Guitarist John Fahey's never been a man to stand still. He's gone from bright, bluesy instrumentals to chaotic sound collages, from Indian inspired improvisations to laid-back interpretations of 50's pop tunes, and on recent records he's dueted with a Champion juicer and juxtaposed reflective finger-picking with roiling static. And now, just short of his
60th birthday, Fahey's picked up the electric guitar. He seems drawn to the instrument's relative ease of articulation and capacity for technological
enhancement.
On the record's five long, unhurried medleys, Fahey reviews material from throughout his career through the bifocal refractions of amplification and reverberation. He regards blues and old time classics, Brazilian sambas and swing jazz standards, and his own compositions with a reflective but unsentimental eye.
Fahey's been playing this stuff for so long that his explorations turn into abstractions; he'll stretch and twist a tune to it's breaking point just to see what will happen when it snaps. Thus the dark "Red Rocking Chair," whose melody recalls that of old-time
banjoist Dock Boggs's immortal "Sugar Baby," he builds up a full head of steam only to detour onto brightly lit side paths, only to pick up the tune again when you've almost forgotten it. Fahey also plays lap steel on "Song For Sara," melting the song's woozy neo-Hawaiian melody in a bath of spacy reverb.
If you like John Fahey, check out:
Rod Poole December 96
John Fahey & Cul De Sac The Epiphany of Glenn Jones
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Loren MazzaCane Connors Evangeline
