Beyond Nature

Description

Beyond Nature is the third instrumental album – as well as the thirteenth solo album overall – by the American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Phil Keaggy, released on Myrrh Records in February 1991, a division of Word. Also manufactured and distributed by Epic, a division of Sony Music. The album was recorded by JB Baird at Recording Arts in Nashville, Tennessee; and was produced and arranged by Phil Keaggy with JB co-producing. Mixed by JB at Digital Recorders in Nashville.

Phil Keaggy has frequently been listed in Guitar Player Magazine reader polls as one of the world’s top finger-picking guitar players, and this might be his finest moments.

This is a very musical work with beautiful pieces held together by strong craftsmanship and compositional prowess. Alternate tunings are the big experiment here, and are pointedly displayed in the liner notes where applicable. Many of the pieces are also augmented by string quartet or wind instruments, giving this body of work a grand or symphonic feel – something listeners hadn’t heard from Keaggy before. The finest moments are the ones with additional players, notably «County Down» (featuring Stuart Duncan on fiddle) and «Fare Thee Well». The most outspoken tribute to C.S. Lewis appears in «Brother Jack» (which opens with the nursery melody «Frere Jacques»). [Mark Allender, AMG]

Let’s say you’re a brilliant musician like Phil Keaggy. You’ve devoted your music to communicating something truthful about the heart of God to people. Why would you make a series of instrumental albums? And what would people with some kind of Christian experience expect to receive through a project with no lyrics? Why do it – because Christians have run out of words? Probably not. Because we’ve misused our words? Maybe.

Okay, maybe Keaggy doesn’t have this personal agenda. Maybe he makes a remarkable album like this one simply because he can. Well. Here’s to innocence; all the more reason to celebrate. On his newest, Beyond Nature, Keaggy and his acoustic guitars – with a charming touch or two of strings, winds and light percussion – dance and whisper and wind their way through mysteries unspeakable.

Picture Keaggy walking alone in two of his favorite places, The English and Irish countryside, with the writing of C.S. Lewis and the compositions of Claude Debussy hanging in the damp air. Now you have the subtext for a recording that reaches across oceans, back in time and yet is a purely Keaggy as we could wish.

«I Feel the Winds of God Today», is an old British folk tune, now a hymn. Keaggy has textured it with five different parts and has captured the timelessness and sure-handed hope of the melody.

A terrific surprise is the rendering of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s «Symphonic Dances», (second movement). This is as melodic and lovely as it can be. The remainder of the project is filled with Keaggy compositions, of which «As Warm as Tears/A Place of Springs», is as compellingly tender as its title. Now image that «When Night Falls» is an arrangement that unfolded from the depth of the man’s heart and talent as tape was rolling! Here is gentleness and virtuosity proving they belong together.

Some players call their guitar “axes.” Weapons for battle. But I’ll bet for Keaggy, an acoustic guitar is not something to be wielded (like an axe) in self defense or in agression. Nothing and no one in this music gets chopped up or cut down.

Keaggy quite simply has a touch. That’s how the Spanish say it – “tocar la guitarra” – to “touch” the guitar. Not play. And you notice the instrument is regarded as feminine. There she is. Wood and glue, braced and breathing, warm and alive in the arms of – the player? No. The lover? Yes – the one with the touch. And every moment a discovery. [Billy Crockett, CCM, July 1991] [ Billy Crockett is an American singer and songwriter and has been a guitar clinician for Yamaha International as well. ]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/beyond-nature/1167802156)

CD tracklist:

01. In the Light of Common Day – 3:52
02. County Down – 5:44
03. Symphonic Dances (Grieg, Op. 64) – 5:44
04. Addison’s Walk – 4:04
05. I Feel the Winds of God Today – 4:48
06. Fare Thee Well – 5:42
07. Fragile Forest – 4:24
08. Brother Jack – 4:54
09. As Warm as Tears – 6:05
10. A Place of Springs – 6:29
11. In the Light of Common Day (Reprise) – 4:11
12. When Night Falls – 4:08

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Myrrh Records. Beyond Nature (au naturel) (Phil’s original guitar tracks before any overdubbing), as well as Behind Nature (Bonus Disc), are available at Bandcamp: https://philkeaggy.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-nature-au-naturel
https://philkeaggy.bandcamp.com/album/behind-nature-bonus-disc

A full-page advertisement for Phil Keaggy’s Beyond Nature was featured in the April 1991 issue of CCM Magazine.