Audio CD review:
John Fahey - Christmas Guitar, Vol. 1

John Fahey - Christmas Guitar, Vol. 1

Band: John Fahey Title: Christmas Guitar, Vol. 1 Rating: Release Date: 1990-10-17 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Joy to the World - John Fahey, Mason, Lowell 2: What Child Is This? - John Fahey, Dix, William Chatte 3: Medley: Hark the Herald Angels Sing/O Come All Ye Faithful - John Fahey, Public Domain 4: Auld Lang Syne - John Fahey, Burns, Robert [2] 5: The Bells of Saint Mary's - John Fahey, Adams, Emmett 6: Good Christian Men, Rejoice, Rejoice - John Fahey, Traditional 7: We Three Kings of Orient Are - John Fahey, Hopkins, John Henry 8: Away in a Manger, Pt. 1 - John Fahey, Traditional 9: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Fantasy - John Fahey, Traditional 10: The First Noel - John Fahey, Sandys, William 11: Good King Wenceslas - John Fahey, Neale, John M. 12: Of the Father's Love Begotten - John Fahey, Public Domain 13: Away in a Manger, Pt. 2 - John Fahey, Traditional 14: In the Bleak Midwinter - John Fahey, Public Domain 15: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - John Fahey, Sears, Edmund Hamil 16: Medley: Jesus, Won't You Come by Here/Go Tell It on the Mountain - John Fahey, Public Domain 17: Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming - John Fahey, Praetorius, Michael 18: Silent Night - John Fahey, Gruber, Franz

Pleasant but far from amazing But he also was a bit too eager to release (or in the case of this CD, re-re-release) material. John Fahey was a major guitarist, both for his own work and for his influence on Leo Kottke, among others. This is nice background music, but as a demonstration of his technique or fire, well, nope. I have a huge collection of Christmas music, and the different sounds fill different needs. Some are stirring and vibrant (think Christmas Cantata), some, like Odetta, dig deep and touch strong emotions, some are cheerfully goofy and nostalgic, like Bing or Dean. But this is just a little too whitebread, the kind of thing that you barely notice, just hums along amiably and suddenly disappears. . . Uh, oh, need another CD. Traditional tunes, traditional arrangments, traditonal playing. Nice enough, but that's all. Good, but a renaming. Those who have that CD should take heed before they purchase what they might think is an entirely different CD. John Fahey's work, both for Christmas and for other music should receive a wider hearing, but this CD is essentially, except for two versions of Away in a Manger, a re-recording of The New Possibility. It is also available with a different CD cover under a slightly different listing. Great Christmas background music It was the first music I heard by John Fahey and hooked me. I love this album. Every year I play my christmas album (yes, it's vinyl) and people always ask me who is playing. Unfortunately, no one can ever find Fahey's music in the local music stores. Now they can get it all online. You can see a complete list of all John Fahey discography, or go back to the John Fahey tabs