Ultra limited, one sided clear vinyl 12" from the late John Fahey. Recorded live in 1996 at Table Of The Elements' Yttrium Festival, these four tracks harken back to his pre-electric period, a gorgeously melancholy, dreamily casual, wandering, and melodic appalachia that only Fahey could produce. Spare and unhurried, this four part suite unfurls lazily, melodies blossoming shyly, with each part ending quite abrubtly, as if Fahey just decided to stop when he felt like it, reminding us how intimate and playful Fahey could be live. Beautifully silkscreened woodcut image in mauve ink on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. Striking. Oh, and did we mention...LIMITED!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Fahey's first studio album since "Womblife" so many moons ago finds the guitarist/theologian/ ethnomusicologist fingerpicking his way through an assortment of folk, blues, and garage numbers played with all of his lovely tonality.
The press release claims that this is the first album since 1964 that "John has produced and recorded entirely unfettered from 'correction' by commercial interest." Is this a happy John Fahey? What has the world come to?!
About ten minutes into this I came to the conclusion that I had to buy one. This is awesome. Any Fahey fan will freak out watching this dvd. The 1996 material by itself is great -- a concert at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage that maybe some of you reading this were lucky enough to attend, plus backstage interview footage wherein ol' John Fahey reveals both some of his history, and his humor. But it was the 1969 portion of this I watched first, which consists of a much more youthful, clean-shaven John Fahey guesting on some sort of guitar-oriented TV talk show, hosted by a woman who is clearly both a big fan of Fahey's playing and also somewhat bemused/confused by his musical eccentricities. She even almost scolds him for doing something that she tells her own guitar students not to do, though they determine that he had a good reason for it... Fahey proves himself to be quite a charming character, smoking a cigarette as he answers the host's questions and demonstrates his techniques, playing quite a few lovely lovely songs. It's amazing viewing for anyone already under the spell of the man's music and persona. Fans, get this!
Remastered, reissued 1980 live set from the inimitable John Fahey, the late great modern day legend of solo steel guitar playin'. We all miss the guy, so it's nice that these reissues keep a'comin'. As this disc's title indicates, this was indeed recorded live in Tasmania! Yep, Fahey was touring Down Under, and that means that not only did he feel obligated to do a version of "Waltzing Matilda" but you're also treated to a spoken word interlude given the title "Fahey Establishes Rapport With The Tasmanians - A Dissertation On 'Obscurity'". He gets a lot of laughs out of the crowd, being his usual charming self. Other tracks include "The Approaching Of The Disco Void" and "Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend". The whole show is enchanting, classic stuff. This reissue also boasts liner notes by Fahey fan Jim O'Rourke.
Newly issued on disc comes this John Fahey album from 1972. It was his first album for a major label and Fahey, one of the most genius guitarists of all time, wanted to bring in some musicians to augment his twanged out blues-based American style. The major
"Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today, by John Fahey, Guitar Evangelist." This is the last album by John Fahey before his death in 2001, and "guitar evangelist" seems like the perfect description of his legacy. With his acoustic guitar drenched in reverb, "Red Cross" sees Fahey traversing all his signature territory, condensing the entirety of American folk-blues tradition into a uniquely emotional and present instrumental language that also touches on eastern modalities and droning psychedelia. His talent for arranging classic compositions is represented by a version of Irving Berlin's "Remember" and a truly moving, beautiful take on the Gershwins' "Summertime" (I'm always a sucker for that song, but this version really blows me away). It's hard not to read into these tracks, knowing they were recorded so soon before Fahey's passing. The last, "hidden" track especially reverbrates with a kind of somber, distant contemplation, while many of the other tracks possess the joyful but calm exhuberance that comes with being at peace with fate. If there's anything to be learned from the touching liner notes by Cul De Sac's Glenn Jones, however, it's that Fahey was a man who truly lived for today, and if the album can be read as a reflection on the past or acceptance of the future it might just be by chance. But it doesn't seem to be by chance that the last album recorded by a guitar genius decades along in his career stands alongside his very best. Simultaneously uplifting in its gorgeousness and heartbreaking in its unitintended function as a final farewell.
Amazing!!! People often ask what Fahey record they should start with or totally need to have. It's so hard to answer that because so many of his albums could be 'the one'. My answer to this question changes almost every day but as Requia sits in front of me I find it hard to find a reason why this isn't "the one". Combines both his amazing fingerpicking stylings along with his early exploration of tape effects and outside explorations. Every time it's played this record makes me freeze and goosebumps start forming. This is spiritual music in all the right ways.
