#21 EMERGING by The Phil Keaggy Band (1977)

EMERGING by The Phil Keaggy Band (1977)

New Song Records NS-004

Star Wars was born and Elvis died. A peanut farmer with a big smile was sworn in as president, and the first Apple II computers went on sale. Saturday Night Fever sparked the disco craze and Roots became an unforgettable, nationwide television event.

 

The year was 1977.

A new home could be purchased for $54,000 in '77. Gas was just 62 cents per gallon and a postage stamp would set you back 13 cents.

 

Jesus Music was slowly giving way to something called "contemporary Christian music," although few realized it at the time. Two important releases of Christian rock music hit store shelves in 1977 - a 3-record live set and an all-new band recording, both featuring the jaw-dropping talents of a young man named Philip Tyler Keaggy.

 

Phil Keaggy first experienced a certain level of fame and notoriety (at least regionally) as a member of the band Glass Harp, a secular group that helped pioneer the "jam rock" genre. Keaggy surrendered his life to Jesus during his time with Glass Harp, and his new-found faith in Christ began to invade the lyrics that he penned for the band. Keaggy grew restless and embarked on a solo career/ministry with the Jesus Music classic What A Day. Two years later the seminal Love Broke Thru album was released and raised the bar for the overall promise that Christian rock music held. Then Phil joined the Second Chapter of Acts for a Western U.S. tour, a portion of which was recorded for an iconic 3-album live set in '77.

  

Glass Harp seemed by now ancient history. Now it was time for Phil Keaggy to put another band together, a very different type of band. This band was born of a religious fervency and played music with a bright feeling, with a vibrancy that's hard to explain. They traveled the highways and byways, playing music that just made people happy. And this time the band bore his name.

 

L-R: Andersen, Madeira, Cunningham

I had a chance to speak with three members of the Phil Keaggy Band - drummer Terry Andersen, keyboardist Phil Madeira, and bassist Dan Cunningham - to find out more about a record called Emerging. To properly tell the story, let's back up just a bit...

 

1970

 

Glass Harp demos found their way into the hands of a Grammy Award-winning producer by the name of Lewis Merenstein. With Merenstein at the helm, Glass Harp released its debut album, recorded in Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios. The band soon found themselves opening for the likes of Alice Cooper, Chicago, Yes, and Grand Funk Railroad.

  

Meanwhile, also in 1970, a young man by the name of Terry Andersen showed up at a rather unconventional Christian ministry called Love Inn in Upstate New York. "I'd had my born-again, shower-on-the-inside experience that year," Terry recalls, "just as Phil and Lynn Nichols and a ton of others did across the great USA." Andersen got married at Love Inn two years later, but then, sometime after that, moved back to his hometown of Sioux City, Iowa for a while.

 

1973

 

"Keaggy paid a visit to Love Inn about the time the What A Day album came out," Terry Andersen remembered. "He connected with some of us."

Phil Keaggy | Larry Norman

 

Andersen says that Keaggy then went on the road and spent so much time and effort trying to meet the demand for his music and testimony, that he nearly burned out. "Somewhere during those formative, hectic days," Terry says, "Larry Norman offered Phil a recording and management type arrangement." (By the way, trying to imagine Phil Keaggy in the Solid Rock fold hurts my brain...but in a good way!)

 

Terry Andersen

Terry Andersen continues: "At the same time, Phil was feeling the need to put down roots with a church family, a community. The leadership at Love Inn had been praying for Phil, and on a Tuesday night during one of our Bible study sessions in the coffee house basement of the barn, I took a phone call from Phil, asking for prayer about this decision. I felt led to pray but didn't give him any advice one way or the other."

 

Keaggy later decided to join...and moved to Love Inn.

 

Love Song

L-R: Jay Truax, Chuck Girard, John Mehler, Tom Coomes, Phil Keaggy

"I met Phil Keaggy in 1973 when I was a college student in Indiana," relates Phil Madeira. "He was playing with Love Song and a friend of mine insisted we not only see them play, but check out their soundcheck." At the soundcheck, Madeira's college friend approached Keaggy, said he was a big fan from Cleveland, and introduced Phil Madeira, adding that Madeira was "a good piano player."

"Keaggy invited me to jam with him and John Mehler and Jay Truax," Madeira recalls.

Later, Keaggy told Madeira, "I think we're going to be in a band together."

 

1975

"In late summer of 1975, when I was visiting Love Inn, I spent an evening with Phil and his wife Bernadette at their home in Freeville, New York," Dan Cunningham remembers. Freeville is a little village of about 500 people located east of Ithaca, south of Syracuse, and about 147 miles west of Woodstock. Cunningham says he and Keaggy were playing classical guitars in the living room when Keaggy mentioned that he was thinking of forming a band. "He might have asked me to join," says Dan, "I don't remember for sure, but he certainly hadn't heard me play bass at that point. A few months later, after prayer, encouragement from friends, and oddly, a letter from my future wife at Love Inn, I moved to Upstate New York."

