Blog Archive for August 2026

Album Of The Day: Town To Town by Phil Keaggy

Album Art of Phil Keaggy's Town To Town album - In a downpour on a side street, a man stands in the doorway of a brick building witha. guitar sitting on the steps in front of him as a number of people scramble with luggage and umbrellas working to get inside a yellow taxi cab. The inside of the building is golden and looks inviting, and the man is looking up at the sky and wearing a leather jacket and a sweater, plus is not minding the other people out the door. The scene looks maybe a bit old-timey for the era of this album's release. In the top left, there's a circular design that looks maybe a bit mid-century modern, an illustration of a cityscape of tall buildings at night with a red and white checkered pattern around it, and on the top it says the artist's name, and below it wrapping around the edge is the album name.

Released 45 years ago sometime this month, this is the fourth vocal album from guitar virtuoso Phil Keaggy (not including his albums with Glass Harp or The Phil Keaggy Band). Tracks like "Full Circle" and the 7-minute "Town To Town" bring some fun rock and the album definitely has a '70s/'80s vibe. The closing track "Let Everything Else Go" is one he has played live a lot and re-recorded a number of times since this release. The lyrics of these rock songs, both fast and slow, are definitely very ministry-focused, often pointing to God as the reason of life for Phil and leading the listener to have a closer relationship to God. Still, though, it is clear that these are very personal songs to Phil Keaggy, and unlike some of his instrumental guitar albums, he's not just doing this to show off his skills (though that still does happen a bit here). His guitar styles vary widely, mostly electric but some acoustic layered in songs as well. My favorite era of Phil Keaggy's vocal music is the mid-'90s to 2000s, I think, but this early album is not bad either. These early albums were hard to find not too many years ago as they have been long out of print so I only started listening to this in the last few years after Phil Keaggy and his team got the rights to put the remastered albums on streaming and Bandcamp. I'm glad we can now access more of this artist's work today.

Release Year: 1981
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Mr. Buechner's Dream by Daniel Amos

Album Art of Daniel Amos's Mr. Buechner's Dream album - On a black background, there's a small painting of trees and a starlit sky above them, looking from the ground. The trees are mostly white or light brown, thin trunks with brown or orange leaves. There's white, puffy clouds above some, and a speckled blue sky in other spots. Above the image in a red, white and blue gradient font is the band's name, and below the image in smaller white text is the album name.

Released 25 years ago last month, this is the thirteenth studio album from alternative rock band Daniel Amos. That's right, Daniel Amos is a band, not a person. Terry Scott Taylor, Tim Chandler, Greg Flesch and Ed McTaggart make up Daniel Amos and had been releasing music since the mid-'70s. This was their first album in 6 years and it's self-produced, and they may have gone a bit overboard because this is a two-CD album stretching 2 hours (if you include the hidden track on the 2nd CD). This is the first Daniel Amos album I purchased, and I purchased it mostly on the band's reputation many years ago, and honestly have not listened to it much. But it's clear these musicians are talented and there's lots of fun songs here. "Ribbons And Bows" is catchy, and the title track is a short one imagining literary figures such as C.S. Lewis, Flannery O'Connor, Lewis Carroll, Walker Percy, T.S. Eliot and G.K. Chesterton in a dream of Frederick Buechner's. Some of it is reflecting on the loss of some friends in the previous years, I think. I should check out more of their previous music sometime; I'm not that familiar with this band overall but they sound pretty good.

Release Year: 2011
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Young Love by Mat Kearney

Album Art of Mat Kearney's Young Love album - On a solid, neon green background, a black-and-white photo of a young man in a black-and-white striped shirt, black pants and old-time cap with a short beard. He's looking down towards something in front of him and holding some sort of old boombox or something in his right arm. In the top left, in black is printed the artist's name in large black letters. The album title is printed below it in the same size but in white. There's a thick black border around the edge.

Released 15 years ago today, this is the fourth album from pop/rock singer-songwriter Mat Kearney. I think it's probably his best album, and that's at least partially because he seems to have written many songs, but he picked only 10 songs that are the best, they're upbeat and show his versatility, to some extent. His previous album was great though a bit on the slow side, and this album is definitely not that. Almost all of these songs have a very heavy beat, maybe inspired by some of his hip-hop influences. It's an excellent 40 minutes of well-crafted pop songs. Lyrically, Mat Kearney is mostly writing love songs to his wife—he just got married the year before—as well as struggles to love those in his life. The first three songs, "Hey Mama", "Ships In The Night" and "Count On Me" are the best, but don't miss the rest either. "Rochester" is the closing song and it definitely slows things down, telling the story of his grandfather in a very simple, acoustic folk style and it's such a fitting ending to the album. If you want to hear me talk more about it, there's a recent episode of The Album Anniversary Podcast where Caleb and i talk about this album for over an hour.

Release Year: 2011
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Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: Age Of Reptiles by Showbread

Album Art of Showbread's Age Of Reptiles album - A drawing of a green lizard looking at and reaching out to a small, pink baby of some sort in a clear glass orb. The orb seems to be held by a large human and we only see its hands. The drawing has decorative black corners, and around that is a brown marble color. At the top, in large black letters it says the band's name, with the album art in a light brown smaller type inside a bright pink box.

Released 20 years ago today, this is the second album on a major label from post-hardcore/screamo band Showbread. Lyrically, this band mixes horror tropes with religious language and scripture, and as the album's title suggests, a lot of talk of various types of reptiles and other animals as a metaphor for our primal nature. Musically, it's a mix of very loud guitars, a good amount of synthesizers, and a lot of screaming amid some singing, though there are also some quiet moments as well. The epic, 10-minute closing track even ends with a soft singing of a modern praise chorus. This is one of my favorite records from the band, as the band has a lot to say about society and religion and such a unique style that they do it in. It's probably not going to be appreciated by everyone, but I really like this album when I'm looking for something harder.

Release Year: 2006
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