Sleeve notes
John Fahey released more than 40 albums of truly amazing and expressive solo guitar music. He created a new American genre of solo steel string concert guitar that was rooted in blues, old timey, country, Indian music, and 20th century classical music. But perhaps more important than the musicological roots and the first truly orchestral expression of his solo steel string guitar, Fahey drew from personal experience, imagination, and history to create a music that spoke directly to listener's hearts and souls. I know of few instrumental guitar musics that appeal as much to a general female audience as well as to the typically male guitar geeks of the world. Fahey's music is the prime example of universal appeal. Most folks discovered Fahey during their teenage and college years and seem to appreciate it first for the direct emotions and colors that were communicated through the medium of the recording.
This is the same sort of communication via needle in the groove that drove Fahey and his cohorts to become obsessive 78 rpm record collectors. Direct emotion and experience communicated through music, and particularly through music without words. It was and still is a magical and remarkable thing. Most listeners experienced Fahey at home through their record players. Lucky and unlucky listeners got to experience Fahey live. This could be an amazing or frustrating experience. During some periods emotional perversity of alcohol blood levels could drive Fahey into long monologues, not playing, or sloppy performances. But on a good night Fahey's truly transcendental music would take you to places you had never been. Or, in my case, send to a place I never would have gone without seeing Fahey live. Back in October of 1972 I saw Fahey (with a case of 7-UP by his feet on stage) play for three hours at Ringe Tech in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. He played with an expression and perfection-of-the-moment that drove me to go out and buy my first guitar a week or so later. Thus launching my own career in music. Thank-you John Fahey.
Fahey released only two live albums during his lifetime: 980's "Live In Tasmania" and 1997's solo electric album Georgia Stomps, Atlanta Struts & Other Contemporary Dance Favorites".
2004 saw the release of "The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick", recorded in 1968 and 1969. 2006 will likely see the release of a new live-from-the-archives CD from Fantasy-Takoma that will feature some surprising material. The recordings on the present release were made in 1978, when Fahey was playing a similar set as on "Live In Tasmania". As the rerelease producer of the Tasmania CD for Takoma, I would have to say that I do prefer the Bremen show and find it to be a decidedly superior document. I searched for the rest of the master tapes of the Tasmania show, but never found them, and was not able to expand the CD to the full show you hear here.
While Fahey plays many of the tunes on Tasmania, he adapts them to another moment; stretching and compressing the tempos and rhythms with the elasticity that only he could command. The long slide medley of "Beverly" is one of the best slide performances of John's on record. Bremen was a most excellent night of Fahey, indeed. A musical treasure to savor and one that should be shared with all. (Henry Kaiser March 2005)
John Fahey -
On Air
"On the Sunny Side of the Ocean" – 3:52
"Spanish Two-Step" – 2:09
"Lion" – 6:28
"Poor Boy a Long Way from Home" – 5:02
"Wine & Roses" – 4:17
"Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend" – 4:07
"Worried Blues" – 2:10
"Some Summer Day" – 3:26
"Candy Man" – 4:05
"Stomping Tonight on the Pennsylvania/Alabama Border" – 8:16
"In Christ There Is No East or West" (Traditional) – 8:05
"Beverly" – 11:42
"Requiem for John Hurt (Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt)" – 4:12
other fahey posts
here
KC has actually been putting out homemade albums as the head of the Fence Collective, a coterie of like-minded musicians who use folk music as a jumping-off point for “skewered lo-fi folk, folkadelica, twisted folk, freak folk''. Other Fencers include James Yorkston, Lone Pigeon(who also guests on this album) and countless other bands. Homemade CD-Rs are the order of the day for most of these acts, but occasionally an official Fence Collective release finds the light of day on Fence’s own label, or through Bad Jazz Records. With that groundwork laid, King Creosote’s Kenny and Beth’s Musakal Boat Rides released in 2003 splits the difference by appearing on Domino records as his first official solo album, which is really a compilation of home recordings and earlier fence label offerings dating back to 1995.
Part of KC's success is that even in these lo-fi productions there are some ambitious ideas floating around, whether that be on the building loop structures of 'So Forlorn' or the beautifully haunting 'Lavender Moon'