 

Dan Cunningham

So by '75, a young Lynn Nichols (from Brockport, NY) was part of the Love Inn community and proving to be a formidable guitarist in his own right; Dan Cunningham had moved to Freeville from West Virginia; and Phil Keaggy had invited Phil Madeira from Rhode Island to visit Love Inn and check it out. But what about Terry Andersen? "Well, Janie and I heard there might be a Phil Keaggy Band forming so I began to pray about moving back to Freeville," Terry said. "Gears were in motion."

 

1976

 

So in America's Bicentennial year, with bassist Cunningham, guitarist Nichols and temporary drummer Peter Hopper already in place, Phil Madeira arrived in Freeville to join the band.

The Phil Keaggy Band was formed in 1976 to be part of something called Love Inn Road Ministries, according to Cunningham.

 

"The thing about Love Inn was that they owned our ministry," Phil Madeira offered. "So they had to approve who was in the band. They knew Peter Hopper was temporary (which was good), but the only guy they'd consider was Terry, who was a member of Love Inn but living out of state when we formed."

 

Phil Madeira

Madeira says he and Nichols would ask themselves years later why they didn't just leave Love Inn, at least as far as the business side of things was concerned. "I think we were fearful of these elders who 'heard from God,'" he said, candidly. "We made the church a lot of money, but each of us was paid below poverty level." Phil Madeira says that he and Dan Cunningham, both single at the time, were paid $125 per week before taxes. "Even in 1976, that was terrible pay," he said.

 

1977

 

Looking back, it seems that different band members have different memories, differing points of view concerning Love Inn. Terry Andersen describes it as a "creative community of misfits, dropouts, radicals, revolutionaries, and redeemed Jesus Freaks -- some more stable, mature and educated than others -- but with a general distaste for institutional, traditional church life."

  

Scott Ross, the founder and first pastor of the fellowship, had gained notoriety as a Jesus Rock radio announcer, hosting a show on the CBN station located in Ithaca. In fact, Terry Andersen told me that The Scott Ross Show caused Jesus lovers from all over the country to either visit or move to Freeville. They were hungry for authentic Christian fellowship in a non-denominational setting.

 

Scott Ross

The story is told that one night, with the youth drug culture raging at the time, Ross mentioned on his show that it would be great to have a facility where young people could meet and share together. Peg Hardesty, a widow was a regular listener to Scott's show and had actually been healed of arthritis as Scott prayed over the air during one of his programs. So she offered her 100 year-old dairy barn in Freeville as a meeting place. The old barn needed a lot of work - a real fixer-upper, you might say. But young people began to arrive and started volunteering to convert the old barn to a facility where Love Inn could thrive.

  

"Scott was one of those gifted visionaries," Andersen remembers, "with numerous anointed, spiritual giftings. Thus, Love Inn was a conglomerate effort to cover all the bases of creative communications to exalt Jesus. We had a newspaper, a radio station, coffee house concerts, street outreach, home groups, and a fledgling record label. We even had a school! Colleges, high schools and churches would invite us to come and share our testimonies." Dan Cunningham concurs regarding the impressive creative output of the church. "When I arrived they were producing a radio show, publishing a magazine, and ran a mail-order Christian bookstore," Dan recalls. "Over the next few years, there was a theatre troupe, a dance troupe, and a record company."

L-R: Ben Pearson, Terry Andersen, Phil Keaggy, Phil Madeira, Lynn Nichols, Dan Cunningham and Peter Hopper

Terry Andersen replaced Peter Hopper as PKB drummer at the beginning of 1977. The Phil Keaggy Band now had all the pieces in place.

 

Terry Andersen noted that Glass Harp had done three records for Decca and had a built-in fan base in the midwest, so there was a level of excitement across the country to see and hear Phil Keaggy in a band context again. "We pieced together an old UPS truck (nicknamed the Brown Derby), an old Cadillac limo, installed CB radios, and acquired a 24-channel Stramp mixing board with good speakers," Terry remembers. The PKB was good to go...and go they did. The band started responding to invitations to play in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio.

  

Instead of signing with a more conventional artist management agency, the Phil Keaggy Band was managed by the leaders at Love Inn. "The PKB, under authority, was sent out as quasi-evangelists," Terry stated. He recalls that the goal in those days at Love Inn was to preach and practice the Kingdom, make disciples, evangelize, build community, and reach the world. He says those were all good and noble themes. But he admits that a lot of it just became Christian buzzwords with more bark than bite...spiritual ambition sometimes lacking in wise implementation.

 

Phil Madeira's assessment is a little more direct.

  

"Love Inn was based on a well-meaning but errant teaching within the Charismatic movement, and basically put the elders in charge of every detail of your life," Madeira says. "It was embarrassing -- the lack of boundaries and the demand for details. In my book God on the Rocks: Distilling Religion, Savoring Faith, the chapter on Love Inn is the only chapter that never really resolves. And this is because of the damage that the band elder, Peter Hopper did to me personally, as well as the band in general. His negativity, fear-based theology and personal mission to make me more acceptable truly wore me down."

