Revolt of the ILX Brigade: New Post-Fahey Folk For PPL that post in the Takoma & Tompkin's Square Threads

Jimmywine - yeah man I kinda just wanted to hear him tell stories

You'll get the chance for that, he's super chatty! All his tales all pretty entertaining, though. I think he really gets a kick out of sharing his past with someone who is interested and informed.

Re: Basho documentary, what is that gonna consist of? In the Basho thread I recall someone saying that the two clips in circulation are really the only known footage of him playing? It'll have to have lotsa interviews or something, I guess.

More curious about the new Fahey doc making the rounds - anyone seen it? Word on the street is that some people close to Fahey are sorta disowning it.

4/5/13 Espace 1789 Saint-Ouen France w/ Noël Akchoté's ensemble of five guitarists performing Carlo Gesualdo's Fifth Book of Madrigals

^looks great. this album - http://open.spotify.com/album/20yJZYt6wBXTYZkbIv19n6 - akchote playing madrigals composed by 16th century "Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer" gesualdo, sounds like it was recorded next to a main road in the rain. well worth a listen, obviously.

xp have heard the same from a handful of folks that were close in. was still worth the look fr the footage obv

Yeah, I definitely need to see it. A feature-length biopic seems long overdue.

love this thread, it's made me pick up my guitar for the first time in literally years (and for maybe the 100th ever, i'm terrible at guitar)

how do i shot lap steel lessons in mpls

i just broke three strings in the process of trying to replace one, i have no idea what i'm doing

Speaking of the Fahey doc, here's fearing/hoping they've checked some of the sources linked here, on the Takoma One-Offs thread---old tyme Ilxor Andy Beta's Fahey memoir is still the most enjoyable I've read:

there's a bootleg from the mid 70s where Fahey suggests that everyone (including himself) commit mass suicide.
"We could all go to sleep. Why don't we all go home and - why don't we go out back and have a joint suicide? Let's all go out back and commit suicide. Every one of us. The neat thing would be when the newspapers come they won't know what happened. Nobody will be able to figure it out."

― tylerw, Friday, June 29, 2012 3:30 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whoa, which one was this? i've been just getting into some of the bootlegs on delta slider. some heavy stuff in there, musically, that is. most of his banter thus far has been lightly amusing. nothing like this.

― global tetrahedron, Friday, June 29, 2012 4:21 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

delta-slider.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-fahey-as-jim-jones.html

― tylerw, Friday, June 29, 2012 4:22 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wow, that's pretty disturbing stuff, dude must've been more wrecked than I ever thought.

― global tetrahedron, Friday, June 29, 2012 4:46 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hey we all have our nights, don't we? ok, maybe not.

― tylerw, Friday, June 29, 2012 4:47 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This older lady, a folksinger, was telling me about being backstage at a festival in the late 60s or early 70s, when a limo came cruising through the mud, and people were saying, "Yeah, Fahey's here!" A guy who looked like a Texas Ranger got out, so impressive--followed by "a little ol' snakehead in a t-shirt." The Texas Ranger type was Fahey's bodyguard, the folksinger was told. As she recalled it, dude seemed "like a cult leader: bad vibes and lame. He played well, of course." But also, he was known early on for a warped sense of humor, and wouldn't be surprised if this scene fit that description. Later, in his more typical econo-mode, a Creem writer saw him onstage with a 12-pack and a rented guitar (both required in the contract), watching a little portable TV while he played (again, no complaints about the playing). But he also spent a lot of time talking about his favorite shows (re-runs of Green Acres, Adam-12, etc) and the Creem writer liked some of those shows too, but wanted a little more music. Still, it was okay. Glenn Jones had some good recollections in liner notes for Red Cross, which I think was the last album Fahey finished before he died, it was pretty good. But the up close and personal memoir that really gets me is Andy Beta's (Andy used to post around here)
http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-01-24/music/looking-for-blind-joe-death/

― dow, Friday, June 29, 2012 11:21 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks for the link, good article

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, July 3, 2012 10:31 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah that's great
Other times, he would play his mixes: collages of Nazi rallies, Balinese gamelan, and recent Chicago blues licks with their verses and choruses mischievously lopped off, rearranging their 12- bar logic.
wonder if any of these still exist?

