Why is John Fahey So Boring?

http://bluesshow.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/withguitarssm.jpg

look at this john fahey guitar holder

!!!

kinda terrifying

omfg

I guess if your goal is never to pick up a guitar again ....

good grief that model. i have some sort of diy takoma tshirt bequeathed to me by g jones, it's a kind of garish orange&purple, incredibly faded & hideously oversized on me but it is ofc a most prized item of lounge/bedwear.

NTI i am not sure how you are linking after the ball & transfiguration but i am curious. i think the three orchestra albums all have decent stuff on, not so fussed about the actual dixieland, but i love that drunken euphoric righteousness you get on in a persian market, hawaiian two step, jaya shiva shankara, om shanthi norris & almost all of of rivers&religion. rivers&religion is so fantastically slow as well - the ending of each line becomes so inevitable it feels absolutely massive. the bit in the old man river medley from about 4:10-4:40 where fahey drags time out to deliver that delicious dissonance w/ the hottest syncopation is so potent it has a kind of physiological, brain-melting effect on me like a superbly bitter or spicy taste that feels like a neural overload. i get high off those harmonies, basically.

i was just listening to old fashioned love and i kinda like the corny dixieland

or at least i think it's good and they sound like they are having fun and i feel like it's contextually interesting in the scope of his career, for someone who seemed to steel himself against genre cliches with a certain intensity embracing something like that

yeah not sure if i would want a whole album full of fahey dixieland jams, but i like them in the context of the album.
think this is my fave from rivers & religion, something about the pacing of it is just deeply heavy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1inB79hSZHw

and dry bones in the valley slays, so old fashioned love is good b/c its got that one on it

dry bones is the ultimate fahey slow-motion jam

I dig the Gastr del Sol cover of that one a lot, too.

interesting would be the question why people find him so great.

Specific feelings evoked, like most music. Trying to talk about it ultimately doesn't get anywhere. Not that it can't be fun to nibble around the edges.

I could say something like "Americana reverse domesticated for Americans people more comfortable with oud solos."

But why, why do you like a nose shaped like that?

Maybe it is answerable in concrete terms but as with music it's going to be disappointingly mathematical and the qualia is going to slip right through your fingers.

Sorry, I'm kind of sudafed damaged.

re: dry bones, i prefer the fahey version, i think it's neater. the gastr one w/ conrad creaking along starts to feel like it's about to collapse under its own weight, but i love that album and it's a good closer.

i think i cld come up w/ a lot of perhaps hyperbolic-sounding reasons why i like fahey but idk. i was more tempted a while ago when i think hurting said something about fahey "not having enough tricks" or something, which struck me as so absolutely wrong that i was tempted to post a list of selected JF tricks. i don't care if ppl don't like him though, that's fine

Post away

Yeah ogmor, I really dug your post on after the ball & transfiguration above, feel free to get as hyperbolic as you like from my perspective.

dry bones is the ultimate fahey slow-motion jam

To that end, I can completely understand why by the 90s he may have found these records to be personally uncomfortable and maybe a little embarrassing.

otm. Some great writing on this thread!

I'm playing the Fahey and Gastr del Sol versions of Dry Bones simultaneously and it's freaking me out.

hopefully this bio will answer this thread title's question:
An early heads up on a biography of John Fahey by Vin Du Select Qualitite label head Steve Lowenthal, slated for publication next year. Dance Of Death: The Life Of John Fahey – American Guitarist will be published by Chicago Review Press im June 2014. It includes interviews with all three of Fahey's wives, plus Michael Chapman, Leo Kottke, Byron Coley, Glenn Jones, Jim O'Rourke, The No Neck Blues Band, Dean Blackwell and many others. More details to be announced at chicagoreviewpress.com
http://thewire.co.uk/news/26412/john-fahey-biography-on-the-way-in-2014

Now that looks like a good read, gonna go ahead and pencil that in for 2014 birthday/Christmas.

did we talk about this already? the talking heads don't look great but there's some new (to me) interview footage, so i'm excited!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=&v=3NoXyb9AjJw

i didn't know about that...did you see the basho doc got kickstarted?

