ILX Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday (new post-Fahey folk for ppl posting in Takoma/Tompkins Square threads Pt II)

Lots of new releases lately but other thread getting big and unwieldy and a resource hog. So! New thread for weird Fahey-esque instrumental folk guitar.

What did we have so far this year? Highlights for me:

William Tyler- Lost Colony (the kraut-country thing gets me going)
Steve Gunn- Way Out Weather
Nathan Bowles- Nansemond
Chris Forsyth- Intensity Ghost (think overall I liked Solar Motel better but I'm glad this one seems to be taking off)
Tashi Dorji- S/T

Seems like a lot of these folks made it into the limelight this year! And new Six Organs looks to be a monster.

Can we keep the Youtube embedding to a minimum in this incarnation? You can prevent them from embedding by having "https:" as opposed to just "http:" in the URL

thank you! I'll post a link on the old one unless someone does it first

am I correct that the Tashi Dorji S/T is older stuff compiled? really liked the new EP on Bandcamp page.

re: Richard Dawson, was gonna say that I hear a lot of Bill Orcutt's influence/style in his playing, anybody else? (sorry if this was noted previously)

― some kind of terrible IDM with guitars (sleeve), Saturday, December 13, 2014 11:41 AM

also ppl were talking about richard dawson, don't want to derail!

lol no worries there

doing some EOY catchup and I am not feeling this Steve Gunn at all, threadban me if you must

liked the Solar Motel (2 tracks on Spotify), really liked the new Tashi Dorji EP.

am I correct that the Tashi Dorji S/T is older stuff compiled?
yeah, pulled from several years' worth of cassette iirc. kind of a "greatest hits," i guess. he really is great, seems to get better every time i play his stuff.

sleeve - yeah a ton of orcutt & not to be super cynical but he seems to be getting a lot of praise from ppl I don't get the sense really know Orcutt

But i do like him

I just think it's a little like how when I finally heard gang of four reissues after growing up a fugazi fan

Oh hey folks.

Sleeve, that Gunn record definitely is a very specific kind of cool to me, I get why it wouldn't appeal to you. It is mostly very low-key and its charms can be extremely subtle, but I have personally found it to be deep and varied enough that I return to it pretty frequently. Maybe it'll grow on you, but it is definitely a song-based record that doesn't try to push the musicality as far as a lot of records touched on in this thread (and many of Gunn's other records do).

yeah i was actually wondering recently what I would think of gunn's latest if it was the first record of his I had heard. the context of his gradual development into a more straight-ahead singer-songwriter adds some flavor I think (if that makes sense). love the latest but at the same time, i hope he hasn't left behind his more avant leanings -- those gunn-truscinski records are still my faves out of everything he's done.

hey i have a question -- how do you pronounce cian of the name cian nugent?

rather how does one pronounce cian accurately

i thought it was like cyan but then realized it could be sean or shee-an or idk what and i would like to know

Kee An

i thought it was just pronounced "sean" for years though.

Like Ian preceded with a /k/ ?
Good to know! I have been meaning to ask this question for months.

yes, exactly!

haha apparently lots of blog posters and show hosters feel the need to lay this to rest too:
http://i61.tinypic.com/vgmyht.png

The Gunn/Mike Cooper and Gunn/Gangloff records both came out this year I think, and both contain a good range of playing outside of his "Way Out Weather" mode. It will be interesting to see what side of the divide the upcoming Gunn/Black Twig Pickers record will ride, but my guess is I will dig it. Hope some of it revisits this territory though:

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Black_Twig_Pickers_and_Steve_Gunn/NATCH_1/Salted_Caramel

Global mentioned notable records from this year, and I wanna bring up Bachman's "Orange Co. Serenade". Really enjoyed it & definitely revisit it pretty frequently. Feel like he is growing and really may be just hitting his stride now, though who knows. New record on Three Lobed apparently out in April or May. Saw him Saturday night and the new songs were great, no reason not to believe that this next record will be anything other than really good.

dammit I forgot about that in my EOY listening binge this weekend, will check it out!

fwiw my introduction to Gunn was his side of the "Not The Spaces You Know..." comp, which I loved

oh yeah, shouldn't have forgotten the Daniel Bachman one! I think I've come around on that one, seems like the most cohesive release he's done so far.

