Search and Destroy: John Fahey

he Transcendental Waterfall - Guitar Excursions 1963-1967 is a 6-LP box set drawing from John Fahey's best, and most influential, period. Included in the set are Blind Joe Death, Death Chants, Breakdowns And Military Waltzes, The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites, The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party, The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death, and Days Have Gone By, all reissued on 180 gram vinyl with deluxe tip-on jackets. Also included are a t-shirt, poster, and a postcard, all of which are housed in a deluxe box with stunning graphic design. An amazing package featuring some of the most important guitar solo recordings of the 20th century. Limited to 2000 numbered copies!

expensive times to be a fahey fan. hoping to get the dust to digital box for xmas. will shell out for it if i don't.

mmmmmm those are all great records. worth owning. cheaper and easier than trying to get originals.

also a postcard

i think i might feel weird wearing a t-shirt with john fahey's face on it.. any pics?!?!

important records do a cool fahey t-shirt (all their shirts are next to nothing, also, so)

http://importantrecords.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product_node/apparel/fahey_tee.jpg

originals of those recs are really $20+ these days? jeez.

http://www.popsike.com/php/quicksearch.php?pagenum=1&searchtext=john+fahey&incldescr=&sortord=ddate&thumbs=&currsel=

fonotone box saving my life

Picked it up the other day as a birthday gift to myself!

happy birrrrrthday indeed.
box was mentioned ... on some other thread, can't remember now. but it is fantastic, really a beautiful thing. there are some recordings on there that are just curiosities (mostly anything where john sings), but also tons of magical sounds that can rank with his best stuff. it's funny, having dug pretty deep into the post-fahey acoustic guitar landscape, he still sounds the best, even if some of his followers are technically "better" players. not sure what it is -- fahey's compositions are often these monumental, impeccably constructed creations. hearing some of the early versions of some well-known tunes on the new box only drives this home.

I really wanted this before. Now want it even more.

some of the tunes w/ fahey's singing as blind thomas are A+

HERE COMES BIG JEAN PAUL SARTRE, HE'S GOT THE BLUES TOO

so what the hell is THIS box? Volumes 1-6 reissued?

"John Fahey - The Transcendental Waterfall: Guitar Excursions 1963-1967 6xLP box set $124.99 (4 Men With Beards)"

― sleeve, Friday, October 28, 2011 10:20 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ugh. fuck a format fetishist. you can get all those records on CD for like half that much.

still want the fonotone thing though, goddam it's pricey.

not only can you get them on those Fantasy CDs, they all have a shit-down of bonus material

grr shit-TON, i mean (how did that happen)

that transcendental waterfall thing obv has awesome music but i happened upon all of those takoma lps at a store in l.a. (all in pretty pristine shape) and snapped em up for $40 total.

yeah, i bought the first four for $50 a few years back, they're around

I bought all of early ones except Days Gone By about six months ago used on Amazon as well as the single disc comp of Of Rivers.../After the Ball. I don't think I paid more than $7 for any of them and got most for, like, $2 meaning the shipping was more than than the CDs.

Quick note, the version of "Tuff" that appears on the Cul De Sac collab is indeed Fahey. The one that appears on the 1977-19whatever "Best of" is a Charlie Schmidt song that is totally different. I really do dig Fahey's version. Been awhile since I've listened to the other one.

Some of this live John Fahey (on Sea Changes and Coelacanths) reminds me a bit of Durutti Column. Does Reilly have any known (long-standing) admiration for Fahey? I suppose a guitar is going to sound a little like a guitar in general.

listening to this new to me concert from 1975 on wolfgang's vault: http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/john-fahey/concerts/great-american-music-hall-august-08-1975-1st-set.html
so great. the intro to "red pony" sounds like fahey's about to go full on metal.

IN SEARCH OF BLIND JOE DEATH: THE SAGA OF JOHN FAHEY
A documentary on folk, blues and beyond music legend John Fahey, native of Takoma Park, Maryland.

