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

That mighta been kind of confusing.

What I meant was I wish there was a public website you could easily find that hosts all the known live recordings of Fahey. Full set lists, date and venue info, maybe light on the commentary, just a neutral perspective in the completionist vein. Links that don't expire too :)

I will say that Syracuse '71 is amazing, pretty sure I have a good 73 recording as well but I'll have to check at home in a few

oh man, I went looking through old bookmarks and found Ryan Leaf's archive of Fahey live recordings.

please let it be known that this is not available via Google search. this list used to be active and he was asking for anyone to contribute recordings that aren't featured in the archive yet. I don't know if he is still doing this anymore.

sleeve I don't see your '71 Syracuse here though, I do see a '72 Syracuse boot, could it be that one?

there's a good 25+ bootlegs here, plus some Fahey rarities like the great (unofficial?) cassette called "Azalea City and Other Toxic Nostalgia"

https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/2fWlzJPwSmAPJh
password: fahey01

enjoy!

references:
he did publicly post the link back in 2012 on his blog,
http://www.thesepathswetread.blogspot.com/2012/03/john-fahey-live-shows.html

Cool stuff. The one Fahey boot I've listened to a ton is from early 70s, a California radio station I can't recall the call letters of but it's great

yeah Neal you're right, I have:

Jabberwocky Syracuse University July 15, 1972
September 1972 McCabe's Guitar Shop Santa Monica, CA
and 1984-12-07

all those came from D!ME, I think...

Went to the record store today and snagged a use CD copy of China Gate by Cul De Sac & a vinyl copy of the lady & the unicorn by Renbourne

the swarthmore version of 'some summer day' is bottomlessly deep. some nice tape warble going on? performances aside i think the ramshackle/variable methods of recording these shows add a really cool, eerie atmosphere to the songs.

imo that Swarthmore recording is a standout. his guitar looms so large as it's not, like, a close miced performance for radio... it sounds like it's from partway through the audience. it's immense. also, a lot of the well-recorded versions of 'dance of the inhabitants' one don't come close to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cTdPTrihlI

i think it's important that the piece has the natural reverb and space that's offered by a big concert hall

Yeah a bunch were traded on DIME previously and other tapers-trading boards. I can imagine the lure for tape/sound board collectors to keep this stuff covered in cobwebs on various hard drives. But all this stuff should be made as public as possible, for the sake of getting the most Fahey material out there.

Agreed global tet. That is a great version of "Dance.."
I love audience recordings. Especially of unaccompanied guitar.

Cheers all.

Just went through and found the 1000-odd posts I'd not seen yet: this thread is truly a pot of gold!

I'd not heard of Head of Wantastiquet, so will definitely check them out; to my shame, I've not even seen Dead Man, let alone heard the soundtrack. Will get on that, too. And that Fahey archive? Ho-leee sheeiit.

The live versions of "dance..." are the best & feature a rare bit of palm muting from JF, makes the intro so tense

Was going to say on Scott Tuma that any of the first three records are golden for me, with Not For Nobody probably my favourite. I interviewed him for a site I started a few years back (don't know if anyone ever saw it: The Liminal?; it's dead now) and he was a funny old stick - wary of email, insular, and kind of out of time; but he was totally engaging and had an earthy old wisdom about him. I wish he'd come over to the UK.

Hey global congrats on the dying for bad music thing!

Hey Chinaksi - would love to read that Tuma piece if it's archived anywhere! I saw him play once at the Empty Bottle in Chicago - was great.

hey, thanks! it was pretty exciting to be asked. shooting for mid or late 2014 i think... now the pressure's on, haha.

Does your ilx mail work?

i don't know, so I sent you one with the dirty details (my name and email)

Hey Global, congrats on the record as well! I look forward to hearing it. I told you I thought your stuff was good enough to release, glad someone else thought so as well.

Really enjoying that version of "Dance ...." as well, thanks for posting that.