Also Charlie Parr doesn't usually fit in this thread but he did a release this year that definitely does. It's called Hollandale- some really nicely recorded exploratory fingerpicked instrumentals. All on a National resonator, which sounds awesome/immense at times. Some cool sounds and textures added... anyway, may have been overlooked in this thread... It's on Spotify

Has this been shared yet? HD video of Tashi playing on WFMU, last September.

vimeo.com/wfmu/review/106853495/6f23ec5808

gamelan for guitar

awesome

Whatever he's got there on the neck is partially under certain strings and on top of others. He accidentally bumps into it at one point and it seems very loose. I thought it was a capo at first. Such crazy sounds coming out of that guitar.

Watching the video as I'm commenting, probably not the best idea. Still don't know what that is, even with the close ups.

I thought it was a hairclip, it loops round the top string.

Think Ogmor is right, looks like a large barrette, the cheap kind you can get at CVS etc.

coupla good tashi things over on the FMA: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tashi_Dorji/

for the record here are my fave ilx-brigade kinda things of 2014. the usuals!

Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band - Intensity Ghost
Nathan Bowles - Nansemond
Steve Gunn - Way Out Weather
Daniel Bachman - Orange Co. Serenade
William Tyler - Lost Colony
Tashi Dorji - s/t
Don Bikoff - Hallowed Ground
Mike & Cara Gangloff - Black Ribbon of Death, Silver Thread of Life
Alvarius B. / Sir Richard Bishop - If You Don’t Like It … Don’t!
Bill Orcutt - VDSQ
Sir Richard Bishop - VDSQ
Anthony Pasquarosa - VDSQ
Robbie Basho - Art of the Acoustic Steel String Guitar 12 & 6
Smoke Dawson - Fiddle

more singer-songwriter-y things, but joan shelley (feat. nathan salsburg on some tracks) and ryley walker LPs are recommended too!

shit i forgot about bikoff

also you might say me and global are slightly excited about playing this show

http://first-avenue.com/event/2015/01/americanprimitive

nice!
yeah, if you ignore the bikoff cover art, it's a really nice record.

that amy in quebec track is so close to wine&roses/red pony/approaching of the disco void its almost a cover

was watching some fahey live on youtube last night...here's an 81 gig, with apparently Michael Hedges opening (sorry folks no records available didn't get pressed in time)...Fahey is being really smarmy in his banter, the set itself verges from awkward to hypnotic, found his flopping down combover hair kind of distracting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP08Y3DsJvs

this is a 2000 set, he does a lot of dicking around/joking around at the beginning, but about the 7:40 mark on he gets going and it's actually pretty cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5jXrutGt2U

We going the "https:..." route to skip embeds? Not that I don't love opening this thread to shots of Fahey at his weirdest ....

oops sorry

A leaner/meaner thread for 2015 I guess. I'll miss the Fahey gut though.

Transmissions Fest footage is new to me, awesome. I wish more people openly talked about his later work without full on the talk of "well, I don't know about this, but look at what he used to do." The only thing that I can't fully grasp is the Hitomi material, some of it is played in that Transmissions Fest video. Kinda feel like it goes down easier when you get to watch him play like that, on record is another thing. There is another noodley electric gig on youtube that actually does have a lot of syncopation; and getting to hear old styles on an electric is pretty nice. There aren't many artists that went so far in the other direction, let alone an instance where you get to watch past material with a new technique. Defiantly would rather have had Fahey do all that then not. I dig The Mill Pond lots. It's not too different than some of the stuff that is out there today. Womblife gets so zonked in parts you can't help but grin.

Loving this Glenn Jones tune, "The Teething Necklace (For John Fahey)"
xxx.youtube.com/watch?v=6qd7pWITPQQ

Couple things I put together,

John Fahey's Adelphi Sessions, the Dance of Death outtakes. Uploaded as MP3's, posted on my blog:
http://broadcastsfrompoorfarm.tumblr.com/post/105403178308/john-fahey-adelphi-sessions-the-dance-of-death

Scanned my copy of the mail order catalog from Fonotone Records, interesting curio. Includes the numerous early Fahey comps Joe Bussard curated for Fonotone.
http://broadcastsfrompoorfarm.tumblr.com/post/105401770173/fonotone-records-mail-order-catalog-pdf-booklet

I finally put together some new lapstyle material and wanted to share it here. "Blue For al-Watawit of Yashkur" sits as is, in a sorta demo state. I didn't want to forget all the new ideas I've been having, yet also told myself I wouldn't record again until I bought a nice microphone. Of course, I got impatient, so here we are. Before they find a home somewhere, I do want to properly record them.
http://raglore.com/album/blue-for-al-watawit-of-yashkur

Link for the MP3's are posted here,
http://broadcastsfrompoorfarm.tumblr.com/post/105403934713/rag-lore-blue-for-al-watawit-of