John Fahey hated hippies. Well, that's no surprise coming from a curmudgeonly genius that made his dislikes very well known. In a 1997 interview printed in one of the booklets in this 2cd anthology of recordings on the Table of Elements label, he says he hated playing for audiences who only wanted to hear him play his old stuff -- "I'm picking up more of an audience from younger people who have an open mind, who are more into experimentalism. I don't want to live in the past." Which explains the subtitle of this anthology: A Young Person's guide to John Fahey. Collecting the now out of print Table of The Elements releases, Womblife (1997), Georgia Stomps, Atlanta Struts, & Other Contemporary Dance Favorites (1998, recorded live) and the limited posthumously released suite, Hard Time Empty Bottle Blues (2003), this anthology sees Fahey at his most iconoclastic. Opening with "Sharks" from the Womblife album, produced and recorded by Jim O'Rourke, Fahey's dissonant and impressionist guitar work is more predatory than pastoral, eventually careening into cinematic textures of gamelan and sandy rain. The sea theme throughout Womblife is appropriate as it sounds like it was recorded deep in the ocean giving voice to the organic shape-shifting rhythms of its creatures. Only the 13 minute closer, "Juana" recalls Fahey's early self with solo acoustic guitar. The Second Disc compiles the live set from Georgia Stomps, and here he trades his acoustic for an electric (or amplified acoustic, we're not sure) and soaks it in reverb and chorus. Seeming to take cues from Loren Mazzacane Connors stark electric guitar work, Fahey builds upon his earlier delta-inspired acoustic pieces and takes them into sparse and charged new territories. Fans of Fahey's vast Takoma catalog may not like this anthology as much, but it is amazing to see an artist late in life continuing to take his sound to new worlds. We only wish the current wave of Fahey inspired string pickers could do as much. Highly Recommended!
John Fahey revolutionized guitar folk. His immediately recognizable, simultaneously ethereal and earthy virtuosic guitar picking and compositions combined influences from the folk blues of Charley Patton to Indian ragas to classical music, and have had a vast influence on too many trad folk, neo-folk and psych artists to mention. If you have somehow managed to get by not owning any records by this guitar genius, you have a few good options of where to start, including The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death; Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Marches (Windy's fave); or conveniently, this newly reissued collection of tunes originally issued on a 1977 best-of lp. Hand picked by the man himself from the Takoma Back catalogue, the cd issue includes three tracks not featured on the lp, including the epic "Fare Forward Voyagers." The selections tend toward the more upbeat numbers, so for a fuller idea of what Fahey's all about which includes his more melancholy and drone-oriented works, you're going to have to dig into his albums proper. Still, this is a fine way to get your feet wet and fall in love with John Fahey.
If you want to hear a guitar being played, you just can't do much better than to listen to John Fahey (RIP)! An American original who synthesized country, bluegrass, blues, classical, and more into an untaught ('primitive') and utterly accomplished style. A true John Fahey "Best Of" will have to extend to more than just two volumes, that's for sure. This one covers material recorded for his own Takoma label between 1964-1983 (the cover picture looks like it was taken near or beyond the latter date) and some of it is until now unreleased on cd (or unreleased, period!) stuff including the 13+ minute track "The Fahey Sampler", a medley performance previously only found on a rare Takoma compilation LP from 1971. Three tracks are taken from the 'lost' album Azalea City Memories (And Dreams Of Prince George's County) which may actually date to 1991, while the rest come from such LPs as Railroad, The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death, Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes, Old Fashioned Love, Live In Tasmania, John Fahey Visits Washington DC, Yes! Jesus Loves Me, and others. Compiled and with liner notes by Henry Kaiser. For Fahey fans, probably essential for the unreleased/rare tracks, and for anyone who'd like to hear an idiosyncratic genius of acoustic 'folk guitar' and beyond, quite recommended.
The legendary guitarist's third album (from 1964) reissued with four bonus cuts. 'Fahey's dark sound, quirky humor and moody slide work are all in evidence on this release' it says here, and it's true.
Ol' John Fahey, we just can't get enough of him...sadly he's gone now but every now and then we're blessed with a new reissue or, in this case, a rare live recording. The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick was taped at the Matrix in San Francisco at two shows back in 1968 and 1969 (and is now the earliest live Fahey album out). It draws on material from his albums of the period, including The Yellow Princess, Blind Joe Death and Requia among others. Eccentric genius fingerpicked guitar and wry, charmingly mild mannered on-stage commentary doesn't get much better than Fahey, now does it? And where else are you going to hear such great music alongside brief tracks with titles like "Fahey Blows His Nose"? Comes beautifully packaged, with liners written by Glenn Jones of Cul de Sac.
If this was truly John Fahey returning from the dead, we'd be afraid that he had not moved on to a better place. Taken from a rare out of print double 7" release from 1997, The Mill Pond has got to be one of Fahey's doomiest outings. Recorded with the help of Jeff Allman who adds some electronic elements, it features Fahey on vocals (!), delivering some ghostly shamanistic moans over washes of intense treated, distorted guitar. Titles like "The Mill Pond Drowns Hope" and "You Can't Cool Off In The Mill Pond, You Can Only Die" up the creep factor into an antithesis of baptismal redemption.
Fahey fans will be fascinated, especially those who looking for a Fahey release in a more (or most) experimental vein -- this is it. Or if you're not so sure about Fahey's usual acoustic mode, if you need your music to have a more malevolent edge, check this out! We think fans of the doomdirge likes of Nadja might even dig this. Also, his vocals bring to mind the most out-there trips of '70s psych-cult Yahowha 13.
Comes with an extensive booklet featuring Fahey's paintings, drawings and collages that offer a unique glimpse into Fahey's eccentric peculiarities. Recommended!
