Way Back Home

Phil Keaggy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 28, 1994)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sparrow
• ASIN: B000005KXS
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,657 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars adam @ OR, March 23, 2000

By 

Jennifer Fouhy (Corvallis, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way Back Home (Audio CD)

I have over 25 of Phil's albums, and I consider this one to be his very best. Why? The music focuses on Phil's family, his faith, and is at once soothing and appealing. Especially notable are the songs that are taken from other writers' words. Great examples of this are "Could've Been Me", "In Every Need" and "Once I Prayed". Of course, Phil's excellent guitar work is evident in abundance throughout the album. Phil's voice has never sounded better. This work will appeal to anyone who enjoys songs that are meaningful, but can even be enjoyed as background music. A must have for Phil's fans.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The original vinyl version was mostly better, December 10, 2009

By 

DM - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way Back Home (Audio CD)

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!)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some of his best work, November 7, 1999

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Way Back Home (Audio CD)

Occasionally uneven collection but contains what is arguably Keaggy's greatest songwriting (his most underrated attribute): Maker of the Universe, Here and Now, Let Everything Else Go, Noah's Song. Maker of the Universe is worth the price of the CD alone. If you like Keaggy's songwriting and his mellow side, this is his best CD Other than the outstanding 2CD collection of his Jesus Freak period -- What a Day/Love Broke Through.