― tylerw, Tuesday, July 3, 2012 10:38 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

another good one is the john jeremiah sullivan essay, which features fahey a bit:http://essayist.tumblr.com/post/8424884997/unknown-bards-the-blues-becomes-transparent-about"> http://essayist.tumblr.com/post/8424884997/unknown-bards-the-blues-becomes-transparent-about

― tylerw, Tuesday, July 3, 2012 3:32 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oops, sorry: Other times... is Tyler's quote from Andy's piece.

heyyyy, anyone have this? http://oh-be-joyful.blogspot.com/2010/11/nice-and-nasty-selections-from-dr.html
"This is basically a mixtape put together by Jack Rose.Lots of things that are quite obviously his influences in glorious lo-fidelity.Lots of rare blues,jazz,gospel,country.Artists include Sam McGee,Peg Leg Howell & His Guys,Freddie Keppard's Jazz Cardinals,Dixieland Jug Blowers,Blind Blake,Tommy Johnson & Frenchy's String band.There are 15 cuts with titles like Texas & the Pacific Blues,Blind Arthur's Breakdown,Buckdancer's Choice,Stockyard Strut & Soft Steel Piston.Good stuff & this is hard to find"

hey new william tyler up on spotify!!!

ok first two songs are fucking great and love the more expansive band arrangments, officially retract my upthread pre-release lukewarmness!!!!

this tomkins sq. thing looks very cool:
IMAGINATIONAL ANTHEM VOL. 6 : ORIGINS OF AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GUITAR
Gatefold Vinyl : TSQ 2868 out April 20th (Record Store Day) Ltd 1500
CD : TSQ 2851 out April 30th

If American Primitive Guitar begins with John Fahey and the Takoma School, then the actual origins of this sound is found within this collection of fourteen classic solo guitar performances. Recorded between 1923 to 1930, this set is the "Rosetta Stone" of style and repertoire tapped into deeply by Fahey, Basho & Rose, among many others. Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, Bayless Rose, Sylvester Weaver, Lemuel Turner, Frank Hutchison and Davey Miller are the rural artists included in this anthology. Each one of these showcases a particular technique and sensitivity sourced from the earlier 19th century parlor guitar tradition. Several of these sides are reissued for their first time including Sylvester Weaver's "Guitar Blues" which is the first solo finger picked guitar solo ever recorded. Stunningly remastered and annotated by Christopher King.

Yup, just got the email. Wish I was going to be anywhere near a damn record store on RSD. Grrrr...

Bussard 45 looks pretty great too

yeah josh from t square said that bussard is a pretty solid musician...

oh heck, now i need record store day junk

i don't imagine these will be two hard to score the day after though.

frank hutchison is pretty much my fave "white country blues" artist.

yeah, those don't necessarily seem like the hottest tickets on record store day, except for maybe people reading this thread.

highly reccommend this stuff to everyone, in the world of pre-war guitar pickers --
http://www.countysales.com/products.php?product=VARIOUS-%27Old%252dTime-Mountain-Guitar-1927%252d1931%27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xqbgAHpOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtBNMUESU1w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9DpR7gPBYo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCr-G9wowjU

ah shit i wasn't gonna go to record store day :(

I need it too...

Wow, yeah, this William Tyler is great. Only into the first track actually but I really dig it. Excited to see him- interested to see how he does this live- acoustic or electric, will he have accompaniment at all, etc

I'm very excited to pick up that record, too.

Actually, I'm kinda zoning out a bit to this, and maybe not in a good way? Some of the extra flourishes strike me as a bit cheesy, maybe that's just me. Finding it hard to latch on to anything. Maybe it's getting a little too new agey feeling for me. I dunno, I'll still give it a chance.

Oooh but track 4 is tasty. Really scratching an itch for me.

Some of the extra flourishes strike me as a bit cheesy
that's my main complaint, there are times when it seems just a little ... overripe? but it's still great for the most part, I'd say stick with it, there's some less ornate stuff on there too.

and thx for the tip on that comp, ian, ordered it.

i actually made a playlist on spotify without "cadillac desert" i think it's a vastly better album that way, for some reason that song irks me in some way and reflects poorly on the others

That's the song I just didn't care for, good to know it's an outlier?