If there was ever an argument for Christmas albums that you could play all year, John Fahey's two Christmas records of solo guitar music would be at the top of our lists. Recorded in 1968 and 1975 respectively and included here on one cd, Fahey covers a lot of traditional territory in such a way that makes classic Christmas songs altogether fresh and new. Quiet, understated and peaceful, Fahey's song selection is far reaching past the usual carols we're familiar with and into more obscure Episcopal hymns from his childhood, and even a few songs of his own invention, including the incredible 12 minute improvisation, "Christmas Fantasy (Part II)". So Beautiful!
Another absolutely killer John Fahey box set , this time compiling his first six Takoma lps recorded between 1962 and 1967: Blind Joe Death; Death Chants, Breakdowns, And Military Waltzes; The Dance of Death and Other Plantation Favorites; The Great San Bernardino Birthday Party; The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death; and Days Have Gone By. All reissued on 180 gram vinyl with deluxe old school tip-on style jackets. Chances are if you are a fan, you may have some if not all of these, but maybe not all on lp, eh? or if you do, we bet you don't have a T-shirt, or poster, or postcard that are all also included here, hmmm? Or what about that good friend you are always trying to turn onto classic Fahey records, might be a nice gift for them. Or even better yet perhaps this is the time to give your shitty scratched up thrift store-bought copies to that good friend and buy this incredible set for yourself!
For those few readers who may have absolutely no idea what we're talking about, here is a simple overview from past reviews to get you caught up. John Fahey revolutionized guitar folk. His immediately recognizable, simultaneously ethereal and earthy virtuosic guitar picking and compositions combined influences from the folk blues of Charley Patton to Indian ragas to classical music, gospel, and Americana, and has had a vast influence on too many trad folk, neo-folk and psych artists to mention. His singular approach to the ephemeral culture and the stubborn individualism of early American musical history led him to create wondrous, contemplative, melancholy and drone-oriented works in a metaphysical hybrid of esoteric sound and spirit. While there are many practitioners of the solo guitar craft, there are none with the crazy wisdom, guts and breadth of knowledge that Fahey exhibited in his lifetime. Incredible!
One of the strangest, most controversial and fantastic releases of the vast Fahey catalog has been reissued and restored to its original glory by the great minds at 4 Men With Beards. Like the America double lp reissue, The Voice of The Turtle from 1968 is now once again a gatefold lp with a 12 page illustrated booklet with bizarre liner notes written by Blind Joe Death (the first sentence in the liner notes is 561 words long, a feat even our Andee may have difficulty in topping). At this point, the conceit of Blind Joe Death as a real figure who taught John Fahey to play was still in full swing, and even the credits were listed to both Mr. Death and Fahey. But there were also rumors that some of the recordings on this record were retaped from old blues 78s made by Walter Beasley and Sylvester Weaver. Even Fahey has said that the record was an elaborate hoax. But it is this conceit with the illustrated ephemera and Biblical tone of an age gone by that gives this record its strange beguiling charm. It's one of the first of many experimental approaches to the historical nature of his craft that he seems to exploit with the most unfettered reverie. Musically, the inclusion of old recordings with their scratchy sound quality, mixed with the addition of fiddle and flute players, Tibetan monk chants and gongs seem to mark a dividing line between past and future, as the raga meditations seem to point the way ahead to a folk-laden psychedelia. Essential Fahey!
Here's a nice new reissue of this Fahey classic (his eighth album, originally released in 1968). The iconoclastic "American primitive" guitarist is at his finger-pickin' best here, performing pieces loaded with spacious, aching, pristine loveliness, like "View (East From The Top Of The Riggs Road/B&O Trestle)", "Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Invisible City Of Bladensburg", and the title track, indeed a jaunty clipper ship of a tune. All in some ways traditionally inspired, but with a unique, creative talent to additionally experiment and innovate. Entering Fahey's world on The Yellow Princess (or via other classic albums of his like Death Chants, Breakdowns And Military Marches or The Legend Of Blind Joe Death), is to behold a wondrous architecture of beauty and meaning, held aloft by one man's fingertips, with help from the spirits of the past.
One reason that this new reissue is so nice is that they've tacked on several bonus tracks! Three of 'em, recorded in 1965 ("the lost Elektra demos"), all previously unreleased. And, appended to Fahey's own original, inimitable and illuminating liner notes in the thick cd booklet, there's new notes also from modern day Fahey acolytes/appreciators Glenn Jones (of Cul de Sac) and M. Ward.
This compilation seemed to have come out of nowhere, but it's noteworthy because it collects the best of Fahey's Varrick years. Varrick, for those who may not know, was (still is?) a subsidiary of Rounder Records and in the eighties and early nineties they released a string of Fahey releases from 1984's Let Go to 1992's Old Girlfriends and Other Horrible Memories. Yes, these were Fahey's lost-in-the-wilderness years, and these releases with their bad eighties new age-y artwork and hodgepodge song selections (lots of cover versions from Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stravinsky, Bola Sete and Eric Clapton, with only a few originals) have never been the sought-after records in his huge body of work. But this compilation takes most of the Fahey originals from those releases and puts them together on one disc for the first time, spotlighting an otherwise overlooked period of his career to great measure. His originals from this period, though few, were among the best pieces these releases had to offer, from the Delta excursionary "Black Mommy" to the sad Hawaiian guitar of "Love On Waikiki". (Thankfully, the compilers left off his version of "Layla"!) This is one of those occasions where a 'best of' comp is the way to go, so Rounder has done quite a service here for Fahey fans!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Another wonderful record of Fahey's experimental bluegrass guitar.
