john fahey

helm · Post by **helm** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 11:09 pm

anyone else heard of john fahey? have i spelt his name right, for that matter? girlfriend's dad played me his most recent (and by the sound of things last) album over christmas. amazing, the last track has the best drone ever on it! don't think the rest of the family was too impressed, but iwas and i thought some of you might be/ may have experienced this already.

meanwhile, happy new year to you all!

stimey · Post by **stimey** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:03 pm

yeah, i've heard/of him. the blind joe death stuff is the sought after stuff, but my experience is that its all about as good as any. seems like fahey was very interested in the blues tradition of creating the alter ego (see peetie wheatstraw, etc.). interesting character, worth reading about. i found out about him from an enthusiastic university prof in a course called north american music and art since 1945. happy hunting...

mbv · Post by **mbv** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:16 am

this is a great record. all instrumental, sounds like just Fahey and his guitar, some banjo, a bit of harmonica and some tinkling of the ivories. kicks off with 'Bicycle Built For Two' ya know, 'Daisy, Daisy, give me yer tits to chew'

I think the Transfiguration Of Blind Joe Death was recorded in '69 or so. there is a connection with Red Crayola's Parable Of Arable Land, something to do with a pyschedelic scene, if I remember right. the following could be me talking bollocks, but its just off the top of my head: also Transfiguration is a remake of an earlier record called Blind Joe Death, which was recorded years before, by Fahey
amazing stuff, I got the whole album off P2P, but I'll be searching for the vinyl

mbv · Post by **mbv** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 10:12 am

a nice chap posted a Fahey recording at STG, recorded in 2000, four months before he died. link:
http://www.sharingthegroove.org/msgboar ... adid=39401

also early spz BBC recordings here:
http://www.sharingthegroove.org/msgboar ... ritualized

herman · Post by **herman** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 10:39 am

john fahey latest - and unfortunately last - release by my account was 'red cross' on the Revenant Company label. I think it's vinyl only. Very nice tunes, all instrumental tracks. Kinda soulfull blues, worth to check out.
If you like John Fahey you also might be interested in Warn Defever (Lo Recordings)

Cheers,

H

tremelovirus · Post by **tremelovirus** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 6:39 am

Fahey and Ed Denson were responsible for"discovering blues player Bukka White and Fahey was also influential in getting Skip James to start playing and recording blues guitar again.Both artists worth checking out along with Blind Willie Mctell.There is a CD on Biograph Records with samples from all three artists.

nasty · Post by **nasty** » Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:37 pm

I picked up transfiguration of blind joe death as my first john fahey release last year. The track "on the sunny side of the ocean" has really got me... I particularly like the eastern influence - can anyone suggest other Fahey recordings along a similar vein?