Thanks man! I remember when you said that, it meant a lot and made me think I might have something going on. Ya, I love that version of Dance. At 4:20 when he gets into the really prolonged exploratory droney bits it just gets so ethereal, it honestly gives me chills every time I listen to it. Still haven't heard anything that quite approaches it. I love how rapturous the audience sounds at the end, too... like, a big theater full of hundreds of people just totally on board with and eating up this freakshow instrumental drone thing? Fine by me!

I met William Tyler last week and recorded 3 lo-fi videos of his set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHChzgn6ET4&index=2&list=PLk4j0PHOV1BOm_G9HEaQI0_apV9iMjg7q
It was nice and I forgot how great he is in creating beautiful ambient soundscapes with his guitar.
There is also some shredding and light head banging :)
I also uploaded a song from his debut as solo guitarist under the name The Paper Hats, from 2008. The album Deseret Canyon will be re-released under his own name, so people hopefully won't refer to Behold the Spirit as his first album anymore. It was just not first released in the US.
But it's a great mixture of ambient music and hist great guitar work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZhQXUGE5us

And not to forget "Come and See" his first 4-track collage work http://www.apparent-extent.com/index.php?id=151 but that goes too far ...

Jerry Hionis released a new thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQtVtXE1Xw

http://jerryhionis.bandcamp.com/album/arrakian-circle-dances

that sounds p lush, i would love to get that rose-ian tone. hionis seems like a v interesting character (to the point of almost seeming like a literary creation), his stuff always has nifty artwork, & he's quite possibly the best guitarist amongst the current crop of islamic economic theorists

I like that Hionis track, cool low-end slide action. Hadn't resonated that much with the past stuff here, despite it being very accomplished in obvious ways, maybe felt a bit stiff to me (or just didn't have new enough angles to it to catch my ears at the time). I'll try to dig in more, but really listening to it made me immediately want to hear that Swarthmore "Dance ...." from Fahey posted above. That is some straight-up gold. His tone sounds almost electric on some of the low-end slide parts (which Global notes starts around 4:20 and gets real heavy/weird at the 6:20 mark), it is just such an active/full tone man. Makes me want to play an acoustic guitar, which rarely happens.

ogmor:

the best guitarist amongst the current crop of islamic economic theorists

oh lord, haha, thank you.

i'm jealous he is number one in that group though, i thought i was hip to that first

There can be only one Neal. Seems like you and Jerry Hionis are going to have to cut heads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYW177hXFE8

oh damn! after a bit of reading, i had no idea about jerry's background, thanks for leading me to that ogmor

haha thanks sir davis

Hah "sir davis", I like that as long as I don't have to go up against Rick Bishop to keep it!

That Blind Blake tune on Hionis' Arrakian Circle Dances is really great. I love when that stuff isn't played with fragile dancing fingers, but rather taken under consideration with a heavy hand.

His approach from the world's perspective is the best though, I love all the things he is implying with these records. It may seem superficial to some, but all the storytelling that goes along with this stuff is a huge thing to me as a listener. The music might over lap in ideas, but completely injecting a listener with your family background or personal perspectives (a la Bachman) is at least half of the deal for me.

I'd love to learn more about what all these ideas mean that Hionis is bringing to the table.

Also, with 'Our Beloved' reaching into 'Now That I'm A Man Full Grown' territory, that is worthy more ears.

completely injecting a listener with your family background or personal perspectives (a la Bachman) is at least half of the deal for me.

totally agree w/this

re: 'Tall Topi Two Step' from Arrakian Circle Dances, oh god I could survive on this stuff alone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXhuKGxLNt8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf6OjxYPzoo

speaking about Bachman's family (or somesing) dat hip online 7" mag Singles.FM just released this interview/feature in yellowish vintage tinted colours:
http://journal.singlesclub.fm/journal/daniel-bachman/