  

Dan Cunningham remembers the Love Inn worship services as quite dynamic. "Most people sat on the floor," he said. "Songs, either written or spontaneous, might be started by the leaders or by people in the congregation. The musicians usually joined in. Someone might have a word, a spontaneous prayer, and there was often dancing." Cunningham says you couldn't just show up at Love Inn as a vagabond and expect to live the groovy, Jesus Freak life. "There were some very practical expectations," he said. "You were to get a job (and be useful while you looked for work); you were to get your family life and priorities in order; and you were to represent Jesus well to the outside world."

 

L-R: Madeira, Keaggy, Pearson, Hopper

"As I recall, Phil Madeira and I both ended up painting part-time for income and we all worked in some capacity for The Scott Ross Show." Andersen adds: "Dan was talented and available, filled the need for a bassist, and was a solid peacemaker-servant at heart; Lynn was bright, gifted in administration, and learning guitar rapidly. Lynn's family had been at Love Inn since he was in high school."

I'm sure a lot of people were excited to see and hear Keaggy as part of a legitimate band again. Of course, the guy is famous for his guitar playing...but also, ironically, for his humility. I couldn't help wondering if the private man matches the public persona. What was he like as a band mate? Was it difficult to function in a supporting role to such a generational talent like Keaggy?

 

"To end up in a band with a brother in the faith as talented as Phil, well, we all felt the respect and honor due," Terry Andersen said.

 

Andersen & Keaggy

Dan Cunningham concurs: "Phil was great to work with. He was a kind and sincere man of faith with a great talent. Working as a 'supporting cast member' was never a problem for me. Though he always handled it well, I'm sure it had to be harder for Lynn Nichols, who is a great guitarist himself. Phil Madeira was given the opportunity to show his performing and songwriting talent, also. But we all knew the people came to the concerts to see maestro Keaggy. And that was fine."

 

For his part, Madeira reports that he and Keaggy functioned well together. "We sparred musically," he remembers, "and much of that was caught on tape in his 'live' concert archives. We were both spontaneous musicians, throwing riffs at each other and having fun. I'm certainly not implying that I was anywhere near as gifted as he was, but I was a risk-taker. I think he liked my willingness to sort of step off a musical cliff."

 

Life on the Road

 

"The schedule was very busy," recalls Cunningham, "especially in 1977. The PKB schedule introduced me to 'one night stand' touring. Playing on the road in my previous secular musical life, our engagements were of a week or more in duration, with at least a few days of travel in between. On the longer PKB tours, I quickly lost weight!"

 

"There were two main tours as I recall," said Andersen. "They took us east and some to the south, mostly church-sponsored events. A couple were in rented theaters. Some college campus Christian groups also sponsored concerts. Our wives were able to go with us some, even my young son Aaron. The wives were very helpful selling merch -- records and t-shirts."

Terry remembers that the "Emerging Tour" included a large blue box truck for equipment, the aforementioned black Cadillac limousine, and a rented Pace Arrow RV. "With most of our funds going to the church, we were always driving vehicles that were old and cheap," recalls Phil Madeira, "and as a result, spent much time on the side of the road, with the hood up. Vehicles were a constant pain. As I said, the church was taking the bulk of our money and the elders would be going on luxury cruises while we all struggled and depended on the goodness of people in our fellowship of similar financial stature...which is to say, none. Once, we were in that old Cadillac, behind our step van, which seemed to be moving slower than usual. Keaggy, annoyed, said, 'Oh Lord, let it blow up!' And in that moment it came to a halt, never to run again."

Phil Madeira tells another hilarious road story that will sound completely plausible to anyone who's ever been on the road in a band. "One winter, we were in snowy Detroit, filling up the vehicles," Madeira recalls. "For some reason, Peter Hopper couldn't find the key to the locking gas cap on the step van. He hit each one of us up, hoping we had it. None of us did. We stood there and watched our 'elder' destroy the gas cap and the protruding input neck. A gas cap was never going to fit on that thing again. Later, we checked into our rooms. We always shared rooms, by the way. Ben Pearson was sharing my room. He was getting undressed, emptying his pockets. 'Oh, crap...I've got the key!' We still laugh about it. I said, 'Don't tell Peter!' But we were all so superstitious about what God might tell an elder that Ben 'fessed up. That next day was a quiet drive to wherever."

L-R: Hopper, Madeira, Keaggy, Cunningham, Nichols

"That second tour took us to a huge, fancy Baptist church in Texas where my drum stool broke and I had to finish the concert standing up," Andersen recalls. Terry also has vivid memories of the band eating some fine Mexican food in San Antonio along the famous RiverWalk there. And he still remembers the strange thrill to see a big theatre marquee, probably in Akron, Ohio, Phil's hometown, that said...

TONIGHT:

THE PHIL KEAGGY BAND

LIVE

"Sometimes we were put up in a motel, sometimes we were hosted in various homes," Andersen recalls. "I remember Dan racing his remote-controlled car in parking lots. And I remember Phil Keaggy reading a health book called Sugar Blues. Keaggy, Lynn Nichols and Ben Pearson, our part-time road manager, often went on healthy runs. Probably while I was back at the motel, napping."