Lol @ "overripe"

haha, well, we're dealing w/ a genre that's generally solo acoustic guitar... add some overdubs and everything starts sounding kinda decadent.

how do you guys like six organs, esp for octavio paz? that had a lot of overdubs iirc

octavio paz is awesome! i was mainly kidding about the decadent thing, i don't mind overdubs. as long as it sounds cool.

i'm not against overdubs necessarily or production, but i do think the tyler thing is walking a pretty fine line IMO, and mostly staying on the good side of just being pretty indie rock instrumentals vs. being this type of shit

even fahey def approached stuff as records and production compared to his contemporaries, all his tape cut up stuff and found sound collages....or the backwards stuff on the great san bernadino excursion....or just his use of echo and reverb in general

i was never entirely won over by six organs but that is probably my favourite. i say that as a curmudgeon who remains unmoved by a lot of the things ppl charmingly enthuse about in this thread.

fair enough!
let me charmingly enthuse about this: http://delta-slider.blogspot.com/2013/03/john-fahey-live-at-stoneybrook-1972.html

I think Fahey was really onto something with the delicate additions of reverb, esp. on Days Have Gone By, (i.e. Impressions of Susan), when your instrumentation is so sparse the addition of production effects carries a lot more weight imo, it's easy to go too far (see: Cadillac Desert or w/e)

yeah, the crossfade from a crisp studio mic to a mic in an echoey corridor outside trick deployed on John Henry on Blind Joe Death is so simple & so great

Also, that Stoneybrook boot slays, he does some real cool variation stuff on Fare Forward Voyagers I haven't heard anywhere else. Far superior to the Louisville 77 release that also came out as part of this latest Fahey week- he sounds pretty sauced on that one and some of the tracks are downright sloppy...

Speaking of Record Store Day
http://www.tompkinssquare.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/TSQ-Brick-Feb-8-131.jpg

Tompkins Square Label releases 4 titles for Record Store Day, April 20th, 2013. These limited items will be available exclusively at independent record stores in the US and overseas.

IMAGINATIONAL ANTHEM VOL. 6 : ORIGINS OF AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GUITAR
Gatefold Vinyl : TSQ 2868 out April 20th (Record Store Day) Ltd 1500
CD : TSQ 2851 out April 30th

If American Primitive Guitar begins with John Fahey and the Takoma School, then the actual origins of this sound is found within this collection of fourteen classic solo guitar performances. Recorded between 1923 to 1930, this set is the “Rosetta Stone” of style and repertoire tapped into deeply by Fahey, Basho & Rose, among many others. Sam McGee, Riley Puckett, Bayless Rose, Sylvester Weaver, Lemuel Turner, Frank Hutchison and Davey Miller are the rural artists included in this anthology. Each one of these showcases a particular technique and sensitivity sourced from the earlier 19th century parlor guitar tradition. Several of these sides are reissued for their first time including Sylvester Weaver’s “Guitar Blues” which is the first solo finger picked guitar solo ever recorded. Stunningly remastered and annotated by Christopher King.

CHARLIE POOLE & THE HIGHLANDERS : THE COMPLETE PARAMOUNT & BRUNSWICK RECORDINGS, 1929
Vinyl w/ Poster inside : TSQ 2882 out April 20th (Record Store Day) Ltd 1500
CD : TSQ 2875 Out April 30th

From 1926 to 1930 one of the most popular rural string bands on record was Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers. Through their 78 RPM discs and their various performances, Charlie Poole was second only to Gid Tanner and His Skillet Lickers. Poole’s uniquely syncopated three finger banjo picking style coupled with his Piedmont vocal inflections eventually colored and defined much of what we consider “old-time” music. The classic configuration of banjo, fiddle and guitar with vocals was encouraged by the main label that promoted Poole but he also wanted to record instrumentals featuring twin-fiddle and piano. As renaming his group The Highlanders, Poole was able to actualize this musical vision. This collection contains all of the sides that Poole made with Roy Harvey, Lucy Terry, and twin-fiddlers Lonnie Austin & Odell Smith. Remastered in beautiful sound by Christopher King and with notes written by old-time musician and scholar Kinney Rorrer.