Feeding Tube records ( http://www.feedingtuberecords.com/ )is also releasing Bachman's Black-Green-Gray on vinyl and a record by Gangsta-Folk-Freak-Frank Hurricane/Hurricanes of Love

https://vimeo.com/40676616

ha, there's empiricism behind all my apparent whimsy, mb. jack rose had that thing about the alternating bass (wrt fahey) being 'as exaggerated/macho as anything in led zep' & the way he plays it so hard on flirtin w/ the undertaker &c. is indeed ridiculous, but i could never get on board w/ it, tho i imagine it would be fun to play like that.

i think blind blake kind of ruined this for everyone else, as far as i can tell he kind of invented this (ridiculously virtuosic) way of playing & immediately took it to a level way beyond what anyone else could get to, making wry asides the whole time. fahey had a bash at west coast blues in his heyday & it's probably the best effort from any of these guys in checked shirts we like to extol but he was still otm not being satisfied enough to issue it.

it does seem really sad what happened to blind blake, not even able to find paying work as a musician in his last few years & dead before he made it to 40. he's one of these guys i just hope he knew how good he was, and would find it funny rather than depressing that there's a whole load of guys making money trying to play half as well. the stefan grossman guitar workshop has some quality stuff on this end for anyone that's not aware of it. it's expensive but it's kind of a treasure trove, ppl breaking down the technique of e.g. joseph spence, rev gary davis, lessons from big jf himself, it's good.

Hey Chinaksi - would love to read that Tuma piece if it's archived anywhere! I saw him play once at the Empty Bottle in Chicago - was great.

Finally decided to start archiving some stuff - cheers for the kick up the arse! http://mountain7.co.uk/2014/03/04/an-interview-with-scott-tuma/

- Blind Blake is kinda new to me. Those recordings are incredible.

- Just having first listen to the Ryley Walker album. The Jansch thing is so apparent, I have to sort of forcibly ignore it, but he's really got something going on.

also may as well stick this here too if anyone fancies a spotify guitar playlist...

Volk Guitar - http://open.spotify.com/user/ogmor/playlist/6YJVAWIuy5Xk2wBtbI4zj3

updated this, will probably do so again. (predominantly) instrumental (mostly) solo guitar music from around the world, featuring plenty of pre-fahey, unamerican sophisticates. as of right now, contains:

Joe Keawe & His Harmony Hawaiians - Hookipa Paka
Geeshie Wiley - Last Kind Words
Otto Virgial - Little Girl In Rome
La Fonegara / Santiago de Murcia - Zarambecques o Muecas
Bola Sete - Samba De Orfeu
Steffen Basho-Junghans - One No.1: Part III
Grup Bamba Puang - Kemayoran
Ghédalia Tazartès - Le Crabe Ne Joue Jamais à La Poupée
Joseph Spence - We Shall Be Happy
Sam McGee - Buck Dancer's Choice
Sabicas - La Gran Jota
Tetuzi Akiyama - Close The Door
Blind Blake - Guitar Chimes
Baden Powell - Canto de Ossanha
Krysztof Piotrowicz - The Gypsies Were Travelling
T.O. Jazz - Sore Saol
Jesse Fuller - Hark From The Tomb
Harris Newman - Cloud City
Christina Carter - Dream Mother
Ali Farka Touré - Lalayche
Blind Willie Johnson - God Moves On The Water
Sahilin & Siti Rohmah - Nasib Muara Kuang
Jean Bosco Mwenda - Masanga
Weaver & Beasley - St. Louis Blues
Aldo Rodriguez / Leo Brouwer - El Decameron Negro: III. Balada de la Doncella Enamorada
Jim McAuley - The Eyelids of Buddha
Eric Schoenberg - Dill Pickle Rag
John Schneider / Lou Harrison - Scenes from Nek Chand: I. The Leaning Lady
Julian Bream / Heitor Villa-Lobos - Prelude No. 2 In E Major
Rev. Gary Davis - The Boy Was Kissing The Girl

Cor, that looks ace. Cheers.

