Rating 5.0
A deserving classicOf course this is a very influential album, but that's not what makes it valuable. It's just really, really good. Fahey modernized the blues/ragtime repertoire on the acoustic guitar, making it relevant to modern, mostly white audiences, and his style was plagiarized into everything from Kottke's drive to New Age blandness. What's really great about this, though, is that the old country blues is his touchstone for sound. To those who think fingerstyle acoustic guitar sounds like Windham Hill, it's going to sound harsh and aggressive. But then again, Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon would give them heart attacks.There Is Life Before DeathThe Blind Joe Death albums originally appeared during my formative years as a guitar player. In many ways they opened my eyes to the potential of fingerstyle guitar in the same way that Mississippi John Hurt did, but with a special difference. While Hurt and his kindred had masters a style, Fahey was struggling to extend it. Struggling and succeeding, for the most part. This album, which covers several sessions, displays many of Fahey's sides and is an required album for those who are interested in the development of steel-string guitar music in the U.S.The base strata of this music is ragtime and blues, as displayed by greats like Hurt, Jefferson, and Lipscomb. Heavy handed at times, with a strong alternating bass approach, Fahey displays technical brilliance andf a willingness to wander into places that the blues doesn't normally go, stretching harmony and melodics at the same time he displays a demonic adherence to driving rhythms. This is music for people who like to pound their heels, at the same time it provides moments of intense exploration. Blind Joe Death was Fahey's composite here - the mythical musician after whom Fahey modeled himself. Fahey's sense of humor was notorious in the music business. He was fond of hoaxes and in-jokes, perfectly willing to confuse the heck out of those who were threatening to turn the blues into an intellectual endeavor. But, somehow, he stayed true to his muse - playing the music he believed in and delighted when someone hopped on for the ride. As long as he got to share in the fun. Recording quality is classic 60's kitchen style, unfortunately, and the guitar lacks the high end resonance of today's instruments. But this hardly makes a difference once you realise that you are listening to a musician make exactly the music he wants to. These instrumentals have remains some of my favorites for all 40 of their years, and I still find surprises in them. The stuff of legendsThis record should be required listening for anyone interested in playing acoustic blues, and it is a magnificent place for an interested listener seeking an introduction to the genre. This disc collects incarnations of Blind Joe Death, John Fahey's fictional and representative blues guitar master in varied modes and recording sessions. The two incarnations here are from 1963 and 1967--two sets of Blind Joe's songs--all instrumentals, by the way--two versions each of nine songs. Then there are additional tracks, including Fahey's "Trannscendental Waterfall" and Blind Blake's "West Coast Blues." For some that might be too much, but this is the legend after all. And this is a good place to hear the development of Fahey's special guitar voice. Fahey began by recreating and like all original voices, found that he was creating indeed. This is a collection of blues with a spiritual or rag thrown in when the spirit strikes. You're never sure who you are going to hear--Skip James, Gary Davis, John Hurt, Pink Anderson, Robert Johnson--Delta blues, some Piedmont--a potpourri of styles. First Fahey commanded the idiom. His technique is a panoply of flat and finger picking styles, including the pattern picking with open tunings that he learned from Skip James and John Hurt. But his uses of the techniques are sometimes surprising. Once he learned the licks, the patterns, the fingerings, he expanded for his own purposes. As the fictional Blind Joe, Fahey played some blues standards, interpreting them to suit his tastes and voice. Fahey's versions of W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" are distinctive. I say "versions" because there are two forms here, and the two sessions allow you to hear how Fahey grew between 1963 and 1967. The later recordings are clearer and more confident in their attack and accents. But they aren't necessarily "better," just different. The collection includes original songs such as "On Doing an Evil Deed Blues," "Poor Boy Long Ways from Town," "Desperate Man Blues," and some arrangements of known songs like "John Henry." This last owes some debt to John Hurt's "Spike Driver's Blues" although the second version is more experimental. When he is covering old blues songs, his recreations of the standards are convincingly authentic. In the original songs, Fahey uses the techniques, the methods of legendary figures and blends them in such a way that his originals are almost indistinguishable in style from the genuine article. This is the early John Fahey, before he diversified completely to blend the folk/blues idiom with eastern music and sonic experiments in texture and time. It is, nevertheless, a wonderful collection. |
