Blind Joe Death's America

Blind Joe Death's America PDF Author: George Henderson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469660792
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
For over sixty years, American guitarist John Fahey (1939–2001) has been a storied figure, first within the folk and blues revival of the long 1960s, later for fans of alternative music. Mythologizing himself as Blind Joe Death, Fahey crudely parodied white middle-class fascination with African American blues, including his own. In this book, George Henderson mines Fahey's parallel careers as essayist, notorious liner note stylist, musicologist, and fabulist for the first time. These vocations, inspired originally by Cold War educators' injunction to creatively express rather than suppress feelings, took utterly idiosyncratic and prescient turns. Fahey voraciously consumed ideas: in the classroom, the counterculture, the civil rights struggle, the new left; through his study of philosophy, folklore, African American blues; and through his experience with psychoanalysis and southern paternalism. From these, he produced a profoundly and unexpectedly refracted vision of America. To read Fahey is to vicariously experience devastating critical energies and self-soothing uncertainty, passions emerging from a singular location—the place where lone, white rebel sentiment must regard the rebellion of others. Henderson shows the nuance, contradictions, and sometimes brilliance of Fahey's words that, though they were never sung to a tune, accompanied his music.

Blind Joe Death's America

Blind Joe Death's America PDF Author: George Henderson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469660792
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
For over sixty years, American guitarist John Fahey (1939–2001) has been a storied figure, first within the folk and blues revival of the long 1960s, later for fans of alternative music. Mythologizing himself as Blind Joe Death, Fahey crudely parodied white middle-class fascination with African American blues, including his own. In this book, George Henderson mines Fahey's parallel careers as essayist, notorious liner note stylist, musicologist, and fabulist for the first time. These vocations, inspired originally by Cold War educators' injunction to creatively express rather than suppress feelings, took utterly idiosyncratic and prescient turns. Fahey voraciously consumed ideas: in the classroom, the counterculture, the civil rights struggle, the new left; through his study of philosophy, folklore, African American blues; and through his experience with psychoanalysis and southern paternalism. From these, he produced a profoundly and unexpectedly refracted vision of America. To read Fahey is to vicariously experience devastating critical energies and self-soothing uncertainty, passions emerging from a singular location—the place where lone, white rebel sentiment must regard the rebellion of others. Henderson shows the nuance, contradictions, and sometimes brilliance of Fahey's words that, though they were never sung to a tune, accompanied his music.

How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life

How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life PDF Author: John Fahey
Publisher: Drag City
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
John Fahey is feared and revered around the world as a guitar player and composer. His inventions for acoustic and electric strings are the stuff of legend. Known for his finger-picking finesse, Fahey's pen has the same world-gobbling ferocity as his guitar. Fahey's collection of short stories defy classification - part memoir, part personal essay, part fiction, part manifesto. It is a collection that makes an explosive selection of his work available for public consumption. What else is there to say, except 'Grab your ankles, dear readers. It's kingdom time!'

Dance of Death

Dance of Death PDF Author:
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 1613745192
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
John Fahey hovers ghostlike in the sound of almost every acoustic guitarist who came after him. He was to the solo acoustic guitar what Hendrix was to the electric: the man whom all subsequent musicians had to listen to. Fahey made more than forty albums between 1959 and his death in 2001, fusing folk, blues, and experimental composition, taking familiar American sounds and making them new. Yet Fahey’s life and art remain largely unexamined. His memoir and liner notes were largely fiction. His real story has never been told—until now. Journalist Steve Lowenthal has spent years talking with Fahey’s producers, friends, peers, wives, business partners, and many others. He describes how Fahey introduced pre-war blues to a broader public; how his independent label, Takoma, set new standards; how he battled his demons, including stage fright, alcohol, and prescription pills; how he ended up homeless and mentally unbalanced; and how, despite his troubles, he managed to found a new record label, Revenant, that won Grammys and remains critically revered. This portrait of a troubled and troubling man in a constant state of creative flux is not only a biography, but also the compelling story of a great American outcast. Steve Lowenthal started and ran the music magazine Swingset; his writing has also been published in Fader, Spin, Vice, and the Village Voice. He lives in New York City. David Fricke is a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine.

Charley Patton

Charley Patton PDF Author: John Fahey
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
ISBN: 0486843440
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 131

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Book Description
Noted guitarist John Fahey presents a textual and musicological examination of the music of blues legend Charley Patton. This new edition is enhanced by Fahey's notes from the Grammy-winning, out-of-print box set Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton.

John Fahey - Guitar Anthology

John Fahey - Guitar Anthology PDF Author: John Fahey
Publisher: Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation
ISBN: 9781495036033
Category : Blues (Music)
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
(Guitar Recorded Versions). 18 songs in note-for-note transcriptions with tab from the man who was considered the grandfather of instrumental acoustic fingerstyle guitar. Includes: America * Brenda's Blues * Desperate Man Blues * In Christ There Is No East or West * John Henry * Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home * Some Summer Day * Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend * Tell Her to Come Back Home * When the Springtime Comes Again * and more. Includes a biography and discography.