"Keaggy bought something called an E-bow on one of those tours," Terry Andersen remembers, now understanding the significance of that moment. "Some of my most ethereal and inspired times -- I think for all of us -- were when the band just stayed on stage while Phillip Tyler Keaggy touched Heaven with his gift, guitar, and heart. The entire room would be caught up in the most amazing, holy and special Presence. I almost weep at the memory of those powerful, sovereign, inexplicable moments."

 

As special as those on-stage times were...there was also a dark side to touring.

"I don't know if we would've done better without the church's involvement," reports Phil Madeira, "but I look back with zero gratitude for their hand in our work. I'm sorry -- I know I must sound grouchy. Our band worked extremely hard for little reward. And when we were home, we would be given projects at church to keep us busy. There was no understanding of the hardship that the road is all about."

"Shepherding"

Trouble was definitely brewing in Freeville.

Cunningham says that sometime around '76-'77, Love Inn began to be associated with what he calls the Fort Lauderdale Five. He lists them as Charles Simpson, Bob Mumford, Derek Prince, Don Basham, and Ern Baxter. "They brought the 'shepherding' or discipleship movement to the forefront," he said. "They were respected leaders, but the Love Inn-Christian Growth Ministries alliance seemed like a cultural misalignment to me -- kind of like the Jesus Freak hippies and civic business leaders trying to find common ground. The authority structure and ministry operations both sharpened, but I'm not sure the Ft. Lauderdale folks completely caught on to what was going on with the creative realm at Love Inn." Cunningham says when leaders started emphasizing the book Call to Discipleship by Juan Carlos Ortiz, it really led Love Inn off course.

 

Terry Andersen confirms that the so-called Ft. Lauderdale Five had almost a celebrity teacher aura about them. Their influence on Love Inn resulted in a "you be my disciple, I'll be your disciple" dynamic that was, in Andersen's view, quasi-Biblical. Terry said the whole thing was "infected by the enemy"...resulting in a works-based, inverted discipleship model that caused burnout and misunderstandings. "Yes, there was some overreach, frustration, maybe even a degree of misuse or abuse in those formative days," laments Terry.

One of the worst kept secrets from that era is that the church often held Phil Keaggy off the road and required him to do menial ministry support tasks like duplicating cassettes of the radio show. There's been speculation as to whether being holed up in upstate New York actually hurt Keaggy's music career. "I have no doubt," smiled Dan Cunningham, "that being in a remote, rural location like Freeville and working within the context of a ministry run by a church is not optimal for the promotion of a music career." If Keaggy's career/ministry was damaged by the overlords at Love Inn, he's never let on. "Phil Keaggy is a man of genuine integrity, grace and love," Terry Andersen confirms. "I've been with Phil several times in these post-Love Inn years, at reunions and such, and he has always overcome and resisted the trap of letting offenses fester, rob his joy, or diminish his effective witness and ministry of representing Jesus well."

 

Phil Madeira says the PKB was all about delivering the "Shepherding and Discipleship" message to the rest of the Church. "Over-spiritualizing life takes its toll," Madeira said. Terry Andersen candidly acknowledged that the Shepherding/Discipleship movement suffered from imbalance, extremes and abuse, leading to tension and sometimes outright dissension within the band. "Within the 5-member band, plus Peter Hopper, our hard driving road manager and sound engineer, there were six different perspectives and levels of allegiance to our Love Inn church life and to its founder, Scott Ross," Andersen says. "Scott was a gifted and talented communicator and a lieutenant under Bob Mumford during the PKB era, but he later repented of missing the mark by inverting Jesus' pattern to 'serve, not to be served.' So yes, there was some tension in band relationships due to our diverse experiences in a young, if not experimental, New Testament church community. Love Inn was loaded with creatives -- wounded, recovering, hungry zealots needing wisdom and maturity. There were drifters, a few college students and local folks, a few older saints, and a sense of growing beyond "Jesus freaks" into a real demonstration of the Kingdom. We wanted more than just routine, repetitious traditions of men. But God's grace permitted some good times and some fruit."

Emerging

Well, perhaps we should get around to talking about the actual album itself, whaddya say? I think we should...

Hedden West Studio in 1978

Terry told me the band had just finished a tour and ended up at Hedden West, Gary Hedden's first-class studio in Shaumburg, IL (near Chicago) in August of '77. "Gary had also outfitted a semi trailer mobile studio and had recorded with Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and some other big names," he said.

In the credits for Emerging, Peter K. Hopper is listed as producer and Phil Keaggy as co-producer, a fact that causes Phil Madeira to wince when he thinks about it to this day. "Emerging was Hopper's first project," Madeira notes. "After a Buck Herring production (Love Broke Thru), I don't think Keaggy should've been Hopper's guinea pig. I truly wonder what would've happened had Buck been hired to do the work. He was a pro, and Love Broke Thru set the bar high. I understand that Peter was given an opportunity to make a name for himself, but he was not cut out for the job. I don't know that any of us were truly ready for prime time, apart from Phil Keaggy."

