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In the early 1960's, solo acoustic guitar instrumentals meant one of two things; classical music, or Chet Atkins. That is, until John Fahey arrived.
He began his performance and recording career just in time for what James Taylor refers to as "the great folk scare." He would show up for a gig and start playing. Soon, people in the audience began to wonder when he would sing. He never did, right up to his death a few years ago at the age of 61.
He referred to his music as "American primitive." He wasn't very flashy, but he had a great sense of melody. He used mostly open tunings and would noodle around on a melody. If he came out now it's doubtful that he'd have gotten very far, but at the time he was unique. The style of play came from folk and Peidmont blues, mostly.
As far as his personality goes . . . have you ever seen the show, "House?" Well, think of Dr. House with a guitar. Oh, wait, he already does that. There you go, then. It's been reported that sometimes Fahey would go on stage and say nothing for the whole show. Just play, song to song, and then get up and walk out. Other times, he would stop halfway and go into a long diatribe, often racist and cruel. He would enrage audiences. An A&R guy from one of his record labels said that he was the only artist he ever handled whose record sales actually decreased after he'd visited a town.
He owned his own label for a good part of his career. When he started, no record company would sign him, so he started his own; Takoma. The logo included a description of the company being hidden on the "soft white underbelly of the music industry." In the beginning he sold his records out of the trunk of his car. He rarely sold more than two or three hundred copies, so he'd quickly go back into the studio and record some more.
As was appropriate for the strange, inverted world of John Fahey, his label's biggest success was also its downfall. And, its downfall was his biggest success. Oddly enough for someone as antisocial as Fahey, he mentored a number of like-minded musicians. One of these was a hot young guitarist from Minnesota named Leo Kottke. He played acoustic guitar with all the flash that Fahey lacked. Takoma put out his first album, entitled "6 and 12 string guitar."
By Takoma standards, it was a runaway hit. Fahey soon found himself confronted with thousands of orders for the album. He went to the company that pressed his records and placed the order. Which he had to pay for. Eventually, the initial rush of sales ended and all the stores he'd sent records to began to send back the unsold copies. Which he had to give refunds for. The record wound up costing more than the company made from it.
Kottke went on to sign with other record labels and has an ongoing recording career today. Fahey wound up selling his back catalogue to Fantasy records, which keeps him in print today. He had undoubtably sold more through Fantasy than he ever did on his own, and they have been faithful to keep the sound quality and the insane liner notes.
During lean times Fahey fell back on his record collection. Being widely travelled he picked up tons of old records at yard sales, antique shops, second-hand stores and the like. He was an afficianado of old blues, country, and other folk records. When money was tight he tapped into his closely-guarded network of fellow collectors and sold off large chunks of his stash. His love of old blues records led to his most persistant creation, a mythical bluesman who was given credit for most of his early work named Blind Joe Death.
Blind Joe and the topic of death itself were constants in his ever-evolving music. His later work used his growing interest in sound collage, while staying instrumental and centering around the acoustic guitar. When he died, a lot of his fans in the music industry came out of the woodwork to praise him. It's surprising how influential he turned out to be, affecting everything from folk guitar to Seattle punk.
I could easily recommend any of his albums, most of which are still available. If I were going to pick one, it would be the best-selling records he was ever on, which was a sampler that Takoma put out shortly before its demise. It featured Fahey, along with cuts by fellow American Primitives Leo Kottke and Peter Lang. It was some of Kottke's earliest recordings, dating from before "6 and 12 string." To my ear, the real stand-out performances were the four cuts by Peter Lang, who I understand has re-started his music career after a couple of decades out of the spotlight. And the Fahey cuts were particularly good, too.
John Fahey made the world safe for folk guitar. He was not a genius player or composer, but he was creative and bold, and sometimes that plenty. He opened the door through which such diverse artists as Leo Kottke, Will Ackerman, Michael Hedges, Tommy Emmanuel, and Kaki King have strode through. And even after all the evolution that those artists represent in solo acoustic guitar, you can put on an old Fahey album today and it sounds good. That's not something that can be said of every groundbreaking artist.
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