Young fans of John Fahey who may have thought it all began with Blind Joe Death and the Takoma label will be in hidden treasure heaven with this incredible 5cd box set of Fahey's earliest recorded output for Joe Bussard's Fonotone label, the very last 78 rpm record label. Seasoned fans who may have long tired of seeking out these rarer than rare "cut-on-demand" releases can breathe a sigh of relief that these recordings made between 1958-1965 have been lovingly archived with a big beautiful 88 page book filled with liner notes, extensive histories, anecdotes, indexes, track-by-track commentary, photographs, and production information by Fahey follower Glenn Jones, who has worked for years on this project with a host of contributors. Here are 115 tracks, most of which are on cd for the first time.
It's hard to quantify how many of the originals were made, because Fonotone was a cut on demand mailorder label, meaning someone would have to order the title and the records would be hand cut (not pressed like they are today) from the master tape. Since each one was cut in real time, there were often slight discrepancies in the speed of the record, making each one a unique individual object. While Bussard claims he sold a lot of Fahey's records during his 14 year label lifespan, Jones was never sure if that meant 50 copies or one hundred or more, but given the scarcity of them in the collector resale market, Jones surmises that they might not have been more than 5 complete sets made. So there is a lot of gold to be discovered here. While some of the tracks are early recordings of Fahey Takoma-era classics like "Transcendental Waterfall" and "In Christ, There Is No East or West", there are a myriad of recordings attributed to Blind Thomas, one of Fahey's lost bluesman alter-egos, but unlike his more well-known alter-ego Blind Joe Death, Blind Thomas sang in a gruff world-weary manner, which we'll leave it up to the listener to decide if that is a good or bad thing. Our favorites are a few lovely collaborative tracks with flautist Nancy Maclean and folksinger Fran Vandiver, as well as a long beautiful instrumental track played with Indian instruments ("Western Medley").
But there is so much to pore over and obsess about here that any review we can write can hardly contain our enthusiasm and amazement over such a huge and immersive labor of love. Another score for Dust-To-Digital!!!
(Who, by the way, also just brought out an amazing 4cd boxed collection of vintage African 78s called Opika Pende that we have in stock too, and will endeavor to review on our next list...)
Boston psych/folk/space rockers Cul de Sac covered a Fahey tune on their first album, Ecim, and here they finally get to collaborate with their hero, an ordeal (so say the liner notes) but with quite excellent results as expected.
John Fahey's second major label album was sort of a continuation of the fuller-sounding, more-musicians, New-Orleans-brass-band direction he had begun with the 1972 album Of Rivers and Religion. There's clarinet, trombone, trumpet, ukulele, mandolin, alto
And let's all get a kick out of the terrible, terrible cover art, featuring a couple in prom gear waltzing blissfully under a disco ball. Oh my GOD it's bad.
For some time now I've been meaning to make this *great* album "Oldie but Goodie of the Week", and then lo and behold, it got reissued with 8 extra tracks! So it is with great pleasure that we offer Fairport Convention's Heyday. I'm a big fan of this band, who formed in the late '60s and whose sound melded traditional British Isles folk music with rock influences. Heyday is actually Fairport at their most rock -- it predates their better known (and much more "traditional" classics such as Unhalfbricking and Liege & Leaf), and is almost completely comprised of covers. This earliest incarnation of Fairport (which has since seen almost all its founding members move on) included the immensely talented Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Simon Nicol, Ian Matthews. Thompson's sublime guitarwork on Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" absolutely brings that song to its feet, plus they cover Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" and animate tracks by Joni Mitchell, Richard Farina, the Everly Bros, Gene Clark, etc. The eight extra songs included with this extended version of Heyday were similarly recorded in the late '60s and are mostly covers / traditionals, including tracks by Bob Dylan and Jackson C. Frank. They're more folky and less rock than the proper Heyday tracks, but in that they tantalize the listener by offering a glimpse at where the band was going, they're more than worthwhile.
That these tracks made it to tape is lucky -- the band performed live on the radio about once a month but tried to never repeat themselves! So it is a precious document, and it sounds great. You will never tire of Heyday.
The first four Fairport Convention albums are cannon, no doubt about it. But while many may disagree with the inclusion of the first album, the one before Sandy Denny joined, and their full on embrace of traditional folk material on the fourth, Leige and Lief, pretty much all Fairport fans can agree that their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays, and third, Unhalfbricking are their very best. Thankfully Water has reissued both.
