John Fahey

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John Aloysius Fahey (FAY-hee, 1939–2002) was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who performed the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument.

His style has been highly influential, and has been referred to primarily the musician's self-taught nature of the music and its minimalist style.

Fahey obtained several forgotten early recordings in these genres from the folk and blues traditions of American roots music.

He would later incorporate 20th-century classical, Portuguese, Brazilian, and Indian influences into his work.Fahey lived through his later years in poverty and poor health, but he saw a small revival in the late 1990s, with a shift toward the avant-garde.

In his later years, he produced a series of abstract paintings.

Fahey died in 2001 from heart disease complications.

On Rolling Stone magazine's "Top Guitarists of All Time" list in 2003, he ranked 35th.

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Life and career

Fahey was born in 1939 into a musical family in Washington, D.C. Both his father, Aloysius John Fahey, and his mother, Jane (née Cooper), played the piano. The family lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, where his father died in 1994, where he stayed until his death. The family attended the top country and bluegrass acts of the day on weekends, but Bill Monroe's interpretation of Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue Yodel No. 1) was more entertaining. "On the radio that ignited the youth Fahey's obsession for music, it was 7" on the program.

Frank Hovington, a guitarist who visited him while on a fishing trip, bought his first guitar from a Sears, Roebuck catalog in 1952. Fahey, who had a nascent interest in the guitar, was attracted to record-collecting. Fahey discovered his love of early blues after hearing Blind Willie Johnson's "Praise God I'm Satisfied" on a record-collecting trip to Baltimore with his friend and mentor, Richard K. Spottswood. Fahey likened the experience to a religious conversion, but he remained a devout disciple of the blues for the remainder of his life.

Fahey mixed the picking patterns he discovered on old blues 78s with the dissonance of twentieth-century classical composers he adored, such as Charles Ives and Béla Bartók. Fahey made his first recordings in 1958. These were for Joe Bussard's amateur Fonotone name and were collected under both the pseudonym "Blind Thomas" and under his own name. These recordings, which were individually printed in very small runs, were reissued in 2011 as part of a box set under the title Your Past Comes Back To Haunt You: The Fonotone Years 1958-1965.

Fahey lived at St. Michaels and All Angels Church in Adelphi, Maryland, in 1959, and his collection would become the first Takoma record. Fahey decided to release his first album himself after having no idea how to approach professional recording companies and being afraid that they would be uninterested. D. Seaton, an Episcopal priest in St. Michaels and All Angels, has suggested that you avoid this. Takoma Records was born in honor of his hometown. This first album was limited to one hundred copies. The name "John Fahey" appeared on one side of the sleeve; "Blind Joe Death" was another — a nefarious name given to him by his fellow blues fans. He attempted to sell these albums himself. Some he gave away, others he sneaked into thrift shops and blues sections of local record shops, and some he sent to folk music scholars, some of whom were deceived into believing that there was really was no one called Blind Joe Death. Fahey didn't get the remainder of the charts out of their hands for three years.

Fahey, a 1963 graduate from American University with a degree in philosophy and religion, went to Berkeley to study philosophy. Fahey, the first outsider, was dissatisfied with the program's curriculum upon arriving on campus. He later said that philosophy had been a mistake, and that what he wanted to hear was really psychology. He was unimpressed by Berkeley's post-Beat Generation, proto-hippie music scene, loathing in particular the Pete Seeger-inspired folk-music revivalists he encountered he was most dissatisfied with. Fahey earned an M.A. after heading south to Los Angeles to enroll in UCLA's folklore master's program at the invitation of department head D. K. Wilburs. In folklore in 1966, there was no one in folklore. The master's thesis on Charley Patton's music was later released by Studio Vista in 1970. He finished the project with the musical assistance of his colleague Alan Wilson, who later joined Canned Heat.

Takoma Records was reborn in Berkeley, Maryland, after Fahey lived there, with Maryland friend ED Denson. Fahey decided to track down blues legend Bukka White by sending a postcard to Aberdeen, Mississippi; White had sung that Aberdeen was his hometown, and Mississippi John Hurt had been recovered using a similar technique. Fahey and ED Denson, as White replied, travelled to Memphis and a new record white. These recordings were the first non-Fahey Takoma releases. In late 1963, Fahey released Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes, the brand's second album on the label. The Fahey collection did better than White's, to the duo's surprise, and Fahey had the beginnings of a career.

His debuts in the mid-1960s featured odd guitar tunings and sudden shifts in style, which were firmly grounded in the 1920s' old-time and blues stylings. However, he wasn't merely a copyist, as compositions such as "When the Catfish Is Bloom" or "Stomping Tonight" on the Pennsylvania/Alabama border show. Fahey characterized the former work as follows:

Long liner notes were included in his classic releases, parodying those published on blues.

