| Author | Message | ||
     andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 51 Registered: 04-2006 |
a few month ago, i discovered a book of john fahey. it is a story collection of him. translated in german for the first time and titled blaugrasmusik (bluegrass music). this made me curious. i bought it, read it and felt in love with his stories, with his kind of writing. it is a kind of surrealistic writing. actually he is (he was, as he died sadly a few years ago) one of the finest guitarists. curious as i am i soon bought one cd out of his back-catalogue. what a revelation. this kind of 'american primitive guitar' playing catched me. it is blues, but neither not. it is folk, but neither not. it is jus finest fingerpicking style. my love to this kind of music is newish. i didn't know anything about john fahey. only leo kottke was a bit familiar to me. that my interest for this kind of music have also to do with the circumstance that my son began to learn guitar last november. i often took his guitar and tried to play for myself and sometimes i helped him. yes, i felt in love with 'guitars' and know i try to learn it, too. learning to play is difficult. at the age of 43 twice hard. a lot of working. the fingers are not flexible as my sons are. and my time for practise is limited. as i noticed some of you play guitar and you surely know what i mean. hope i will stick it out. in the meantime listen to john fahey's incredible music. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 90 Registered: 04-2005 |
Andreas, Check out here for a couple of clips of the great man playing http://musicforyoureyes.blogspot.com/ Apparently from a DVD. I don't know that much of his work, but having got my turntable going again recently, dug out 'I Remember Blind Joe Death'. It is quite entralling and very difficult to categorise (as you suggest) | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 52 Registered: 04-2006 |
andrew, thanks for this link. unfortuantely it didn't work on my pc. downloaded it, but it contains only some text-files. searching at the web i also found this dvd a few weeks ago . but due to this 'region code'- problem i didn't bought it until now. here is a interesting web-site about him: http://www.johnfahey.com/ greets andreas | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 145 Registered: 05-2005 |
I heard him fotr the first time on that Mojo roots of Led Zep and have been eager to hear more. Any suggestions as to where to start????? | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 92 Registered: 04-2005 |
Andreas That site functions in this way: 1) You download a small zip file that contains the link (to download the actual zipped file that contains the video clip)and the password for that file. 2) You then use this link to get at the zipped file. It is normally on rapidshare and I have not had any problems with it. Hope this helps! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 440 Registered: 03-2005 |
Geoff, I recommend one of the anthologies. I have a cheapie single-disc one on Takoma called "The Best of John Fahey 1959 - 1977" which is a really nice comp that concentrates on his unaccompanied work. That's the way you want him. A nice career overview is offered by the 2-disc Rhino collection "Return of the Repressed." This lets you know what happened when he got more recognition and his recordings became more elaborate. I confess, however, that I just skip all the more elaborate and produced stuff. I want my Fahey pure and solo. If you want to transport yourself back to your Jungian archetypes I can think of no better way than to set up a music shuffle of John Fahey and early Anne Briggs. They draw from very different sources but their music lives quite well together. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 53 Registered: 04-2006 |
andrew, you are a very helpful person. thanks a lot. now i catched it (despite the password in the textfile showed a ',' i/o a '.'). beautiful to see and hear him play. geoff, how to start with john fahey? if you like literature you should start with his book 'how bluegrass music destroyed my life', issued by drag city and with a foreword by jim o'rourke. this could be the first step to get attracted by him. than you immediately want to hear his music. a good starter can be 'the transfiguration of blind joe death'. this is surely one of his best works of the earler period. highly recommended is 'america' maybe this is his masterpiece. to give you a short impression what this album is about i copied this: F (source unknown): "I succeeded more on that album than on any of my other 12 albums in composing and recording (not to mention getting exactly the right sound I wanted). I worked on it for a long time. It was extended and syncopated tone poems for guitar, similar