Unhalfbricking? What the hell does that mean? Perhaps the title was alluding to the transitional shedding of American rock elements that had featured more prominently on their first two records and laying the foundation towards redefining a traditional British sound. Sure there are still Dylan covers, in fact three of them, but the exiting of Ian Matthews brought in another Fairport stalwart, fiddler Dave Swarbrick which tipped the balance musically towards classic British folk. And what's more British than this cover? We think that's Sandy Denny's parents. So awesome! Of course, strong songwriting doesn't hurt, and Sandy Denny contributes her most famous song, "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" and the equally haunting "Autopsy". But the finest moment of the album (and prescient of their future sound) goes to the eleven minute take on the traditional tune, "A Sailor's Life". Rumor has it, that they recorded this song in a single take because Denny, suffering from a cold, didn't think she could sing it more than once (though she wouldn't stop smoking). It's definitely the band at their peak and one of the finest recordings they made. Unfortunately, as we mentioned in the "What We Did On Our Holidays" review, the band was cursed and this was the last record for teenage drummer, Martin Lamble, who died in a freak accident involving the band's van. This cemented their future foray towards traditional material as the band refused to play live any of the music that they previously recorded with Lamble. But it's the air of that legendary rock curse (which would also tragically claim Sandy Denny, eight years later) that gives the early music of Fairport Convention it's mysteriously bewitching and dark edge. Recommended!
The first four Fairport Convention albums are cannon, no doubt about it. But while many may disagree with the inclusion of the first album, the one before Sandy Denny joined, and their full on embracement of traditional folk material on the fourth, Leige and Lief, pretty much all Fairport fans can agree that their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays, and third, Unhalfbricking are their very best. Thankfully Water has reissued both.
What We Did On Our Holidays is our definite favorite. If there were one classic British folk-rock record we could recommend, it would be this one, mainly because it's so unclassic sounding. Here is the band at their most adventurous and unsettled, moving into different territory with each song. Mixing covers of American songwriters Joni Mitchell and Dylan with a wide array of original numbers and spirited takes on traditional material, we're taken through a trip of lively blues stomps, eastern mysticism, ghostly ballads and the best pairing of male and female vocal harmonies from Ian Matthews and Sandy Denny. Fairport Convention had the blessing of being made up of many other talented songwriters and musicians as well, including Richard Thompson, Martin Lamble, Simon Nicol, and Ashley Hutchings, but they were forever cursed by never having the same line-up twice on any of their records. While replacing former co-lead singer Judy Dyble (Giles, Giles and Fripp, Trader Horne) with Sandy Denny definitely upped their musical profile, this was sadly the last record for Ian Matthews. He went on to found Matthew's Southern Comfort and then later pursue his own solo work, but it just wasn't on the same par as his work on the first two Fairport albums. This is arguably the best line-up they had which makes for our highest recommendation.
Where the long, amazing and intense road that is Mariane Faithfull's music career began. This is her debut (actually one of two simultaneous debuts) she released in 1965. This was the darker companion to the more cheerful pop of her self titled release of that same year. The record gives a sneak peak at the darker side of Faithfull, that would unravel in the decades to come. She takes on many folk standards and with her immaculate voice and charismatic touch and makes them very much her own. Relevant as ever, as these days you can hear her influence all over the recent great underground folk scene through the voices and stylings of folks like Marissa Nadler and Josephine Foster amongst many. With her own great release last year Before the Poison it's really nice to get a listen back to her roots and marvel at the trajectory of an amazing artist's career. The record ends perfectly with "Sister Morphine" which she penned with one time lover Mick and his cohort Keith, which predated their rendition on Sticky Fingers. When you can love what someone made in 1965 as much as you love what they came out with in 2005 you know you are dealing with someone so totally special. While those boys Mick and Keith, we haven't cared about them for decades.
Nothing special about our Northern California city of Sebastopol compelled Jay Farrar to name his new album as such, he just liked the sound of it. With an array of new (for a geetar traditionalist like Farrar) instrumentation like Roland keyboards, tambura,
P.S. Gillian Welch and Kelly Joe Phelps guest.
While his former Uncle Tupelo co-frontman Jeff Tweedy's country rock roots have sprouted into exploratory pop blossoms, Jay Farrar has nurtured and honed his own, keeping them closer to the country trellis both in his band Son Volt and goin' solo. We (particularly Andee and Cup) have been waitin' and waitin' for him to make an album as good as (if not better than) that of his old band's -- an album worthy of his remarkable voice -- but neither his previous albums, Terroir Blues and Sebastopol, nor his ThirdShiftGrottoSlack ep, have been quite able to capture that elusive magic. This being a live album filled mostly with songs from those three solo releases means we're probably not going to find our Farrar fix here. That said, some of the live renditions do outshine the album versions. And as always that voice is still so rough and gorgeous. Nineteen songs including two new ones and a closing double-whammy of Pink Floyd and Neil Young covers. Includes a bonus live dvd.
Even though Jay Farrar was the better songwriter in Uncle Tupelo, and had THE VOICE that defined their sound, all whiskey soaked and gravelly, he has been totally eclipsed post-Uncle Tupelo by his ex-band mate Jeff Tweedy and his band Wilco, who have been critical darlings since day one, and over the last year or two have managed to win over the public as well, selling tons of records and having the tale of their label swapping debacle and their subsequent artistic and commercial triumph told time and time again. And actually it makes a lot of sense, as Tweedy's songwirting really blossomed once he was on his own and out from under Farrar's formidable songwriting shadow. While Farrar's work in Son Volt and on his solo records has lacked the spark that made his work in UT so intense. And unfortunately that continues to be kinda true...
