Familiar songs dominate

Sunday will be the fourth hometown show within 15 months for Glass Harp.
Glass Harp's concert with Youngstown Symphony Orchestra will be similar, but not identical, to the concerts it performed in October 2000 at Edward W. Powers Auditorium and last July at Stambaugh Auditorium, bass player Dan Pecchio says.
The first half of the concert will feature Pecchio, drummer John Sferra and guitarist Phil Keaggy performing Glass Harp rock songs and more.
One of a few new songs, "Our Towers," was written by Keaggy and his 75-year-old uncle. "He pens poems much in the style of the 1950s Beat generation," Pecchio said of Keaggy's "Uncle Duke."
It was written after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and concerns "liberty and the fight for liberty," Pecchio said. The trio first performed it in Dayton two months ago.
Symphony musicians and music director Isaiah Jackson will emerge after intermission to join in performing orchestral arrangements of some of Glass Harp's best-known songs.
Sunday's show will be the fourth time in the last 15 months that Glass Harp has performed in its hometown. The "Strings Attached" concert of October 2000 was the first time Glass Harp played here in nearly 30 years. The three musicians began performing together a few years ago after a hiatus of more than two decades.
Scheduling: Concerts last July at Stambaugh and last August at Mill Creek Park Morley Pavilion were two of only five Glass Harp shows in all of 2001, Pecchio said.
"It's been difficult," Pecchio said. "Phil's calendar is usually pretty full." Keaggy, now of Nashville, is a popular contemporary Christian artist.
Besides Keaggy's performance schedule, the preparation of the "Strings Attached" live CD that was released last summer was time-consuming. "The year slipped by," said Pecchio, who now lives in Chagrin Falls.
Glass Harp is scheduled to play at some big music festivals in Pennsylvania and Washington later this year, Pecchio said. The trio may also travel to Colorado.