JOE BUSSARD: “Guitar Rag / Screwdriver Slide” 78 RPM VINYL TSQ 71136 LTD. 700 Units. Out April 20th (Record Store Day)

Famed Fonotone label pioneer and 78 collector Joe Bussard plays two tunes with a screwdriver.

FOR THE FAITHFUL: An 18-track Tompkins Square Label CD sampler featuring recent and forthcoming tracks. Available FREE from participating indie stores on April 20th (Record Store Day).

Ask you friendly indie retailer if they will be stocking these items for Record Store Day. If there is any surplus stock on the IA6 & Poole LP’s, we will make them available on our site on April 30th along with the CDs. Thanks !

Will definitely get the Imaginational Anthem comp!

new glenn jones track - https://soundcloud.com/thrilljockey/glenn-jones-bergen-county-farewell/s-kIM9z

Oh yeah, just got the press release:
Glenn Jones - My Garden State:
01. Chimes
02. Across the Tappan Zee
03. Going Back to East Montgomery
04. Blues for Tom Carter
05. The Vernal Pool
06. Alcouer Gardens
07. My Garden State
08. Like a Sick Eagle Looking at the Sky
09. Bergen County Farewell
10. Chimes II

Glenn Jones is a unique voice working in the decades-long tradition of American Primitivism. What sets him apart from the many devotees to this style is the combination of expressive playing and technical skill, most significantly his inventive use of alternate tunings and partial capos. As anyone knows who has seen him perform, Glenn is a remarkable storyteller, and his songs reflect that talent. The songs on Glenn’s latest, My Garden State, are evocative and redolent, and serve as a testament to Glenn’s talent for conveying a wide array of emotions, many times in one song, without saying a word.

My Garden State was written in the New Jersey home where Glenn's family moved in 1966, while he was caring for his mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s. The songs and sounds on the album are reflective, but never dour or sad. My Garden State was recorded by Laura Baird in Allentown, NJ. Laura joins Glenn on the first proper song, “Across the Tappan Zee” on banjo, interweaving her plaintive melodies with Glenn’s gentle picking. Laura’s sister Meg, who was a founding member of Espers and plays with Laura as The Baird Sisters, also joins in on the final minutes of “Going Back to East Montgomery,” an eight minute long composition that showcases Glenn’s ability to craft a long form piece that is at once expansive and immediate.

The two tracks that form the centerpiece of the album, “The Vernal Pool” and “Alcoeur Gardens” were composed spontaneously in the studio, a technique Glenn developed on tour with Damo Suzuki with his former band Cul de Sac. Where “The Vernal Pool” is exuberant, “Alcouer Gardens” is sparse and quiet, with field recordings of rain and thunder providing a bed for Glenn’s guitar, emphasizing the space between the notes as much as the notes themselves. The songs on My Garden State could have been written by no one except Glenn Jones, brimming with joy, sorrow, and the complex in-between that makes life worth living.

Glenn will be touring throughout the Spring, as well as finishing an album with drummer Chris Corsano and monologist David Greenberger of The Duplex Planet.

I added the bold, hope it's not too much.

corsano...damn!...monologist...um....

haha, yeah. Greenberger's Duplex Planet stuff is pretty cool though.
I approve of Jones' Tappan Zee Bridge reference.

Not all those other monologists--I'd like to check this album of his, based on xgau's recent description:
David Greenberger/Paul Cebar Tomorrow Sound: They Like Me Around Here (Pel Pel)
I do wonder how reliably I can judge these records, in which Greenberger transforms serious seniors' generally touching, often loopy, and sometimes inspirational musings and recollections into dramatic readings with musical accompaniment. They're pretty numerous by now‑-I sure haven't heard them all‑-and risk getting repetitive too. Nevertheless, they do vary, in part because Greenberger shuffles arrangers. Yet though this is billed as a "follow-up" to the 2009 Cebar collaboration Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time, it's very different structurally. There 34 of 38 tracks run under 2:13, where here only three of 19 do, and in part because these have more heft, fewer of them skew toward pathos or damage. The steady good humor of the voice the 58-year-old Greenberger has developed to enact his interviewees always imparts dignity, smoothing over hesitations and infirmities. But here the words have extra force, with Cebar's instrumentation fuller too. The proud "She Voted," the prouder "Thank You, Reuben," the skydiving "The Thrill," and the title track "Nemo and Harmony" all inspire mightily.