Yeah, that looks like a great list Ogmor, thanks for that. Going to try to listen to it today.

fire up Spotify, praise Ogmar

yeah blind blake kinda knocks your socks off just because while i love tons of stuff from that era he's definitely more technically adept and polished than you typically expect from that era

Charlie Parr has a new instrumental album out with Alan Sparhawk from Low, sounds pretty cool, a little looser and weirder than his usual stuff but very rooted in blues and folk

https://soundcloud.com/chaperonerecords/charlie-parr-w-alan-sparhawk

"jack rose had that thing about the alternating bass (wrt fahey) being 'as exaggerated/macho as anything in led zep' & the way he plays it so hard on flirtin w/ the undertaker &c. is indeed ridiculous, but i could never get on board w/ it, tho i imagine it would be fun to play like that."

that's kinda hilarious. do you have a link to that interview? that style is fun to play, or try to play anyway.

alternating bass is kind of a weird thing to perceive as necessarily being macho or not macho...i mean....it's a technique and a style but i mean i don't really see it as "macho" per se

xxp blind blake is incredible but there are quite a few other ppl from that era you cld put in that bracket too, what's amazing about like 26-34 is that there was a crazy concentration of virtuosic fingerstyle guitarists, more than any other period (who knows before then, but it feels like that initial recording boom only raised ppl's game), not to mention lots of oddballs. it's not w/out reason that joe bussard deems it the apex of civilization, there was an unparalleled amount of innovation & y'know, ~scenius~. there are good copyists around now but it's not the same thing.

rose was talking about fare forward voyagers-style longform stuff where fahey was trying all this grand structure but still sticking w/ this droning/bludgeoning bass. i think the interview was from the wire but i'm not sure. i actually brought it up w/ him & he kind of lamented that it had been misinterpreted & ppl had thought he was comparing JF to led zep in some musical sense, but played in that way it is definitely a kind of ridiculous affectation that fahey did, of course, pretty much ditch in the end.

I'm guessing it's a 'yes' but are Bussard's WREK shows worth checking out? I'll try track down that documentary, too - looks like it's been aired on the BBC in the past.

loving the revamped volk guitar playlist

It is an apex of civilization :)

I loved that question Byron asks Glenn and Jack in 'The Things That We Used To Do' - "..which came first, for you: Fahey or country blues?"

I've kept up a running mytube playlist over the years of everything I deem as country blues gold, yes it is bias, but I don't have that pre-1934 or death attitude. It defiantly is all fingerpicked players that tend to fill the space with sound rather than that later 1940+ technique of Chicago single-note-plucking, blue note bending playing, BB King full band blues. None of that please, I like to keep it as grounded as possible.

Rural Rags, Country Blues & Gospel Gold

I do have a huge bias for VA/TN/NC/GA regions though, especially Georgia, guys like Frank Stokes.

It always surprises me that more solo guitar fans don't eventually switch over, fall into that R. Crumb kind of rabbit hole mindset and become completely obsessed.

Grossman is funny to watch and it's good to see him have his head in the right place, I mean he's been there alongside Fahey the entire time, back to the Fonotone days, but people look at him in a different, frilly/lighter way. It makes sense to see him like that, but he does bring in a good crop of guys like John Miller into his teaching studios.

The dynamics of the country blues crowd is interesting as well, it seems like at times the older generations have nothing at all in common with people who come at it from other music genres like solo guitar. The arguments, ethos, and secrecy between the fans is silly but also interesting. I suggest anyone who is interested to start lurking on the Weenie Campbell forum, probably one of the top/highly updated/full of people with industry 'names'/country blues forum. And their radio is the greatest thing in all of existence.

xp i was originally slightly bemused by the rose quote, cos I thought "it's just a bit of technique, it's neutral!" (& i really hated led zep), but now i agree w/ him. there are a bunch of fahey tracks where you find yrself Waiting For The Bass, which is v fun, but definitely exaggerated macho nonsense.

glad to see the playlist going down well, v curious what ppl pick out or hear any similar playlists

neal there's lots of quality stuff on that youtube list, will have a mooch later. don't know the weenie campbell forum but i am definitely going to have a look! the hardcore old time crowd is quite fierce, the original generation of faheyite guitar fans are by&large so lovely though.