Fahey continued to release material in the later half of the 1960s through Takoma, as well as Vanguard Records, which had signed him and two other similar instrumental folk guitarists Sandy Bull and Peter Walker. Days Have Gone By, The Voice of the Turtle, Requia, and The Yellow Princess found Fahey making sound collages from such things as gamelan music, Tibetan chanting, animal and bird cries, and singing bridges. Fahey performed with The Red Crayola at the 1967 Berkeley Folk Festival, a rock band from Texas, whose music has resurfaced on the 1998 Drag City release The Red Krayola. Live 1967. Fahey produced a complete studio album, but Red Crayola's label demanded possession of the tapes and photographic evidence of those sessions, which has gone missing ever since.

He married his first wife Jan. 1969, and he's back to Maryland for his nuptials. Fahey appeared at many East Coast shows, including several nights at Georgetown's world-famous Cellar Door. In the summer, he toured the South and appeared at the Memphis Country Blues Festival on June 6 and 7th.

Fahey also established the Takoma brand, discovering fellow guitarists Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, Bola Sete, and Peter Lang, as well as an emerging pianist in George Winston, in addition to his own creative output. The brand's debut on the label, 6- and 12-String Guitar, was ultimately the most popular of the year, with more than 500,000 copies sold. Mike Bloomfield, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Maria Muldaur, Michael Gulezian, and Canned Heat were among the artist's on the label's albums. Fahey sold Takoma to Chrysalis Records in 1979. Jon Monday, who had been the company's general manager since 1970, was the first employee to leave the company. Chrysalis eventually sold the rights to the albums, and Takoma was in limbo until it was purchased by Fantasy Records in 1995.

Fahey's output had decreased by the mid-1970s and he had begun to suffer from a drinking disorder. Melody died in the dissolution of his first marriage, remarried, divorced once more, and moved to Salem, Oregon, where he and his third wife, Melody, live. Terry Robb, a Portland musician who will appear on several albums for Varrick, a Rounder Records affiliate, met him shortly. Fahey developed Epstein-Barr syndrome, a long-running viral disease that caused diabetes and other health conditions in 1986. He continued to perform in and around Salem, and was accompanied by David Finke and his wife Pam. The trio attempted to keep Fahey's career afloat by playing on radio shows and performances at small venues. Fahey's life began to decline after he married his third wife. In 1990, he made what seemed to be his last album. Although he recovered from Epstein-Barr syndrome after five years, he would spend much of the early 1990s in homeless motels. Because of his health problems, gigs had slowed down. He earned his rent by pawning guitars and reselling rare records he found in thrift stores.

Fahey discovered he now had a whole new audience, including alternative bands Sonic Youth and Cul de Sac, as well as avant-garde musician Jim O'Rourke, after a 1994 article on Fahey in Spin magazine's spin-off Alternative Record Guide. "The Perceptions and Resurrections of Blind Joe Death," by Byron Coley, "The Perceptions and Resurrections of Blind Joe Death," is a two-disc retrospective on Blind Joe Death that helps to bring back Fahey's career. New releases began to appear rapidly, as well as reissues of all the early Takoma releases. In 1997, O'Rourke began to produce Womblife, a Fahey album. Fahey also recorded an album with Cul de Sac, The Epiphany of Glenn Jones, in which the band's lead guitarist appeared.

Fahey's zeal for traditional folklore did not wane. Fahey founded Revenant Records in 1995 to reissue obscure recordings of early blues, old-time music, and whatever else piqued his interest. Revenant's first crop of releases, including albums by British guitarist Derek Bailey, American pianist Cecil Taylor, Jim O'Rourke, and bluegrass pioneers The Stanley Brothers, old-time banjo legend Dock Boggs, Rick Bishop of Sun City Girls, and slide guitarist Jenks "Tex" Carman are among the many notables on the website. The brand's most popular launch would be Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: Charley Patton's Worlds, a seven-disc retrospective of Charley Patton and his contemporaries. In 2003, it received three Grammy Awards. Fahey, a composer who appeared in the liner notes of Revenant's Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 1, won a Grammy in 1997 for his contribution to the liner notes. 4.

Fahey died at Salem Hospital in February 2001, six days before his 62nd birthday. No fewer than four Fahey tribute albums were released in 2006 as a tribute to his fame as a "giant of twentieth century American music."

Fahey created a series of abstract paintings during his later years of his life. Many of these exhibits were on display from July 10 to September 12, 2010, at The East Village, New York, presented by John Andrew and Audio Visual Arts (AVA). There were 55 paintings on display, ranging in size from 6.75" to 22" by 29" long. The exhibit's "sale sheet" included prices ranging from $750 for smaller works to $3,000 for larger paintings. The paintings were either framed or unframed. Fahey's paintings were described as follows: AVA, Fahey's paintings: Fahey's paintings were described as follows:

Karn attested,

Karn said he received several paintings "directly from John" in exchange for a large number of Duke Ellington records, which I had recently obtained. He had recently taken up painting as a creative outlet. Even though he personally did not sell his paintings, he was aware that the paintings might be selling some day, but he knew the nature of the used book and record business and encouraged me to sell them in the store if I so desired. I never did sell a painting in a store but recently [sold several] on ebay [sold several].

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