Music Banter - View Single Post - Anyone hear of John Fahey?
View Single Post
Old 04-17-2009, 12:07 AM   #7 (permalink)
Neapolitan
carpe musicam
 
Neapolitan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Les Barricades Mystérieuses
Posts: 7,710
Default

John Fahey is amazing, I like his songs like In Christ There Is No East or West and Steamboat Gwine Round Da Bend. He is a pioneer in the fact that
he learned all he could of the Blues guitarist before him and and while he pays homage to them he made his own style out of that. He single handedly created America Primative Guitar. Strangley enough I read somewhere that he's credited for first to play New Age music, because he mixed different genres together.

I discovered JF through Leo Kottke, who is another amazing guitarist, in a way he is a John Fahey clone. Leo Kottke is the master of quirky fingerpicking on unconventional drop tuning.

John Fahey was a collector of Blues records but I don't who his influences were. The Country Blues guitarist he reminds me of most is Elizabeth Cotten, but I don't know if John Fahey considered her one of his influences. Elizabeth Cotten started off playing banjo and and in a way she approaches the guitar like it's a banjo, plus being left handed she plays it plays it upside down.
Neapolitan is offline   Reply With Quote