Now, the sound is there. It always has been. Drifting and plaintive and melancholy with that gruff gorgeous voice. Unfortunately, there are no songs. And that's the problem. If you can get it into your head that this is not a pop record of actual songs, but an extended assembly of sounds, then it may be more satisfying for you. Slippery slide guitars pick out warbly melodies, alongside thick rich acoustic guitars and warm reverberant cellos. And again, there's that voice. And this release boasts some interesting production as well as a six part suite of spacy, experimental instrumental interludes scattered throughout, but all that just doesn't quite make up for the lack of CATCHY songs. But like I said, it does *sound* SO GOOD. I just desperately want Farrar to knock one out of the park the way Tweedy did with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I know it'll happen. And I'm willing to wait, 'cause I know it'll be worth it.
This five song EP from former Uncle Tupelo founder Jay Farrar is, well, okay. As in *just okay*, i.e. there's nothing that stands out as extraordinarily beautiful here -- none of the heartbreaking chord changes, the instantly hummable melodies, the abject naked emotion -- that made his previous quality work so memorable. Not even one great song to make the price of the disc worth it. It's a bummer; I mean he still plays a worthy, if slightly generic, brand of twangy Americana, but it isn't as vital or intense as before. So I say, if you're a fan, you'll probably want this, but if you're new to Farrar, Uncle Tupelo, or his post-Tupelo band Son Volt, then you should really start with any of the Uncle Tupelo records (Anodyne being my fave, but all are grrreat).
We get sent a ton of stuff to check out. And it's awesome, truly, So much amazing music to discover, but at the same time it's so overwhelming. But every once in a while a record pops up that makes it all worth while. Such is the case with this disc from these Italian weirdos Father Murphy. What makes it even cooler is that this record, and this band, are SO hard to describe.
It's a bit like folk, a little bit like post punk math rock, a little avant noise, but stripped way down into something skeletal, they definitely sound a little bit like one of the new breed of freak folk psych folk cd-r outfits, but at the same time, they sound like NOTHING you've ever heard. Detuned guitar plod, spaced out rhythmic thump, lots of deep shimmery ambience and FX drenched drifts, wavery falsetto crooning, warbly organs, and the occasional bursts of feral yowling, wow. Unhinged, fractured, freaky, passionate, super intense and awesome.
In discussing Father Murphy, other reviewers have mentioned Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Samla Mamas Manna, we also hear plenty of Marc Ribot in the guitars, all angular and off kilter, there's also some mysterious female vocals that surface here and there, field recordings, crickets, birds, all beneath weepy mournful Morricone-ish twang, a sound both woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge, part Dirty Three, part fluttery forest folk, a little wheezy organ dirge pop, some slooooooowed down Blonde Redhead, like we said this is super hard to describe. but what we do know is we love it. And you will do, if your tastes run toward the dark, the dolorous, the mysterious, the haunting, the dirgey and the deathlike.
Incredible packaging. The cd housed in a die cut multi layered fold over sleeve, that housed in a thick outer vellum jacket so the images on the inner sleeve are just visible through the blurred finish of the outer sleeve.
VERY LIMITED!
This is the second record, originally released in 1971, by Bill Fay, who we had never even heard of until recently, when we started reading how Fay was "the missing link between Nick Drake, Ray Davies and Bob Dylan" and hearing his name bandied about as an influence on groups like Six Organs Of Admittance and Current 93 among others. And once we heard this record in particular, it didn't seem so far fetched. Unlike his self titled debut album released a year earlier (and reviewed elsewhere on this list), Time Of Last Persecution is a much more immediate, stripped down record, mostly guitar based, with simple insistent piano, even some horns, but without all the swooping strings and lush orchestration that was all over the first record. And Fay's songs do indeed shine when allowed to be heard naked and exposed like this. His voice sounds so much more forceful and emotional, the simple melodic underpinning so much more effective. Even the photo on the cover, featuring a bearded and bedraggled Fay, hints at the personal intensity and intimate emotion within. Intense and incredibly moving, moody and melancholy, you can definitely here some Davies and Drake, even some Eagles, some E.L.P (at their most balladeering) and most definitely some Allman Brothers. As if the songs and the amazing vocal performance weren't enough, the record features occasional inspired and frenzied bursts of ferocious psychedelic guitar freakout from jazz legend Ray Russell!
We had never really heard of Bill Fay, at least until we started hearing him mentioned as an influence on folks like Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance, Jim O'Rourke, Current 93 and the like. Which made perfect sense when we finally heard Fay's music. A reissue of Fay's debut album, originally released in 1970, this is majestic, emotional singer songwriter stuff, simple, beautiful songs, wrapped in lushly orchestrated, sweeping strings, regal horns, totally epic and emotionally grand arrangements (think Scott Walker). The sticker on the cover boldly proclaims Fay as "the missing link between Nick Drake, Ray Davies and Bob Dylan" and while we can perhaps dismiss that as hyperbole to a certain extent, there is definitely something special about Fay's voice and his songs. They definitely work best when they tend toward the more maudlin and miserable, it's then that the Nick Drake comparison makes the most sense. The orchestral filigree has the definite downside of occasionally making some of the songs a bit to saccharin and overblown. Which is unfortunate as Fay's songs are the sort that would work just as well with just a guitar or a piano, dark and brooding, and emotionally charged, stripped to its bare essentials. That said, some of the string parts are absolutely stunning, and the horns give some of the tracks a bit of a Chicago vibe which in no way is a bad thing. Not necessarily dreary or depressive or fucked up enough to transcend their seventies singer songwriter sound, but some close listening will reveal how ultra personal and simply fantastic these songs are!
