Description
Live @ the Akron Civic Theatre, Akron OH (6-30-1980) is a digital-only live recording featuring the American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Phil Keaggy and band, independently released in May 2019. The concert was recorded June 30, 1980 at the Akron Civic Theatre in Akron, Ohio. The first part is a full band recording, while the last part is an acoustic set with Keaggy only.
Featuring Phil Keaggy on guitar and vocals, with a backing band consisting of Phil Madeira on keyboards and vocals, Peter York and Greg X. Volz on guitars and vocals, Doug Pinnick on bass and vocals, and Jerry Gaskill on drums.
About the band members: Singer, songwriter, and keyboardist PHIL MADEIRA was a former member of Phil Keaggy Band (active from 1976-1979), which released a sole studio album in 1977, Emerging. Guitarist/vocalist PETER YORK is probably best known as a former member of “a band called David” (a.k.a. 2nd Chapter of Acts’ touring band as featured on both their double and triple live albums, To the Bride and How the West Was One, respectively). He also toured as a duo with Phil Keaggy for a while during the mid-70s. (York actually later became President of Sparrow Communications Group, one of the major CCM labels.) Guitarist/vocalist GREG X. VOLZ is best known as the lead singer of the rock band Petra, first as a guest vocalist on their 1977-album, Come and Join Us, and as an official Petra member from 1979 until early 1986 when he left the band to pursue a solo career. (From the late 60s until mid-70s Volz was as a member of Gidians Bible, which morphed into E Band in 1971.) The touring band’s rhythm section, bassist DOUG PINNICK and drummer JERRY GASKILL, later founded the hard rock trio King’s X together with guitarist Ty Tabor. (Pinnick actually also has a co-writing credit on the track «Just A Moment Away» from Keaggy’s 1980 album Ph’lip Side.)
In the mid seventies, Doug Pinnick (originally a member of the gospel group, Bob Dempster & The Caravelle Singers based in Florida) formed a band called Servant with keyboardist Matt Spransy. (Spransy actually did play on the multi-artist album Lonesome Stone, a rock musical that premiered at the Rainbow Theatre in London, England, July 1973.) They were described as a progressive Art Rock type of band along the lines of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The band played all over the midwest and even put together a demo of original songs. Oddly enough, there was a band from Canada that also called themselves Servant who had actually scored a recording contract. Spransy ended up joining the Canadian version of Servant in the late seventies, and that band recorded a song that he and Pinnick had written together called «I’m Gonna Live», featured on their 1981 album Rockin’ Revival. (Pinnick was also part of Alpha as well as his own Doug Pinnick Band shortly after Spransy joined the Canadian Servant.)
In 1979, Pinnick was invited to join a band that was forming in Springfield, Missouri, fronted by singer Greg X. Volz of Petra fame. He accepted the offer and re-located, only to have the band dissolve within a month of his arrival. He was soon offered a spot in Phil Keaggy’s touring band, along with the drummer from the failed Volz project, Jerry Gaskill. Pinnick toured with Keaggy for about a year before returning to Springfield and set about looking for a new musical project. Later Pinnick and Gaskill joined with guitarist Ty Tabor to form a power trio, later to be called King’s X. (Pinnick and Tabor actually also wrote most of the songs featured on Morgan Cryar’s 1986 album Fuel on the Fire, and did as well support Cryar on the following promotional tour.)
Album tracklist:
01. Full Circle – 5:57
02. Pulling Down – 7:27
03. The Desert Song – 5:12
04. Sunday School – 6:11
05. Take Me Closer – 5:56
06. Praise Ye The Lord (feat. lead vocals by Greg X. Volz) – 4:42
07. Phil’s Jam – 19:55
08. A Child (In Everyone’s Heart) – 3:32
09. Abraham – 3:13
10. Noah’s Song – 5:04
11. The Answer – 6:10
12. Your Love Broke Through – 6:04
13. My Life – 6:08
14. Rise Up O Men Of God – 4:35
15. Stormy Monday Blues/Time 15:28
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://philkeaggyband.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-akron-civic-theatre-akron-ohio-6-30-1980
Photo: Phil Keaggy Band, Live at Creation Festival 1980; (L-R) Phil Madeira (keyboards, member of the original Phil Keaggy Band), Peter York (guitar, York played together with Phil Keaggy as a duo for awhile after Phil left Glass Harp, also a member of 2nd Chapter of Acts’ touring band), Phil Keaggy (guitar), Jerry Gaskill (drums, later a founding member of King’s X), Doug Pinnick (bass, later a founding member of King’s X), Greg X. Volz (guitar, lead vocalist of Petra).
Phil Keaggy & Band, Live at the Akron Civic Theatre, Akron Ohio (6-30-80):
https://philkeaggy.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-akron-civic-theatre-akron-ohio-6-30-80
Phil Keaggy & Band, Live from Wheeling Civic Theatre, Wheeling, West Virginia (6-24-1980):
https://philkeaggy.bandcamp.com/album/live-from-wheeling-civic-theatre-6-24-1980
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