John Fahey

John Fahey PDF Author: Eugenia Bell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781941753002
Category : Painting, American
Languages : en
Pages : 127

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Book Description
The much-revered avant-garde guitarist John Fahey (1939-2001) incorporated influences ranging from folk, blues, and bluegrass to classical music, musique concrete, and noise in his primarily acoustic guitar-based compositions. Considered a legend by many, Fahey released upward of three dozen LPs in his lifetime. Relatively late in life, Fahey extended his so-called American Primitive approach beyond music, and into the creation of a substantial body of paintings created in makeshift studios in and around Salem, Oregon. Painting on found poster board and discarded spiral notebook paper, working with tempera, acrylic, spray paint, and magic marker, Fahey's intuitive approach echoes the action painters and abstract expressionists. The same alluring and tranquilizing aesthetics that defines much of Fahey's musical output are equally present in his paintings. The first publication focusing on his visual output, John Fahey: Paintings, edited in collaboration with Audio Visual Arts (AVA), is illustrated with 92 plates and is accompanied by essays from Keith Connolly, founding member of No-Neck Blues Band, and the critic Bob Nickas.

Vampire Vultures

Vampire Vultures PDF Author: John Fahey
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780965618373
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Vampire Vultures is an unexpected gift from the late music legend John Fahey. Originally a project of his own conception, it was to be an epic work that would expand on many of the character and experiences he introduced in How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life (2000). It is a unique volume that allows the reader to walk deep into the mind of its creator. Compiled from his private papers, it includes notebook entries, short stories, letters never sent, revealing the struggles and victories of a cult icon's life in modern America.

The John Fahey Handbook

The John Fahey Handbook PDF Author: Claudio Guerrieri
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780985302818
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Jesus Rocks the World [2 Volumes]

Jesus Rocks the World [2 Volumes] PDF Author: Bob Gersztyn
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0313377707
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Contemporary Christian musiccommonly referred to by the acronym CCMis a catchall term that describes a wide range of types of music, encompassing work produced in the late 1960s to the 21st century, and incorporating rock and folk music influences. Contemporary Christian music enjoys widespread popularity, despite being unfamiliar to many modern music listeners; in recent years, sales of CCM have exceeded other more mainstream categories like jazz, Latin, and classical. This book tells the story of contemporary Christian music over the course of more than half a century--a parallel music universe that the average person knows little about, but whose worldwide impact cannot be overemphasized. Christian theology has had a tremendous impact and influence on world civilization in the 20th and 21st centuries, and music has often acted as a catalyst in the evolution of the culture and religious thought of Western civilization. Similarly, contemporary Christian music has shaped other seemingly unrelated forums of modern music, and thereby influenced our society at large. Jesus Rocks the World: The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music is organized chronologically, beginning in the 1960s and concluding with present-day developments in CCM. The core of the book is formed around the author's 40 years of direct experience with CCM, condensed into cultural and musical histories that explore every aspect of the genre, including the key artists, CCM-specific record companies, epic concerts and unforgettable festivals, groundbreaking albums, and its underlying philosophy and theology. Special attention is also paid to the intersection of contemporary Christian music with general market pop music, making mention of top artists such as Bob Dylan, Amy Grant, and U2. Bob Gersztyn has been a freelance photojournalist and writer since 1994. He was previously an ordained minister who became involved in the Jesus movement in Los Angeles, CA, in 1971.Publisher's note.

Blind Joe Death

Blind Joe Death PDF Author: Andrew Lardner
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications
ISBN: 1619117193
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 85

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Book Description
John Fahey transformed the world of acoustic flat-top steel-string guitar by bringing it to the concert stage as a respected, solo instrument. Blind Joe Death: Volume 1 looks at the important people and genres that shaped him as acomposer. This volume focuses on Side 1 of the original 1967 Blind Joe Death LP, a collection of mostly traditional music that was adapted for solo guitar. Hints of Fahey's early influences endured throughout his career as a composer, yet early on, and in Blind Joe Death, a unique voice is coming into focus-one that is not afraid to explore the avant-garde with journeys into collage and expressionism. Six extensively edited solos from Blind Joe Death are included in Volume 1: "On Doing an Evil Deed Blues," "St. Louis Blues," "Poor Boy a Long Ways from Home," "Uncloudy Day," "John Henry" and "In Christ There Is No East or West." Within these transcriptions, Andrew Lardner has provided admirers of John Fahey's body of work with the essential keys to launch their own journeys into replicating the sounds and style of Fahey's landmark solos from Blind Joe Death.