to many works for full orchestras by late romantic composers; i.e., Sibelius, Vaughn-Williams, Oliver Messican, etc." "...this set of chamber blues projects a sweeping panorama, combining epic originals with fractal readings of Skip James, Dvorak, and even `Amazing Grace.' A new cornerstone in a towering oeuvre." - Rating: A Entertainment Weekly 5/22/98, p.71 Listen to John Fahey's AMERICA and hear an honest-to-goodness pioneer of solo acoustic steel-string guitar. Originally intended as a double album but released in 1971 as a single LP, this edition contains the 9 singular tracks that were previously omitted. With a truly distinguishing approach, Fahey creates dusty, sweetly evocative worlds of American folk and blues that make the soul throb. His fingerpicking on alternating and drone bass lines coupled with chorded melodies continues to provide inspiration to acoustic players. AMERICA opens with the bittersweet "Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker," a spirited folk painting of elation dressed in suffering. Fahey's halting articulation at the outset of the tune eventually gives way to an up-tempo gust of glad resolve. Here and elsewhere lies Fahey's remarkable talent for squeezing a wondrous amount of expressiveness out of simple musical materials. Skip James's "Special Rider Blues" crawls along like a 12-string sloth, its call-and-response melodic lines full of languor and images of a breezeless afternoon in Mississippi. "Dvorak" is a sensitive arrangement of the third movement of Dvorak's eighth symphony, a perfect offering of classical composition with a natural folk sensibility. "Steel string wailing" spoken here John Fahey America (Takoma/Fantasy) IN 1971, John Fahey released the single LP America that many consider a masterpiece--a classic example of solo acoustic guitar from the man who defined the instrumental folk genre. Unfortunately, only about half of the original work made it onto vinyl because someone convinced the guitarist that a double album wouldn't sell. Now. thanks to the ability of digital technology to squeeze lots of info onto a single shiny CD, Fahey fans for the first time get to hear this landmark work in its entirety (actually, two minutes were cut since current CDs can hold only about 79 minutes of music). It's a real treat. The reissue is rapturous in its beauty--a majestic, spacious work as grand in its deceptive simplicity as the early American landscape from which it draws inspiration. This new version features nine additional songs that were meant to make up the first LP of the ill-fated two-record set, including inventive recastings of American hymns, gospel, and folk songs; a cover of country blues legend Skip James' "Special Rider Blues"; a breathtaking arrangement of the third movement from Dvorak's Eighth Symphony; and the lost masterworks "America" (thought to be the only recording of Fahey playing a 12-string guitar) and the 11-minute mini-opus "Dalhart, Texas, 1967." Considering that this brilliant Maryland guitarist rarely records or performs anymore--beset by a deep depression and inner demons--and is seldom able to attain the same level of virtuosity when he does, this release is all the more welcome. GREG CAHILL From the May 7-13, 1998 issue of the Sonoma County Independent. i can further recommend 'days have gone', 'the voice of the turtle' and 'death, chants, breakdowns and military waltzes'. all a worth to buy and naturally worth to listen. i am happy not to bought the compilations ( i thought about buying the rhino comp at the beginning of my fahey career), because i totally felt in love with mr. faheys music, with the artwork of the albums (and fine reissues) and the words and stories (of john fahey) accompanying the cds. oh my god, it is so exhausting to express in english what i want to say. i have to quit now. goodnight fellows. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 147 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wow, Andreas, he sounds like more than your average fingerpicker. Thanks for the tips guys, I'm going hunting!! Can you still get that book? A mate of mine from High School has discovered Bluegrass (Yay!) but then fallen into Australian/American accented mainstream country(Boo!). That book sounds like I might be able to lure him back to the fold.... | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 55 Registered: 04-2006 |
yes, geoff,, you can get that book. on amazon.com for example: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0965618374/qid=1150819887/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104 -4931475-8675967?s=books&v=glance&n=283155 the german book is based on this two books,a collection out of them. hope you can get them. and if you have read it, i am curious how you liked it. with a lot of greetings andreas |