 

A more recent photo of Gary Hedden

Madeira told me that Gary Hedden probably saved the record. "Hopper was difficult and moody and wouldn't have known how to coax a performance out of The Beatles, never mind the PKB," Madeira said. "Whatever good is on that record is due to Gary and the band. That's the truth of it. Hey, we all start somewhere, and I'm sure Peter became a fine engineer and producer."

As for Dan Cunningham's take? "Emerging pretty much sounds like our live performances," he noted. Cunningham also had high praise for Gary Hedden: "His Hedden West was the nicest and best equipped studio I had been in. He even had his own master cutting lathe at another location for producing vinyl masters, which he demonstrated for me." In a Twilight Zone (or prophetic?) moment back in 1977, Gary Hedden explained to Dan how music would be digital in the future, with no mechanical apparatus required. "Gary was seeing beyond even the CDs of the future to the technology of our present day," Cunningham said. "I could not get a grasp on these concepts at the time."

Phil Madeira says he last chatted with Gary Hedden about 15 years ago. Hedden gave Madeira some advice about setting up a studio in the basement of his home. "He was extremely helpful," Madeira said. "Saved me a fortune with a few simple tips."

 

Much has been made of the fact (?) that Emerging was "a true band album," recorded live in the studio with as few overdubs as possible. I asked these gentlemen if that's how they remember it.

"Emerging does pretty much sound like our live performances," offered Dan Cunningham. "It's true that the electric band tracks were played as a group, but without vocals. The vocals were added afterward, I suppose to control mic leakage. But yes, there was some discussion about whether we should use any overdubs at all."

Phil Madeira insists the PKB didn't track Emerging any differently than most other bands. "There are those -- Mark Heard, for example -- who will start with a click and a guitar and build things," Madeira explained. "There's a time to do that, and my Three Horseshoes record was done that way. But we did what many people do -- we tracked the basic tracks, added lead and harmony vocals, and overdubbed solos. I think whoever wrote that press report just didn't know any better."

Cunningham pointed out that the sax solo on Take A Look Around and the cello on Ryan's Song were definitely added later. "The cello part, played by Karl Fruh of the Chicago Symphony, was essentially what I normally would play on bass," Dan remembers. "I notated the cello part for Karl on a yellow legal pad that was laying around the studio."

Terry Andersen candidly admits that he struggled in the studio here and there. "The idea was to just perform the songs that we had been playing live," he said, "so we did. I had some trouble getting through a couple of the songs without glitches. Had to work hours on my drum parts. It was either Another Try or Take a Look Around. I finally got an acceptable take. Peter Hopper actually added some strong hi-hat to punch up Another Try, and it came out pretty strong. I was actually kind of shocked at the volume of the drums in the final mix (I think Peter was a little hard of hearing). Naturally, we sang over the tracks. Didn't use a metronome."

Of course, we all have our favorite songs from Emerging. I've got mine: "Theme/Where Is My Maker," "Turned On The Light," and "Take A Look Around." But I wanted to know which songs stood out to these guys...

Terry Andersen

Terry Andersen:

"One special song was 'Ryan's Song.' It was a poem written by Bill Clarke, a good friend of Phil and Bernadette, when they lost little Ryan at about six days old. I always liked the reggae feel on 'Where Is My Maker' and the groove at the end. There was something strong at the end of 'Take A Look Around' that I liked a lot -- reminded me of The Who. Also, we sounded like a legit country band on 'Sorry.' I was always kind of proud of that."

Dan Cunningham with wife Julie in '77

Dan Cunningham:

"The most fun for me was the opening 'Theme' and coda to 'Where Is My Maker.' That was a medley we often opened with, live. It was the result of jams we did in our little practice room at Love Inn early on. We were messing around with jazz influenced themes, something Phil Keaggy had not not done much up to that point. I think 'Another Try' comes from Keaggy's McCartney influence and maybe was seen as a crossover that could work in the secular market as well. It had a set structure, so we did not jam much on it live. 'Ryan's Song' was about the loss of Phil and Bernadette's premature son. That was a very tough time for them."

L-R: Nichols, Keaggy, Madeira

Phil Madeira:

"I like 'Theme' because neither of us is ruining it with lame vocals. And I like 'Where Is My Maker,' although I wasn't given writing credit on it...and the verse is all down to me. I haven't thought about that until now. Things happen. But I think the jam at the end of 'Maker' is great. Phil's tone is the best there on the whole record, as well as his playing, and I'm surprised by my own playing on that one. I was never happy with the vocal, but people love 'Struck By The Love.' I know it's blessed many a fan. I remember writing it so clearly. I was in my parents' basement, which was semi-finished. The TV was down there with the laundry and my drum set. I was down there praying. It was 1974. And I had this amazing urge to lift my voice and my heart to God, but I was embarrassed -- my parents were home, and I didn't feel comfortable. I went upstairs and told them, which they thought was wonderful -- this young man seeking God. The thing I love about that song is what it says about the 22-year old young man who wrote it. I've always been earthy, honest, off-the-cuff. And I've always been the guy that had those feelings down in his folks' basement. No matter how I come across, no matter how I disappoint someone because of my politics or my lifestyle, etc...I'm still that guy. I'm still struck by the love."

