The Disagreeable Turtle-Loving John Fahey & His Ilk (Episode 36)

This week's episode is about the legacy of John Fahey and how he spawned a new style of music, American Primitive Guitar, by culling from the old, weird American sounds that came before him. Fahey lives on in many young and vital guitarists working today. Unfortunately, he also lives on in other ways too. You know that guy who goes to record stores only on Record Store Day so he can buy as many of everything as is possible so he can flip them on eBay? John Fahey lives inside of them too. American Primitive Guitar is the sound of the emptiness of this nation. The vast rocky space of the Western deserts. The impassable swamps of the south. The abandonment and grime of Midwest factory towns. Ribbons of highways cutting through infinite cornfields and suburbs.The cold, Stark forests of the northwest and the elitist metropolises of the Eastern seaboard. Each equally harrowing and oddly beautiful landscapes. The sound is simple. Steel string acoustic guitar finger picked in the traditional blues style usually in odd open tunings. But the concept is much more. The playing transcends the tired 1,4,5 frameworks with an eye on classical, exotic, and experimental ingenuity. Whereas the blues and country music was familiar and warm, this guitar sound was dissonant and melancholy. Speed and precision were resigned in favor of playing that is emotional, intense, self-aware, and honest. There were spaces in between the notes that would be left hanging in silence for far longer than comfortable. And when the note finally arrived to relieve you of your anticipation it sounded unexpected, maybe uninvited. Much of the research for this episode came from this biography: Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist by Steve Lowenthal and David Fricke   Subscribe to Highway Hi-Fi: iTunes | Stitcher | TuneIn | PocketCasts | Overcast | Google Play  Twitter | Facebook | Spotify

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