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John Fahey
Born John Aloysius Fahey on Feb 28, 1939 in Takoma Park, MD. Died Feb 22, 2001 in Salem, OR.
One of acoustic music's true innovators and eccentrics, John Fahey was a crucial figure in expanding the boundaries
of the acoustic guitar over the last few decades. His music was so eclectic that it's arguable whether he should be
defined as a "folk" artist. In a career that saw him issue several dozen albums, he drew from blues, Native
American music, Indian ragas, experimental dissonance, and pop. His good friend Dr. Demento has noted that
Fahey "was the first to demonstrate that the finger-picking techniques of traditional country and blues steel-string
guitar could be used to express a world of non-traditional musical ideas harmonies and melodies you'd associate
with Bartok, Charles Ives, or maybe the music of India." The more meditative aspects of his work foreshadowed
new age music, yet Fahey played with a fierce imagination and versatility that outshone any of the guitarists in
that category. His idiosyncrasy may have limited him to a cult following, but it also ensured that his work continues
to sound fresh.
Fahey was a colorful figure from the time he became an accomplished guitarist in his teens. Already a collector of
rare early blues and country music, he made his first album in 1959, ascribing part of it to the pseudonymous "Blind
Joe Death." Only 95 copies of the LP were pressed, making it a coveted collector's item today. (In the 1960s, Fahey
would re-record the material for wider circulation.) In college, he wrote a thesis on Charley Patton (an exotic
subject at the time). Yet Fahey did not perform publicly for money until the mid-'60s, after his third album.
Fahey's early albums for Takoma in the mid-'60s laid out much of the territory he would explore. His instrumentals,
filtering numerous genres of music into his own style, evoked haunting and open spaces. At times they could be
soothing and plaintive; at other times they were disquieting, even dissonant. The more experimental aspects of his
material even foreshadowed psychedelia in their lengthy improvisations (some cuts lasted as long as 20 minutes),
use of Indian modes, unpredictable stylistic shifts, and overall eerie strangeness. His persona as a weirdo of sorts
was amplified by his bizarre and lengthy song titles and liner notes. He also employed odd guitar tunings that
continue to exert an overlooked influence on contemporary musicians to this day.
Fahey remained consistently popular on a cult level through the mid-'80s. His most commercially successful efforts,
oddly, were probably his Christmas albums, which are among the more interesting holiday records of any genre. For
a time he ran the Takoma label, where he was instrumental in starting the career of Leo Kottke (who owes much of
his stylistic inspiration to Fahey), as well as promoting lesser-known talents like Robbie Basho. He was a catalyst in
other subtle ways, helping to form Canned Heat by introducing Al Wilson (who played on a Fahey album in 1965) to
Bob Hite, and rediscovering Delta bluesman Bukka White with his friend Ed Denson.
Fahey sold Takoma to Chrysalis in the mid-'70s, but continued to record regularly, and also tour (though his live
performances were erratic). In 1986, he contracted Epstein-Barr syndrome, a long-lasting viral infection that,
combined with diabetes and other health problems, sapped his energy and resources. Although the Epstein-Barr
virus was finally overcome, the mid-'90s found him living in poverty in Oregon, where he paid his rent by pawning
his guitar and reselling rare classical records. The appearance of a major career retrospective on Rhino, Return of
the Repressed, in 1994 boosted his profile to its highest level in years. In 1997, he returned to active recording
with City of Refuge and was planning a Revenant definitive package of Charley Patton's work when he died
following sextuple-bypass surgery at the age of 61. The Fahey discography is dauntingly large and diverse; the
neophyte is advised to start with the two-disc Return of the Repressed, but those who wish to dig deeper will be
very pleased with Takoma's extensive reissues, which started to appear in the late nineties.
1964
1965
1965
1965
1966
1966
1967

Blind Joe Death

The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites [CD]
The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death
Vol. 3: Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites [LP]
John Fahey
Vol. 4: The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party
Days Have Gone By, Vol. 6

Takoma
Takoma
Takoma
Takoma
Vanguard
Takoma
Takoma

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1967
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1996
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Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes [1967]

Requia & Other Compositions for Guitar Solo
Vol. 1: Blind Joe Death
The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album
Voice of the Turtle
The Yellow Princess
America
Of Rivers and Religion
After the Ball
Fahey, Kelly, Mann, Miller, Seidler
Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice)
Christmas With John Fahey, Vol. 2
Old Fashioned Love
The John Fahey Christmas Album
Visits Washington DC
Live in Tasmania
Christmas Guitar, Vol. 1 [Rounder]
Railroad
Let Go
Railroads 1
Rain Forests Oceans & Other Themes
Christmas Guitar [Varrick]
I Remember Blind Joe Death
Popular Songs of Christmas & New Year's
God, Time & Casuality
Old Girlfriends & Other
Singing Bridge of Memphis, Tennessee/March! for Martin Luther King
Morning Evening Not Night
City of Refuge
Womblife
The Epiphany of Glenn Jones
Georgia Stomps, Atlanta Struts & Other Dance [live]
John Fahey Trio, Vol. 1
Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues
Red Cross
Hitomi
The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick [live]
On Air [live]
Some Summer Day
Friends of Fahey Tribute

Takoma
Vanguard
Takoma
Takoma
Takoma
Vanguard
Takoma
Reprise
Reprise
Blue Goose
Shanachie
Takoma
Shanachie
Burnside
Takoma
Sonet
Rounder
Shanachie
Varrick
Takoma
Varrick
Varrick
Varrick
Varrick
Shanachie
Varrick
Vanguard
Perfect
Tim/Kerr
Table of the Elements
Thirsty Ear
Table of the Elements
Jazzoo
Table of the Elements
Revenant
Important
Water/Revenant
Tradition & Moderne
Intergroove
Slackertone