Look forward to checking this stuff out

Cool, thanks Neal! Actually already listened to your "Blue For al-Watawit of Yashkur" tracks (Mr. Avant Ghetto threw them up on twitter yesterday), really enjoyed them. First track sucked me right in, so yeah make a recording you are happy with and I am on board!

neal - or others - what microphones/mic pres do you guys use? this coming year i need to get serious about recording an album

like your new stuff neal

the only Tashi Dorji song on Spotify is a cool little curio, electronic remix featuring his guitar of a song by some psychey dude name Al Lover

http://open.spotify.com/track/2HxzI5VuTvgdbTGolZ7x7G

Thanks dudes, I have always just been using a portable digital Tascam recorder from B&H Photo that I bought a while back. It fits in your pocket so I've used it while out and walking around, but it's not a good choice for recording guitar at this point, I loved it at first bc of how much of an improvement it was over using the internal MacBook mic. I sold my two amps (+all other musical electronics) years ago during collage, which I regret now. As I would like to record traditionally with a mic and amp set up. Either using the sound hole or install a pick up. How about USB mics? Been talked about here before I think. Decent clarity from the models available now?

I think the solution is to just meet someone in town with a set up :) - that way I can avoid all of this.

I've posted things upthread recorded with the Blue Yeti (120 new but you can def find a ton of these used on ebay, got mine for 80 on craigslist)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=857749&gclid=Cj0KEQiA8MSkBRCP5LaRlcOAusMBEiQAiqldkgFeoLzZuCr_Hg1GQ03TBk1qSggFdqEqo5fQpNn1jLgaAgF98P8HAQ&is=REG&Q=&A=details

you can hear the stuff i've done, which is minimally processed, a bit EQd and maybe compressed slighty with some audicity plugin reverb on it, but overall I'd say USB mics have come a long way

of course, I'm just plotting about how I want to get a USB DAC/Mic pre unit and a better XLR mic so I suppose one is always unsatisfied.

gonna check out yr new thing neal! i've dug the rag lore things i've heard so far.
just got hipped to this thing via soft abuse's twitter -- maybe it was mentioned on the old thread? https://moonbros.bandcamp.com/album/frijolillo - kind of low-key/dreamy/fieldrecording-y/acoustic action. i like it!

Neal there is also a USB model of the Blue Spark which is supposed to be great on acoustics

I feel like I never hear about his records until they've been out for a few months

keep coming back to Isasa's Insilio, it's so simple but there's a beguiling timelessness to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZakgIJw0B0

Psyched to see Isasa live this week and catch some of that beguiling timelessness in action! Really looking forward to it.

^^yes—wish I could see it as well. everyone who can should try to catch him and Magic Tuber Stringband on their US tour. Evan and Courtney's MTSB material is v good.

there's been a dude named Jon Monday who worked at Takoma that's been posting some really cool stuff on Fahey/Takoma/the general intersections of weirdo ppl in the late 60s/early 70s on the John Fahey Facebook group

Also---- CHECK THIS SHIT OUT...another dude who posts a lot of old scans posted this from '65 Berkeley....So it looks like Fahey played a show with Bob Dylan in disguise billed as "Tedham Porterhouse" - a pseudonym he used on a Ramblin' Jack Elliot record....if so, what a fucking crazy show

https://i.postimg.cc/YSHxLkcR/68767931-2796884800324865-5760716845304774656-o.jpg

holy fuck this kumio kurachi rules

xp lol, wonder who the dylan impersonator was ... bob himself was in chicago
http://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20(65)-filer/image215.jpg

haha ah too bad, Dylan is so weird you never know

I bet it was Fahey doing a second set

Conrado and Magic Tuber String Band both played great sets. Really complimentary and excellent playing all around. Was psyched to grab a copy of "Insilio" and the MTSB tape on Blue Hole as well. Think I will listen to "Insilio" a lot, as the compositions are very sturdy and interesting without being as fatiguing (for lack of a better word). While I like a lot of more active / wild / technically proficient players, for repeated listening I can really appreciate records that sit in a more measured, casually artful place. Not saying this well, but just noting that I think I will return to this one a lot.

glenn jones set (with two new songs!) from last fall

https://southernjukeboxmusic.bandcamp.com/album/glenn-jones-100918

nice!

Cool!

Also was listening to Chuck Johnson - Crows In The Basilica again (one of my favorites) and it really is amazing how deliberate every note is, yet it sounds so effortless and there doesn't seem to be a single flaw.

yeah! that one really is one of the best solo guitar LPs of the decade, I think.

in other news pertinent to this thread, Nathan Salsburg played a set in my living room last night! it was great.