Emerging has been described by CCM historian Mark Allan Powell as being Keaggy's most neglected album, yet "actually every bit as good as What A Day and Love Broke Thru." Several songs from the album are given high praise in Powell's Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music. The pop/jazz shuffle "Theme/Where Is My Maker" is said to be excellent songwriting on the part of Madeira, setting the tone for the record with a unique sound. Powell calls "Struck By The Love" a "powerful" song; and opines that "Turned On The Light" and "Take A Look Around" are two of Keaggy's better rock songs. About the latter he writes...

'Take A Look Around' is especially poignant theologically. The message There's a kingdom emerging / And to me that's very encouraging summarizes the central message of Jesus' teaching (Mark 1:14-15) in a memorable way and establishes the titular theme of the album.

There were several long songs on Emerging...well, long by modern standards. Of course, radio airplay was not a consideration at that time because Christian rock (or CCM) radio stations really didn't exist.

"We were not thinking about radio singles, that's for sure," said Dan Cunningham. "A lot of stuff that we did evolved from live performances. Keaggy was pretty adventurous musically, and we followed his lead. After the first months of practice early on, almost everything came from performance variations that evolved." Cunningham said the challenge was being able to pick up on something new as it was happening. "Phil opened a concert in Chicago with something he must may have made up on the spot," Dan said. "We had to pick up on it and join in, and act like this was the plan all along! Jamming with great musicians who so easily created something new was an experience I under-appreciated at the time."

Terry Andersen said his years in blues/jazz/fusion bands in the late 60s helped a lot! "It was freedom within structure," he said. "Some arranging...maybe a tight intro and ending...but lots of flow and freedom...pushing or playing off each other. It's lots of fun when chemistry exists. And rehearsals polish that." Terry said that both Phils -- Keaggy and Madeira -- had an experimental attitude and good chemistry where arrangements were concerned. "Keaggy would use that e-bow live and just flood the house with astonishing melody and sound," he recalls. "It was heavenly. Mesmerizing!"

"I always thought we were sort of The Grateful Dead of Christian music," replied Phil Madeira, "with all the jamming we did. Dan was very adept and musical and ready for whatever was thrown at him. Nichols was timid, of course, being second fiddle to Keaggy, so it was harder for him to step up to the plate and deliver. On our live material, the only time you'll hear Lynn solo is on my songs. I wanted him to feel like he mattered. So apart from performing my music, in which Lynn could find his own voice, he was relegated to playing Keaggy's parts on Keaggy's songs. Terry was a good drummer. I'm a drum nut -- I started on drums and I am always involved with the drummer on records I produce, so I'm picky. But yeah, we were kind of The Dead of CCM. We loved jamming, and loved going off to wherever. Honestly, we considered it worship. It is one of those times in my life where what was happening musically in a moment felt so connected to the Spirit. It was beautiful. I think it was the exuberance of young men in love with God, in a way that an old man is not going to be in love with God (if that makes sense). You get older and you develop an understanding with God, if you know what I mean."

Phil Madeira

One thing that (to me, at least) is deliciously dated on this record, would be the keyboard work. Well, not so much the keyboard work, but the keyboards themselves. After all, we're talking mid-70s...so Phil Madeira went into the studio armed with (among other things) a Fender Rhodes electric piano, and a MicroMoog and PolyMoog synthesizers. It doesn't get much better than that. "The synths were definitely vintage," smiled Dan Cunningham. Phil Madeira, who is known to be a little hard on this record, acknowledges that "some of the Rhodes stuff is pretty good."

So what brought this party to an end? What caused Mr. Keaggy to become a solo act again?

"That's a little fuzzy in my memory," says Dan Cunningham. "I remember Phil telling me the band would be ending; I think we were on the road when that happened. I suppose he was just ready to move on to the next phase of his career. You would have to ask him..."

Andersen and Madeira have more specific memories of the band's demise.

Terry Andersen: "At the end of the last tour, we were all exhausted. Some feelings and frustrations had come to the surface and it was generally understood that it was over. I knew for sure that I couldn't continue. I think the stress and various motives for even being a band were frayed and not unified. I remember giving my PKB jacket to Peter because he didn't get one. That was kind of a stake in the ground that it was over for me. I can't say too much about interpersonal strife within the group, or about the elders who wanted to manage the spiritual and mechanical aspects of a significant up-and-coming Christian band. There is a season for all things. Celebrity and success are often in tension with ministry."

Phil Madeira: "Like the old country song says, 'I'll take the blame.'" When I got to Love Inn I had a girlfriend named Elinor. At some point, when we got engaged it became clear that I was supposed to have asked the elder's permission. They would've said no, by the way. Essentially, I was told to choose Love Inn or Elinor. And I wisely chose Elinor, with whom I have two amazing daughters. I will say that when we divorced after 25 years of trying, the first thing I thought of was Peter Hopper out there in the ether, saying, 'I told you so.' But that's just what fear does. And I am so glad I made the decision to marry her. We remain great friends, aware of our failure but so grateful that we put our kids ahead of our differences and can all enjoy being in the same room together. So I was first to leave Love Inn, followed by Phil Keaggy, followed by our trusty $50-a-week roadie, Ben Pearson, who remains one of my best friends to this day."