Features extensive liner notes from Fay himself as well as two bonus tracks: both songs from Fay's rare 1967 "Screams In The Ears" / "Some Good Advice" seven inch single.
Dust-To-Digital are known for their excellent reissue work, unearthing and preserving music from scratchy old shellac 78 rpm recordings and the like. Bringing us vintage blues, gospel, Tuvan throat singing, and more, all with elaborate packaging and incredible attention to detail. They've been responsible for a host of fine cds, boxsets, and books, among 'em Victrola Favorites, Opika Pende, Steve Roden's I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces, and Goodbye, Babylon.
But THIS handsome book + cd set may be their most remarkable release yet, at least in terms of radical sound-conservation technique. It's certainly their most unusual. For example: one of the tracks here is an excerpt of an after-dinner speech given by late-19th century American orator and politician Chauncy M. Depew. You can listen to it on the cd, and distinctly make out the speaker's words, voice, and phrasing, amid a thick patina of hiss, hum, and distortion. Sounds like a poorly-preserved old gramophone disc. But, that sound isn't coming from the disc itself being played (and re-recorded for release on the cd). It's actually derived from a PICTURE of that disc, reduced by 2/3rds original size, that appeared in a 1898 magazine advertisement. The spiraling grooves on the record were pictured clearly enough that with creative use of off-the-shelf computer software, author Patrick Feaster was able to "play" a fairly accurate semblance of the sounds originally encoded on the gramophone record being advertised!!! Ok, that's pretty cool! Talk about DUST-to-Digital. And it's but one example of the MANY different, quite intriguing excercises and investigations in "playing back" sound from such antique and/or unusual "recordings" that Feaster and his colleagues at the First Sounds initiative have come up with, presented in fascinating detail in this fancy (gold gilt edges!), hardback 144-page book and accompanying 28-track compact disc.
Of course, one can argue, just what IS a "sound recording" anyway? In large part, that's what this is about; in fact, Feaster's introduction is devoted to that very question, which turns out to be both a philosophical one, as well as a technical one. Even in Feaster's expansive notion of the term, the idea that "sound recordings" exist from as far back as the year 980AD is perhaps a fanciful one, as he will admit, but still fruitful to consider.
Because, what this book is also about, more generally, is how human beings have sought to understand sound phenomena (from nature, voice, and music), through the ages, how sound has been "captured" and put on paper in graphical form to be perceived and studied visually. These visual representations of sound, are essentially all in the form of graphs of frequency, or amplitude, over time: sound spectrograms, sound oscillograms, phonoautograms, melographic inscriptions, manometric flame sketches, and many more. Various techniques, applied to various subjects. Found in these chapters and tracks, there's FBI voice-recognition studies from the '70s, phonophotographs of Negro spirituals from the '20s, and examples of Athansius Kircher's "Magia Phonotatica" circa 1650 (works which bring to mind Conlon Nancarrow's Studies For Player Piano), among others.
So, this is all very historically & scientifically interesting. Also, completely compelling just for the beauty of these images alone, which may or may not directly reflect the beauty of the sounds they represent - this is a lavishly illustrated book, with full-color reproductions of these various "sound recordings" to accompany the insightful text explaining it all. And the magic really happens, when you experience the book and cd in tandem, as each track on the cd, even the briefest, has an entire several-page chapter in the book devoted to it, and it really helps to read about and look at the visual sound source, while listening. Some tracks sound like antique recordings we're used to from wax cylinders and 78s, complete with the surface static we love so much; others like strange field recordings or ghostly experimental drones or balloons being rubbed together; still others like music boxes or similar devices�
This is the sort of unusual sound document to file with such aQ faves as the mysterious Ghost Orchid EVP recordings, the VLF recordings of Stephen McGreevy, or even the famed Conet Project (soon to be available again, with a bonus 5th disc!). In fact, one of the exhibits here, an 1890 phonoautogram by Emile Berliner, kind of reminds us of a Conet "numbers station" track, being a spoken series of numbers and letters recorded at varying speeds.
All in all, an astonishing, thought-provoking, and simply gorgeous book and cd, recommended to anyone interested in sound, science, OR art; meaning, probably everybody reading this!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Folks who witnessed Feathers opening for Vetiver and Espers a few weeks back, mentioned that they were one of the quietest bands that had heard. So much so, that a rock venue was hardly the best venue to witness their delicate beauty. While the band was here we managed to snag the last of this tour-only ep, a gorgeous self released, hand sewn and packged glimpse into their ethereal dark folk world. The first track is so quiet, it's like Feathers are whispering in your ear, the candlelight flickering, their warm breaths as loud as he barely strummed guitars. So lovely. The next two tracks are much more rambunctious, some seventies British style pagan folk, with Syd Barret like vocals and lots of druggy psychedelic filligree. The final track returns to the hushed beauty of the opening song, a dark dolorous minor key lament, with angelic vocals and haunting steel string guitars.
Packaged in a hand screened paper sleeve, sewn together with colored thread. Each and every one is unique.
