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The Top Ten Albums That Influenced The Americana Movement: Part 1 - John Fahey
Americana, or Roots Music, covers a lot of genres and influences. It's expansive enough that my list of the most influential albums might not apply to some of the Americana playlists on Spotify and other streaming services. Also, like with punk rock or 60s psychedelic, once a new genre takes shape, more artists start to identify with the particular movement whether they’re actually authentic or not.
At my age, these Americana albums weren't just influences. I saw many of these artists who recorded those live and owned many or all of their albums. All were direct inspirations.
I'll define Americana for this list. It's American Primitive or music that has distinct cultural ties to this country. An artist who emulates Mozart or medieval music isn't an Americana artist (at least in my eyes). One whose inspiration is Muddy Waters, John Fahey, or Cajun, is.
So, here's part one of the list of albums that were influential to the Americana movement. We're really talking about the artist, but listing the albums gives you something specific to listen to if you are interested.
1. John Fahey: Blind Joe Death (Takoma)
The first time I saw John Fahey was in the early 70s at the Paul Masson winery in California, which had begun to stage concerts. The interesting thing was that Fahey didn't do a formal set. He just started playing and only occasionally stopped to introduce a number. Other than that, it was entirely improvised.
I was familiar with country blues and folk as an avid record collector but had never heard someone blend all those genres into a single instrumental form. The music had clear influences, but even then, I couldn't imagine how anyone could copy it without sounding like him. I'd heard a lot of inspiring music before that concert, but Fahey was the one who inspired me to go out and buy a guitar immediately.
I have all of his music, but the first album, Blind Joe Death, is seminal. It originally came out as a self-released record in 1959 as a limited pressing of 100 discs. Fahey reissued the album in 1964 (which I owned at one time), with some of the cuts re-recorded, and again in 1967, this time was completely redone. The earlier version is rawer and had powerful energy, but the last version is what most people heard. The later reissues in 1996 on Fantasy/Takoma contain both the early and late 60s versions.
The album has one of his most well-known cuts, a cover of an old hymn, "In Christ There Is No East Or West," which was later covered by Leo Kottke on his "Greenhouse" album. One interesting thing about Fahey is that he covered a lot of old Hymns but wasn't personally religious (at least in the conventional sense). The other thing was his versions were always impressive, like with "Uncloudy Day," so he did draw some inner calm or inspiration from those hymns.
Other well-known cuts include his versions of "Poor Boy" and "John Henry' which had an expansive and mysterious mood, as opposed to being spacy. There was always a deep folk-blues feel to his music. Numbers like "The Transcendental Water Fall" and "Sligo River Blues" were takes on numbers that were always improvisational in concert. I saw him play twice, in the early 70s and the 90s, and heard parts of these numbers in his improvisations. Obviously, those were themes that he loved and continued to explore over time.
...more details...
I once conducted a one-hour interview in the 80s with one of his friends, Bill Barth, and learned more about Fahey's 60s work as a musician and musicologist and realized that only a book would do him justice. Unfortunately, the tape was lost before it could be transcribed, but the stories Barth told me are cherished memories.
One of my most prized possessions isn't a guitar or object. John Fahey once sent me an email explaining what guitar tuning he used on his "Fare Forward Voyagers" album, which is my favorite, and I've always ensured it's kept safely archived.
...coining a phrase...
John Fahey was the one who coined the "American Primitive Guitar" phrase, discovered Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, Peter Lang, and George Winston for his Takoma Label, and was the original template for the American solo acoustic guitar player; from a man who never recorded a gold or platinum album, and who could have cared less.
On a personal level, he's the one who turned me into a guitar player. In my case, that's a Guitar God if there ever was one.
Al Handa
2024
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