knew about the fahey doc, think that might be a new-ish trailer?

xp yeah! i'm excited about that, basho is more mysterious to me. there is currently one known video of him playing though, so it's going to depend entirely on who they get involved. jack rose would have been so good for both of these

yeah i'm more excited for basho too, seems less documented.

i like that pete townsend is in both. cool someone of that stature would make time for both. i enjoy listening to pete talk about things. stephan grossman in the fahey - he's like the cat daddy of 80s fingerpicking instructional video tapes.

who's the guy who says "John Fahey was punk rock"? I hate that shit, not everything that is good or interesting or individual or challenging is "punk rock". Oh man "There's a Riot Goin' On" is PUNK ROCK. Bitches Brew is PUNK ROCK. Rite of Spring was PUNK ROCK.

copy of the handbook for 13 bucks if anyone needs one:

http://www.amazon.com/The-John-Fahey-Handbook-Vol/dp/0985302801/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377804503&sr=8-1&keywords=john+fahey+handbook

xp punk rockists! haha, yeah, you can almost see in that dude's face that he's like "oh shit why did i say that!?"

i think the people in this thread account for roughly 43% of the sales on that fahey handbook.

i think the guy who says he's punk rock is a member of ilx favourites the decemberists.

i like that pete townsend is in both. cool someone of that stature would make time for both. i enjoy listening to pete talk about things.

Me too. As a huge Fahey and Townshend fan, I'm pretty excited to see this doc.

i don't have it!

if i was making a fahey doc i would try to get ppl like joe bussard, dick spottswood, anthony lee, pat sullivan, ED denson, terry robb, barry hansen, his various wives & gfs, peter lang, david grubbs, jim o'rourke, glenn jones, keith from nnck, steffen basho junghans, byron coley..... all way before pete townshend or whoever. but it is cool he is doing it. laurie spiegel said some interesting stuff about fahey, she'd be in there too. might go and see stefan grossman when he tours in a couple of months.

This one was disappointing:

http://www.amazon.com/Lake-Chelan-Greatest-World/dp/193617846X/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377807743&sr=1-7&keywords=john+fahey

He divides his time between Lake Chelan, where he and his wife own and operate a vacation rental business, and Restlawn Memory Gardens in West Salem, Oregon.

The legend:
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/e1/80/d79086cff4280a7f02359d.L._V146557155_SY470_.jpg

Revelation on the Banks of Lake Chelan

it's weird if they didn't reach out to peter lang and leo kottke

guess it was shown in NYC w/ screenings in seattle coming up
USA Theatrical Release:
August 16-22 New York City, NY. Cinema Village, Manhattan.
September 6-12 Seattle, WA. Grand Illusion Cinema.
http://www.johnfaheyfilm.com

they should have talked to my pal doug decker. he worked at takoma for years and engineered/produced a bunch of fahey stuff. he's a wealth of info. then again maybe they did. i haven't seen the thing.

screened in portland last october, was serviceable

way more psyched about the book

xp can you resolve the hot issue of who they had as talking heads?

chris funk of the decemberists explains punk rock

xp not entirely, no. nnck dude definitely, decembrists guy gets a lot of time. b coley maybe? not too broad a cast. had heard that the filmmaker ran into some issues getting people on board for one reason or another. def works as a sort of primer for folks and is a net positive for that, but maybe not a lot for heads or whatever.

is there any particular reason the decembrists guy is even in there? does he make cool solo records we should know about? (not picking on him, i'm sure he is a good dude, just curious, seems like a random guy to interview).

hmm, jack cole review http://spectrumculture.com/2013/08/in-search-of-blind-joe-death-the-saga-of-john-fahey.html twitter https://twitter.com/JohnFaheyFilm director's twitter https://twitter.com/JamesCullingham

q&a

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdUAmzmHAr4

Chris used to live in Eugene and is a good guy based on my experience and friends in common, fwiw but I dunno why he would be in this - Fahey played in Eugene a fair amount near the end and released a record on a local label so there are some connections.

(I am really busy and have not watched the video)

sufjan stevens was on a fahey tribute album i reviewed for the Voice once. does HE make cool solo albums that we should know about?