THESE ARE THE LAST 30 COPIES. ONCE THEY ARE GONE THEY ARE GONE FOR GOOD!
A customer turned us on to this Vermont-based group who have quietly been making their own brand of druggy hippy psych folk, releasing loads of cd-r's and this here lp, and it seems like only a matter of time before the rest of the world catches on and they'll be psych-folk household names like Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart. Simple strummed guitars, sweet sweet harmonies, banjo and occasional acid fried guitars, simple and insistent tribal drumming, very reminiscent of seventies British folk a la Incredible String Band, Shirley Collins, even Comus (but not nearly as psychotic). However, they do occasionally wander down a darker path, exploring moody and minor key acoustic dirges, each one curiously ominous folky swirl beneath a brooding strum and thump. There's also an old timey element to Feathers, the tracks sound so old, but timeless at the same time, almost otherworldly (assuming the other world had banjos and folk music and record players) sounding a lot like sitting in a dusty room listening to old 78's.
Comes with a big poster of the band all painted up and luxuriating in the tall green grass.
Here is a 2 cd retrospective collection of the often underrated, and totally amazing rockabilly, country great Charlie Feathers. We have carried this before, now it is reissued in fancy packaging. Charlie grew up tending his parents farm. He sang in church and listened to the Grand Ole Opry. A local sharecropper named Junior Kimbrough taught him how to play guitar. He reminds me at times of Hank Williams, Eddie Arnold, and even Hasil Adkins. Feathers wrote "Can't Hardly Stand It" which was later covered by the Cramps. He has the talent of mixing the best elements of blues, country, bluegrass and rockabilly in an original and inventive way. Some songs are slow lazy sad country, and then some are rockin' and tough. As this collection proves he was hard working and eclectic in the mid '50s, but it was during the '70s resurgence of rockabilly in Europe that he was revered and appreciated. Many country and rock n rollers credit Feathers for inspiration (Johnny Cash for one). Dispite horrible health problems he persevered till the end recording and touring, mostly in Europe. Charlie Feathers died August 29, 1998 of complications following a stroke; he was 66. Here are all his Sun, Flip, King, Meteor, Kay, WalMay and Holiday Inn sides, plus rare, unissued tracks including Sun demos, alternate takes and early home recordings with the likes of Junior Kimbrough. You also get a fancy detailed 48 page book.
A no-frills and super down to earth debut. As the title states this is a half dozen tunes from Bay Area folksy folks The Finches. The duo of Ms Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Aaron Morgan share the singin' and guitar playin' duties, and Morgan also handles the bass playin' too. Each of their songs is thoughtful, well-crafted and slightly rough around the edges much like Carolyn's lovely lino-cut cover art. Achingly intimate and pretty, and quite along the lines of folk-pop songstresses such as Cat Power or Julie Doiron. Nice!
Very few things have changed for Simon Finn's mythological folk music in the twenty-five years between his nearly forgotten debut Pass The Distance (1970) and his second album Magic Moments (2005). If anything, the current infatuation with the acid folk meanderings of Six Organs of Admittance, Devendra Banhart, the Skygreen Leopards, and Fursaxa has opened the way for obscure folk artists from the '70s such as Simon Finn. Without David Michael of Current 93 stumbling across one of few original copies of Pass The Distance, Finn would have continued to toil as farmer in Canada; but fortunately, David (don't call him Tibet anymore!) Michael reissued the album with much acclaim and provided Finn with the impetus to record many of the songs that he has been quietly composing during his 25 year hiatus.
Like Pass The Distance, Magic Moments still speaks of a Gnostic mythology, in which knowledge, revelation, and secrets creep throughout his tales of death, sex, gods, devils, and his relationship with those archetypes. It's the darker side of psychedelia, hallucinations, and liminal thought that Finn explores; but the music itself remains a simple vehicle for Finn's expressionism, as his arrangements are little more than voice and acoustic guitar. This bare aesthetic is the major difference from his Pass The Distance album, which enjoyed a complex production with wild stereo pans and eccentric instrumentation from collaborator David Toop. Also missing is the epileptic rage which punctuated several of the tracks from Pass The Distance, but Finn is considerably older allowing his lyrical content to speak through his Syd Barrett meets Cat Stevens voice rather than through phlegm and spit. All things considered, Magic Moments is certainly recommended listening for acid folk fans.
No frills bootleg 1970 UK folk-psych reissue, featuring a young David Toop (currently a musician and writer, of "Oceans of Sound" fame, among other things), who not only plays on this disc but did the cover as well. Supposed to be really nightmarish and weird, but we didn't quite "get it". Definitely nothing like the Comus or Cromagnon we were hoping for! However, it does have a spirit of mellow melancholy that some might enjoy.
Reissue of strangely eclectic and genre-hopping British psych-folk record from 1970, combining country-rock, seventies harmonies, political satire, jazz and early electronic instrumental excursions. This is a mellow hodge-podge of aural recipes akin to the one off releases by United States of America and White Noise. While not every song hits, the album closer, "Opal Pyramid Drifting Over Time", an eight minute instrumental with washes of wah guitar, piano repetitions, jazzy drumming and chanting harmonies is definitely worth the price of admission.
Legendary premiere recording of Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely & Butch Hancock from 1972, now on cd.