Postscript

Post-PKB life has been good to each of the members of this much-loved band.

Dan Cunningham

"I now play as a solo act in a fingerstyle/traditional vein," says Dan Cunningham. "Over the years I've recorded ten albums, including a Christmas album that featured acoustic guitar. I learned a lot playing with Phil and the guys. His overall spontaneous approach to his acoustic sets and just watching what he did on guitar influenced me. Over the years I have realized that I subconsciously picked things up from Lynn Nichols and Phil Madeira, also." Dan serves as a webmaster of sorts for pickndawg.com, a site that covers his music and several other subjects, including the best place on the web for Phil Keaggy Band photos and history.

Terry Andersen with some blogger...

Terry Andersen became a different kind of artist. I had a chance to meet Terry and visit with him in 2017 in Nashville. He was creating tables, benches, wall hangings and more. And stronger than ever in the faith. "When the PKB ended, I went on with my painting business and a creative marketing productions business selling jingles, film animation, logos and graphic art by some very talented people. We bought an old house with two barns on 4 acres in Freeville. We continued in fellowship at the church there until we moved to Nashville in 1986. In Tennessee, I hung wallpaper for 2 straight years, then painted new houses with a small crew. I even hung untrimmed, unpasted wallpaper for Amy Grant and Gary Chapman on their farm. I wrote a one-hour light rock music drama with 26 characters called Small World, Big Kingdom. In 1993 I invented and patented the Ladder Mate (now called the Pivot Ladder Tool). We adopted a little girl and moved our family of 6 to a farm south of Nashville; Janie had sheep lamas and alpacas, and I had a little blues band project -- Mudpan Melvin & the Mission. Divorced in 2004. I literally continue to paint, hang wallpaper and work with the homeless and various mission and church activities. I also play acoustic percussion for some worship and tent revivals."

Meanwhile, I was one of the long-haired, tie-dye clad revelers at the iconic Cornerstone Festival in 1996.

Phil Keaggy

Main Stage, Cornerstone '96

Phil Keaggy was playing Main Stage with a live band (!) that night, and I couldn't wait. When the time came for Keaggy to take the stage, I looked at the gentleman on the Hammond B-3 and thought he looked familiar. I moved a little closer to the stage and, yep, sure enough. It was Phil Madeira. When they launched into the song Time, I nearly lost it. It felt like just a little bit of a PKB reunion that night.

"My tenure with the PKB gave me credentials when I moved to Nashville in 1983," Madeira explained. "A lot of doors opened in CCM. And even though I didn't stay in that world, many of my closest friends and continuing associations began because of those doors.

Phil Madeira (far left) with (L-R) Randy Stonehill, Rick Cua, Phil Keaggy, Glenn Kaiser and Joe English at the Cornerstone Festival

That led to a long and happy career as an artist, songwriter, producer, instrumentalist, author and painter. I'm grateful." Madeira says his career got a boost when he attended a memorial service for Mark Heard in LA and met Buddy and Julie Miller. That relationship opened up the Americana world for him, both as a musician and producer. And that led to his association with Emmylou Harris.

Emmylou Harris (center) with Phil Madeira (right)

As of this writing, Madeira is in his 13th year as a member of Harris' backup band, known as the Red Dirt Boys. "I've never experienced anything like the Red Dirt Boys and Emmy," Madeira said. "It's a true love fest, serving each other, cheering each other on, and making the best music we can possibly make."

The Red Dirt Boys (Madeira, 2nd from left)

Madeira told me a story regarding his musical dreams as a young man that is so crazy, it has to be true: "I was an art major in college and had an assignment to create a record cover. Since there was no actual recorded music, I made up the credits on this album cover by listing my favorite musicians of the time -- Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, Michael Omartian, Al Perkins and Phil Keaggy. Do you know that all these years later, I've played with every single one of them."

Oh -- and there was one other detail on that college project record cover that's pretty amazing. "On background vocals I listed Emmylou Harris," Madeira said. "All the way back in 1974." You can't make that up.

Lynn Nichols

Lynn Nichols ended up with a stellar and very eclectic career in Contemporary Christian Music, as a musician, producer and executive producer.

Chagall Guevara

(Lynn Nichols is 2nd from right)

He is, of course, a guitarist with the band Chagall Guevara and ended up working with Phil Keaggy quite a bit in the aftermath of the PKB. Nichols contributed in one way or another to Sunday's Child, Find Me in These Fields, Crimson and Blue, Revelator, Blue, Time1, Time2, Invention, Premium Jams, Jammed! and Zion. It's no surprise to see that Nichols was involved with artists such as Russ Taff, Steve Taylor and Dave Perkins. What's weird is that he was the executive producer for a string of albums by Servant and Carman.

