Audio CD review:
John Fahey - The Yellow Princess

John Fahey - The Yellow Princess

Band: John Fahey Title: The Yellow Princess Rating: Release Date: 14 February, 2006 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Yellow Princess 2: View (East from the Top of the Riggs Road/B&O Trestle) 3: Lion 4: March! For Martin Luther King 5: Singing Bridge of Memphis, Tennessee 6: Dance of the Inhabitants of the Invisible City of Bladensburg 7: Charles A. Lee: In Memoriam 8: Irish Setter 9: Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park 10: John Fahey Sampler, Themes and Variations [#] 11: Fare Forward Voyagers, 1965 [#] 12: Steel Guitar Medley [#]

Customer Reviews John Fahey If you like guitar music, you'll liek this album from a master. Enjoyable. No Better Introduction To Fahey's Music This is at least the third time Vanguard has issued this album on CD-"The Essential John Fahey" and "Best of the Vanguard Years" couple it with tracks from Fahey's "Requia"-but this 2006 release restores the original cover art and Fahey's surreal, confounding liner notes. If I could own only one John Fahey album, it would be "The Yellow Princess," so this reissue is a real treat. The addition of three previously unreleased tracks from 1965 would suffice to justify purchasing this version, even if you already owned an earlier edition. These include a rare example of his 12-string work, an early version of "Fare Forward Voyagers," and a lengthy slide guitar improvisation. For the uninitiated, I can think of no better introduction to Fahey's music than "The Yellow Princess. " All the primary strains of his work are represented here: pre-WWII country blues guitar stylings; Indian raga; Episcopal hymns ("Commemorative Transfiguration and Communion at Magruder Park" quotes "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones") and even musique concrete ("Singing Bridge of Memphis, Tennessee"). There is a more whimsical, evocative quality to the last-named track than one finds in Fahey's at times dissonant, abrasive later material. Reviewers elsewhere have remarked that "The Yellow Princess" features some of his best guitar work, and that the sonic quality of the recording is as if one is listening from inside the instrument. My friend Clark quotes John Fahey as having said something like, "I'm not the greatest guitarist, but I am the deepest. " Let the "Yellow Princess" show you what he meant. . . You can see a complete list of all John Fahey discography, or go back to the John Fahey tabs