Superb Talent!
One of the stations I created on Pandora radio was based on Tommy Emmanuel - a truly amazing 'picker'. I'm a big fan of all kinds of music. While listening John Fahey came up as a selection. I was taken back, not simply by his guitar ability, but by the tone, the wonderful ambiance. The first Fahey selection I heard was 'The Death of the Clayton Peacock' and I wanted more. I immediately ordered the CD and was totally absorbed during my first listen. I could easily do Yoga to this - if I did Yoga.
John's greatest hits, live
He'd finished eight albums (more or less) on Takoma, sold his Takoma label and recorded two albums for Vanguard. A newly discovered, newly released live session with John Fahey at the top of his game. the big time. And three years or so before he'd make his masterpiece statement, "America". Shy, laconic John occationally talks but mostly plays, without the tape loops feedback and more "psychedelic" stuff. Consistantly good performance, without filler or outtakes. Bluesy, Heartfelt. but without the whiskey.
The announcer is wrong, he might have lived in Berkeley in '68, but he came from Takoma Park Maryland, in suburban Washington, DC as his first label and many song titles attest. On the title track he improvises and pieces together bits from "Voice of the Turtle" (America) and Requiem for Russell Blaine Cooper, from Requia. Those familiar with his studio albums will here similar arrangement with occational improvization. The best cut is the thoughtful leadoff "When Springtime Comes Again" and a standout shortened "Requiem for Mississippi John Hurt".
I met John a few times, talked to him for hours, even tuned his guitars twice. Despite what he later said about disliking his earlier music, I know he'd approve of this. A great find, a great addition to the Fahey cannon, before John went off into the wilderness of his last decades, searching for that new sound. . . .
Well recorded for a live album.
While I don't think it's his best (see my list), it is certainly his best live! .
THE Fahey album
It brings together many of the best songs off his albums in incredible form. After extensive listening of many of John Fahey's albums, I would say that this is easily the best. For evidence, just listen to the version of "when the springtime comes again," one of the greatest fingerpicking performances ever, in my opinion. The whole disc is almost equally good, there is a great assortment of fingerpicking, slide, and alternate tunings. Anyone interested in Fahey or fingerpicking or blues should get this immediately and prepare to be blown away.
Fahey blows his nose, and there ain't no better thing.
I just bought this album, and I should probably listen to it and study
it for a decade or two, like I did with almost all the rest of Fahey's
amazing production, before pronouncing a verdict like this, but. . . here
it comes. This could be the one Fahey CD to have if for some cruel and
unusual reason you were condemned to only have one. He was at the top
of his game in terms of creativity (though some of his early eighties live
guitar playing remains unmatched technically and is better recorded) and
chose a marvelous (marvelous!) set of compositions for these concerts,
including some of the more ambitious and complex symphony-like pieces,
as well as a handful of the more folksy and gospely arrangements that
made him a favorite of fingepicking gymnasts.
Live albums are my favorite of his, and this is inevitable, after seeing
him in concert. Live, he was shyer with kitch and gratuitous
experimentalism than he was on vinyl, but still visionary and
uncompromising. He communicated an energy, and a sense of complete
sincerity and meaning that where overwhelming and emotionally
exhausting. He also had a sound that was out of this world. I once hung
out with him for a couple of hours while he was warming up before a
concert. For him a warm-up was much like that of an athlete, because he
played strings that would have pulled a cable car and used picks that
could have been made out of the rails (ok, slight exhaggeration). But out of
all of that metal he managed to negotiate a rich, complex and
surprisingly warm range of tones, as well as a massive volume and
harmonic inhertia (check out the requiem for John Hurt). Most everyone
else on the same gear would sound like an old metal bridge swaying in
the wind.
So, listen to the beautifuly simple and profound melody of Joe Kirby
Blues. It is an elementary piece to play. If it does not get you to a
guitar store buying metal picks and steel strings (and the wood to go
with it) I don't know what else will.
Essential early Fahey
Veering between his vision and version of traditional playing that may ocassionally slow or speed up for emotional emphasis, to pieces of beautiful hallucinatory individuality and expression like "Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain". The earliest live recordings yet released by the late and immortal John Fahey, find him at the peak of his powers. Over 76 minutes long with excellent sound quality, and most of the audience noise thoughtfully edited out by producer (and liner note author) Glenn Jones (of Cul de Sac), making this sound more like an album than a "live album", though it has all of the charm of the latter, without having it's flow chopped up by waves of applause. Subtitled "Live at The Matrix San Francisco, California 1968/1969", this is essential for the already converted, and an ideal entry point for the novice. .
You can see a complete list of all John Fahey discography, or go back to the John Fahey tabs
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