hours is a remaster and in some cases, Phil has re-done the song, ie adding a saxophone to the title cut (I wish he hadn't done that). Some people like "best of" albums. If you are one of those, this cd is a good one.

Phil Keaggy's music has been part of my Christian walk for over two decades and has been a source of joy as well as encouragement to persevere during hard times. This is a great compilation from the "Music To Paint By" series of 4 instrumental CDs. "Floating on Ice" is one of my favorite tracks. Sometimes when I am working on the computer music with lyrics can be distracting, but instrumental music hits the spot. The instrumental pieces on this CD are on the top of my play list.

A reformatted classic Keaggy. We had the cassette, but wanted the CD to be able to enjoy in updated electronic format.