Speaking of flawless guitar playing... that's awesome! I want him to teach me everything he knows. I love his very underrated solo records.

One of my students gave his folk presentation (required part of class) on Fahey (at my suggestion, he said he likes guitars) and in making my playlist for them to use on their midterm, I chose Sun Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday as my Fahey track bc it seems like a classic and appealing choice.

I'm sitting here in the exam and making sure everything is good before they get to that part of the test and guess whose youtube account I linked to for the Fahey track?

that's right, our own global tetrahedron. lol!! the internet must know we are friends or maybe this is the most recent version of the song?! anyway, small world, <3 to all folkies nu- and old.

awww that's awesome 😊

I love this story, thanks for sharing it! Long live this thread and all of its various expanding adjacent activities.

aww, that's great. i uploaded that because my favorite version wasn't easy to find, glad it's getting some use!

apparently yahoo is scrubbing yahoo groups, so there goes the fahey group. it was nigh unusable and mostly inactive but it had a trove of great information and posts from a lot of the OG folks stretching a fair ways back. i hope there is a way to archive that information easily

there's the FB group but there's definitely something about the modern social equivalents to boards/groups that doesn't seem to be as good for getting real information

such a bummer about yahoo groups, they are such a rich archive and a link to the disappearing first generation.

new bill orcutt is so good! his technique is so gorj but some of his earlier stuff felt claustrophobic to me at times, like trying to get out of a tied sack as you're thrown in the canal. the fire is still there in his playing but it feels a little more strung out, a bit more balanced, slower burning. once or twice it shades into bluez jamz but I have some time for that and the whole thing has such supreme autumn energy.

think it's been the strongest year for this sort of guitar music since we've had a thread for it, so many interesting and great records. was listening to the australian guitarist julia reidy, whose new album on oren ambarchi's new label has a kind of wild mix of things (inc autotune !) feeding into this big glittering clunky sound, it's not quite my bag but it's p unique & fresh

That's entirely my experience with Orcutt up until now but this is gorgeous. Thanks for the heads up. 'All Your Buried Corpses Begin to Speak' has to be song title of the year.

like trying to get out of a tied sack as you're thrown in the canal

this is such a great description of Orcutt's sound/style (which I dig, but not quite as much as the best Harry Pussy stuff, totally different though)

Julia Reidy is great, thanks for the heads up...

I'm probably more drawn to the un-hip side of the whole thing, but old folks dude Bruce Cockburn released an album of all acoustic instrumentals that is really great imo, he's quite a player, I think it would appeal to fans of Nathan Salsburg, James Elkington....very nice composition

er drawn more than MOST to the un-hip I'm still VERY hip, pass me the Sun City Girls record

By the way, I saw Orcutt live not too long ago (apologies if I said this upthread already ....) and it was very much in the vein of this new record. It was less knotty and restless than usual and jaw-droppingly gorgeous quite frequently (with less vocalizing throughout as well). There are of course no guarantees that that would be your experience, but I highly recommend going if he is coming through your neck of the woods.

when i first heard that orcutt album, i almost wondered if it was a deep put-on of some kind ... but it is gorgeous for sure — love the way he kinda dances around the actual melody of "moon river."

Well I mean Bill kind of sets you up for the idea that it is all a put on in one way or another (the album art, some of the song titles, his past output ....) but then the experience of listening generally knocks all of that out of your head as it is so powerfully delivered (whether you like it or not he is certainly offering what he does up at a consistently high level). Pretty much love the way he presents and delivers his stuff across the board.

Cool find from someone on the FB group - American primitive influenced stuff from Japan...really digging this on first blush, unique voice

https://senrirecord.bandcamp.com/album/broken-woods-some-prayers?fbclid=IwAR3SVlyCN--soRGJKx1IrV6nFu5KBU9ynyv03rLL0SNR2RYYAp45yT3NnW8

yeah, that's interesting!

^I knew that name looked kind of familiar, he had a release on Scissor Tail a while back—towards the tail end of a time I like to think of as the communities' salad days, lol... not in a 'peak' sort of way (at all) but more so in an idealistic innocence kind of way. Maybe it's just adulthood that hit me way too fast!