Two shows only! Oct. 26 & 27, 1:00 p.m. near Washington D.C. at the AFI Silver - 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring

www.afi.com/silver

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/01/31/listen-john-faheys-strange-mixtapes-for-a-record-store-clerk/

yeah we were freaking out about those over on the post-Takoma thread

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Death-Fahey-American-Guitarist/dp/1613745192

oh cool that's exciting!

Yeah, gonna check that out at some point!

Listening to "Vol. 6 Days Have Gone By" for the first time in a while by the way UMS, thanks for plunking that in my head.

anyone know steve lowenthal? how should i calibrate my expectations? days have gone by is def a transitional record, has the last of the really good old recordings on, he was turning professional about then, has his sound collage stuff, by the time he got to voice of the turtle that early takoma shtick had bulged to byzantine, ridiculous, self-parodying levels (yellow princess was a different thing). days have gone by is mb the best fahey though, first 6 tracks are pretty much all incredible classics.

looks like he is the dude behind this label: http://www.vdsqrecords.com/
so he'd probably fit in over on the ilx brigade thread

has he written much before?

his mfa? http://books.google.com/books/about/In_Christ_There_is_No_East_Or_West.html?id=86QppwAACAAJ

that looks interesting... i'm very curious about the format, how much will be stitched-together interviews, how much narrative there'll be...

Think Lowenthal might also be one of the people behind Swingset (which I have only read a couple of times, so not sure how much that means):

http://swingsetmagazine.com/about/

Issues of Swingset I bought were pretty cool, mostly just interviews and reviews of weirdo stuff, but he has been at "it" since 2001 at least if he is the same guy.

looks promising! will read.

Verrrrry late to the party here, but a good portion of this Fahey Fonotone Years box set is terrific. I was misled by an early listen to those, err, admittedly tough "Blind Thomas" tunes and a friend who referred to the box set as 'unnecessary,' but I'm finding most of it engrossing and much of it at least on par with a lot of Fahey's best early stuff.

haha, yeah, some of that vocal stuff is kind of rough going (though occasionally pretty funny), but there is more than enough amazing material to make up for it.

fahey week at delta slider is in full swing! i wrote up an interesting radio performance/interivew from the early 90s today. http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/

heard mixed things about this documentary, but so far the highlight has been seeing joe bussard play + interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p--IpvvFJ4A

i thought the documentary was pretty bland overall but the bussard bit was excellent. idk why they spent like 5 minutes talking to some dipshit from the decembrists who looked straight off a barenaked ladies album cover

I enjoyed the documentary. But I don't know enough about his life to take issue with what they may have left out.

And honestly they didn't spend very much time with the Decemberists guy. I really didn't find his presence that annoying, and I'm not going to otherwise complain about him just cause I also don't like the Decemberists.

he is probably a cool guy.
the zabriskie point tapes are interesting! very meandering, but in a good way for the most part. all solo, wonder if there are any tapes floating around w/ various collaborators (fahey mentions bringing in other musicians).

i didn't mind the decemberist guy or even townsend but it was a little weird to reach out to them and not, say, Peter Lang or Leo Kottke who were close associates to Fahey and might have a had a little more to add other than "I like John Fahey a lot"

yeah opening on townsend was really weird, i was struggling to draw a line between their respective playing

True! Was hoping Glenn Jones would show up too.

Either way, if you can get Townsend to say meaningful things in your documentary, it's probably worth including, if for no other reason but to get Fahey material more attention through association.

To that point, maybe they had him appear immediately to hook any casual viewers mostly unfamiliar with Fahey.

I wonder if there is pressure for documentary makers to pepper in star-power for that reason, like from a marketing stand point you need some percentage of star names to call out in promotional materials.

yeah actually townsend is townsend so i'm cool w.him overall & he was a big fan I know Fahey kinda patted him on the head when Pete wrote him and had him listen to Tommy haha

i mean i get it definitely, both are in there for interest, i just thought it was kind of lazy not to have leo or peter in, as i think both are pretty accessible and i dunno, it's like they were so close to him