Madeira, Keaggy and Nichols in a Sunday's Child promo pic

"Lynn is apparently retired," said Phil Madeira. "I personally believe the best records Keaggy ever made were produced by Lynn Nichols, bar none...especially Sunday's Child."

Phil Keaggy

Of course, Phil Keaggy went on to be arguably the most prolific, respected and cherished artist in the history of Christian music. Some would say it's not even arguable. He has certainly inspired audiences at every turn...with both his gentle, humble spirit and jaw-dropping talent.

I asked Terry, Phil M. and Dan to tell me how they feel about Emerging as they look back on it, some 45 years later. "I would say that Emerging just lays there for me," said Phil Madeira, candidly. "Listening to it just brings back too many sour memories of the guy behind the glass, with his head in his hands, letting us know that he wasn't happy. It was the most joyless time I've ever had in the studio, even though I was incredible happy that we were doing it. But I had nothing to compare it to. Then I ended up working with Brown Bannister, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Buddy Miller...and it's like, 'Oh, this can be fun.'"

 

Dan Cunningham

Dan Cunningham says he was pretty happy with the record, overall. "If nothing else, it was a good representation of how the band sounded," he said. "It was the band without a lot of gimmicks. I was under the impression that it was well-received but maybe I'm not in a position to evaluate that objectively."

Terry Andersen said he was excited and proud to have a finished album project actually packaged, but promoting the album was a source of frustration. "Distribution, airplay and marketing were probably handicapped, being handled by a small, in-house record company," he laments. "Emerging was an experiment in time and I guess we were not a seasoned or full-time band. So in some ways, it may not have reached its full potential. Funny how some fans say it was their favorite album...yet none of the modern radio shows playing oldies-but-goodies ever play anything from Emerging." [Not so fast, Terry! I hosted one of those radio shows for 15 years and regularly played Theme/Where Is My Maker, Take a Look Around and Turned On the Light!]

I'll say this...and it is anecdotal information...but all I know is that whenever I see a song or a photo from Emerging shared on social media, the love comes flooding in. Just read the comments.

Emerging was re-released on CD in 2000 as ReEmerging with a different track listing, including four newly recorded songs by the original band members. One of the songs, "Mighty Lord" by Phil Madeira, had been considered for the 1977 release but was dropped. Madeira says "Mighty Lord" was always a "show-stopper" for the band in their live concerts, and says "the elders" were to blame for its exclusion from Emerging.

A ballad titled "Gentle Eyes" that had appeared on the original album, was left off the CD reissue. According to Dan Cunningham, a song called "Psalm 73" by Keaggy and one titled "So Hey!" by Madeira were also recorded for the original sessions, but were left on the proverbial cutting room floor. "I think it was decided they did not fit the album," Dan said. "Even so, I was disappointed that the takes were not saved for later use, or at least our own enjoyment."

The former Love Inn today

Love Inn came in for quite a bit of criticism earlier in this post. It wasn't some sort of utopia by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't all bad either. As with most complicated situations in life, the truth lies somewhere in between. "Although there were some downsides, I value my Love Inn years," Dan Cunningham said. "I was able to fellowship and work alongside some tremendous people of faith. The continual focus on worship and community was a valuable experience that has stayed with me. I tried to keep my own spiritual 'sense of balance' when I was unsure of the direction things were taking. Some former members do not speak well of their Love Inn experience. I understand that, and I'm still friends with many of those people. But I regard my time there as an essential spiritual journey, and I have great affection for the people I associated with. The Love Inn worship experience in the 1970s was both a corporate celebration and an intimate time with God. I came away with a lot I was able to share when I got involved with ministries later, and a lot of wisdom to boot. I still hear from friends and strangers who relate how their life was influenced by either Love Inn, The Scott Ross Show, or the PKB."

I'll give Terry Andersen the last word.

"We were musicians with some similar and some varied testimonies, goals, vision and callings. We experienced a lot of good times in unity and good fruit in meeting and encouraging people after concerts, and receiving the same. It was a two-year, rare and special season for us as the Phil Keaggy Band. Naturally, some relationships within the band were warmer, closer, more intimate and easy. But we were all trying in some degree to sharpen and use our musical talents to further the Kingdom. That was a big emphasis in our community. I don't feel comfortable sharing too many specifics, but you can imagine the devil was aware and at work trying to diminish if not derail our unique, community-based effort. There was always tension about the motives, intent and mission of the PKB. We all pitched in to be messengers of the Kingdom, encouraging people to either find Jesus or be encouraged in their gifts and even through their trials. Zeal, tension, ambition, pioneering, breaking old molds, creating space for individualism within some type of structure, seeking and interpreting God...I can only imagine the broad shoulders the Lord has. The patience and longsuffering toward His hyper-creative, animated friends. We can't go back and fix or change the missteps or the ignorance of 'seeing through a glass darkly.' But we can strain to what lies ahead...the prize, the glory, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the now, as well as in the return of the Lord Jesus."

Amen, Terry. There is still a Kingdom...emerging...