Thanks for posting that. I am really enjoying that (the "Broken Woods Some Prayers" tunes). Will go check out that Scissor Tail release too. And Neal I was by no means young when this thread and its predecessor got rolling, but I had that same feeling in re salad days. I will always remember that early run fondly as it was just nice to roll through all those releases as they came out and commune with the folks here that were into them. Was a good time.

think it's been the strongest year for this sort of guitar music since we've had a thread for it, so many interesting and great records.

would love to see some quick/short lists of things not to miss as we head into list-making time, if anyone's willing

Yeah in that case I'm definitely missing out. Not because I disagree but because I'm simply not as on top of it.

that Isasa record might be my fave purely solo acoustic guitar record from 2019

there have been gorgeous records that are kind of straight down the middle - Hayden Pedigo, Bill Orcutt - but also ppl reworking the centre or drifting away to explore new territory - forthcoming Steve Palmer, Sarah Louise - as well as ppl shading towards similar territory from different directions - Kumio Kurachi, and who knows what's going on with the Julia Reidy records. lots of good players plugging away at their own thing - some tasty live improv collaborations from Tashi Dorji and Susan Alcorn, Marisa Anderson must be due something new soon, & I saw DBH play a bossa novaish track live the other week !

and yeah, Insilio by Isasa is probably just my favourite record of the year and he deserves more recognition. it's unassuming, stripped back and very gentle, but it has that peculiar quality I love so much about the best solo guitar music where the intimacy and the control of time through phrasing and space (so much space on the record) start to evoke strange feelings, like someone else's memories or dreams. it changes the atmosphere in the room, and sends you inside yourself, or inside something. it reminds me of Glenn Jones a little in terms of tone and how personal and expressive it is, but it has an elusive quality to it too. I love all the delicate accompaniments but the two solo pieces named after districts in Montevideo are the clear stand outs, I feel like they've been playing somewhere in the back of my mind for months.

Co-signing on the Isasa record. Picked it up when I saw him live and I think Ogmor's description above really nails it for me. The space and phrasing is really great, very easy to listen to but very rewarding in regards to the repeat value.

Hoping that Marisa Anderson and Jim White record is on its way out into the world soon. I have a feeling I am going to be very very into it.

oh man that sounds great, thanks for letting me know

yeah, an anderson/white collab LP is pretty much my dream come true. heard a tape of a live show and they sounded great together.

For my NYC people, this free show just booked for November 22 and I wish I was in town for it:
https://blankforms.org/events/ksiyc/

Ksiezyc (Polish for “the Moon”) are a Polish avant-folk ensemble whose haunting fusion of traditional Slavic music with minimalism and ethereal wave has earned them a cult following the band characterizes as “poetry seekers, dreamers, and people dressed in black.” First formed in 1990 as a female a cappella trio, the group quickly expanded into a quintet when singers Agata Harz and Katarzyna Smoluk were joined by two friends from Poga, a Grotowskian student theater group. Remek Hanaj and Lechoslaw Polak appeared on the Moon, and a while later Robert Nizinski came straight from outer space. Their accordion, keyboards, clarinet, and tape have lent an alchemic magic to the mysteries of the singers’ reverberating voices ever since. At once ancient and modern, cosmic and local, Ksiezyc’s timeless 1996 self-titled LP features 14 surreal miniatures structured by accumulating, cyclical sequences of hypnotic keyboards and voice. Although sung in Polish, its macabre reworkings of nursery rhymes resonates with an ability to conjure spirits beyond language. After Ksiezyc‘s release, the group disbanded with no more than 30 concerts under their belt, becoming the stuff of legend before a 2013 reissue by Penultimate Press set the moon alight once more. 2015’s Rabbit Eclipse adds the hurdy-gurdy, violin, and field recordings from Hanaj’s sound breeding farm to Ksiezyc’s palette for a suite of shimmering drone-song dealing with eternal themes of life and death, good and evil, and transformation and expectancy. Drawing from their roots in theater, Ksiezyc’s performances have maintained a ritual quality suited to the unorthodox venues they have historically preferred, such as caves, jails, hospitals, towers, factories, and castles. In accordance with this tradition, Blank Forms welcomes the ensemble to Chelsea’s historic St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, the first English parish Gothic church building in the US, for their first-ever American performance

and, more tangentially, but if you dig that shit, try the French choral band San Salvador, coming to NYC in January.
https://soundcloud.com/lostintraditions/sets/san-salvador-live

Thanks! RSVP'd

blank forms does so much good shit, gonna try and make it

Did yall see the press release about Basho doc and box?
S/D: Tompkins Square Records

(also the TS 14th Anniversary playlist in there)

Listened to that 1996 Ksiezyc Youtube this morning (on my phone ha) and really enjoyed it. It made me think vaguely of a precursor to Instant Classic stuff.

https://feedingtuberecords.bandcamp.com/album/matthew-j-rolin

yes

I am seeing them this evening!

xxp