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Biography: Glass Harp Returns
During the late 1960s, the rock music genre began to split and go in different directons. Top Forty radio continued to play the more pop oriented songs, while college radio stations leaned toward the heavier album rock of bands like Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience and Led Zepplin.These hard rock bands were known for their interspective song lyrics, long instrumental jams and screaming guitar solos. One such band that hailed from the mid west town of Youngstown, Ohio was Glass Harp. Featuring the blazing solos of guitarist Phil Keaggy, the freight train drumming of John Sferra and the thunderous groove of bassist Daniel Pecchio, Glass Harp quickly rose to regional fame after it's inception in 1968. By the time they started doing national tours in 1970, word of this three piece power trio was spreading throughout the rock music world.
But at what seemed like the brink of world fame, the life of Phil Keaggy took an unforseen turn after the death of his mother following a head-on car accident. Keaggy started looking for answers and eventually found them in Christianity. Soon, the already spiritual bent that was in Glass Harp's songs became more pronounced as Keaggy grew in his faith.
Glass Harp continued on the road to fame, opening for such well known rock acts as The Who, Yes, Iron Butterfly, Traffic, Chicago, The Kinks, Humble Pie, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, and Grand Funk Railroad. A high point in the band's career was playing a concert at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York, which was recorded for a then planned Live album release. But Keaggy was feeling the pull of a higher calling and in 1972, at the release of their third Decca album, announced he was leaving the band to go out on his own as a solo artist in the Contemporary Christian Music field. Sferra and Pecchio drafted the help of violinist Randy Benson and guitarist Tim Burks, whose expertise on the instrument rivaled Keaggy's in some minds. But the unique synergy that Keaggy, Pecchio and Sferra had was not to be found in the new line up and in 1973, Glass Harp would disband.
Phil, Dan and John stayed close over the years and would delight friends and fans with an occasional concert. John and Phil would co-write songs that would appear on Phil's solo albums including "The Further Adventures Of..." on Revelator, "And On That Day" off of True Believer and "Chalice" for Inseparable. But in 2000, Keaggy, Pecchio and Sferra, after 28 years away, would finally come home to Youngstown, Ohio for an official reunion concert featuring the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. The sold out venue saw Glass Harp play better than they ever had before and the concert was recorded for the personal archives of the band members. Upon listening to those tapes, it was decided that the recording was so good it would be a shame not to share the night with their fans worldwide. The next year, to great fanfare and reviews, Glass Harp - Strings Attached was released.
The success of this reunion has spawned numerous other concerts across the country as well as the recording of the first new studio album in 31 years. The recently released CD, "Hourglass", combines the jam band rock and roll of the 1970s with the tight punch of New Millinium progressive and will surely delight old fans as well as make many new ones.
Contributed by: Rob Whitehurst
Contributor organisation: www.JesusMusicOldies.com
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