Customer Reviews

Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

John Fahey may be most recognized for helping launch fellow finger-style guitarist Leo Kottke's career (check out the CD re-issue of John Fahey/Peter Lang/Leo Kottke), but over the course of 40 years and dozens of albums for several labels (which unfortunately go in and out of print) Fahey has produced an impressive body of work.

While many of them are superb and all are if nothing else interesting, The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death (you gotta love this guy's album titles!) is one of his best.

Fahey absorbed his folk and rural blues influences into what he called "American primitive guitar." It's as good as description as any. Whatever you call his music, after listening to it Fahey will become the standard by which all other guitarists are compared.

His unaccompanied accoustic guitar work--though not flashy--is always engaging and haunting.

If this whets your appetite sufficiently, check out Rhino's well-chosen two-disc anthology Return of the Repressed which includes 42 songs from 20 albums. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

In nearly every review of John Fahey, the remark is made that he spawned the career of the famous, inimitable Leo Kottke. While I do not intend to disparage Kottke, and listen to "6 and 12 String Guitar" quite frequently, John Fahey should be listened to because he is John Fahey, and "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" should be listened to because, quite simply, it is the best finger-picking guitar record I have ever heard.

Comparing Fahey to Kottke is, for fans of jazz, like comparing Thelonious Monk to McCoy Tiner, or, for fans of rock, imagine someone comparing Jimi Hendrix to Kurt Cobain. Sure, the first two played piano in a distinctive, personal, and prolific style, and the second two were both amazing guitarists. But skill and style are quite different, and although both Kottke and Fahey are finger-picker guitarists of similar skill, the emotions and styles they convey are quite different.

That being said, "Transfiguration" is an incredible album unlike any other I have ever heard. Fahey plays guitar with a brooding deliberateness that other guitars can only approximate. Kottke comes close on tracks like "Busted Bicycle," but that only scratches the surface of things that Fahey accomplishes on this record. I can listen to it for a week straight and not need to hear anything else; the range of emotion that it conveys is that wide. Whereas Kottke is fun to listen to, or Hendrix is emotional and Monk is unique, Fahey is pretty much everything.

I highly endorse this album and wish I had heard it sooner.

John Fahey was (and probably is) a fascinating and deeply troubled guy with more skill as a guitarist than as an entertainer who can connect with people. This album shows him at his best. Orinda Moraga is one of the loveliest things I've ever heard on a guitar. This album catches two odd and seemingly incompatible sides of Fahey: a sweet and melodic quality plus a stark and almost mathematically improvisational composing style that is both primitive and futuristic.

Fahey's playing obviously influenced Leo Kottke, but that isn't why you want this album. If you like folk guitar, this album has some of the most inventive and listenable playing you'll ever find.

I've played guitar for 30+ years, and I was exposed to John Fahey very early on. His "Blind Joe Death" album (along with Ry Cooder's early albums) changed the way I looked at technique and tone. They made we want to find similarly obscure (if not weird) tunes and bring a personal touch to them. If you're not a guitarist, you're still going to love this very excellent album (though I'm not a big fan of Track 1). Fahey equally rewards both the casual and the careful listener.

If you play guitar or are into music theory, the outstanding liner notes include guitar tunings for each track. Some of these tunings are unique to Fahey. Unlike Kottke, for example, most of Fahey's tunes aren't difficult to play -- if you're going to try, having the right tunings will help immensely. Fahey is not flashy or fast -- he's about atmosphere and creative touches that most guitarists wouldn't think of. I probably prefer "Blind Joe Death" to this CD, but not by much. This is elegant, creative, and unusual guitar music.

I had this as a vinyl LP (remember them?) at college in the late sixties. It evokes the Southern States like nothing else I have ever heard, and the memory has remained with me for 35 years. It had the same effect on everyone who heard it. The LP has long gone, but the memories remain. Thank heaven I've now got it on CD, for all time. My thanks to the late John Fahey.

I put off buying a John Fahey cd for a long time, and choose this one because of the title. This is a different John Fahey than the one I saw in concert at a record store in Austin in 1999 or 2000. When I saw him, he played electric guitar in a very minimalistic style. He did no fingerpicking or old time music at all. I find this cd very restful and it gives me a feeling like finding an old photo album from 100 years ago at a country thrift store and looking at the yellowed and faded photos of men with strange facial hair and women in corsets.
Although I mostly prefer electric guitar music, I play this cd a lot. I think people who like John Fahey would also like Tony McManus, Leo Kottke, Adrian Legg (saw an incredible concert by him in San Francisco a few years back), Rooster Kiev (blues meets mid-eastern dance music)and let's not forget Doc Watson!

Without realising the spine of my albumn had disintegrated, the ancient disc slipped through my thumbs to the floor. The faintest thwack, but, alas, two tiny fragments remained on the floor, ruining the perfection of a thirty year plus piece of Fahey. And damn it, it was my favourite Fahey! Not that I have the exhaustive repository of a true fan or the professional guitar knowledge. And not that I find anything but willful obsfucation in his need for masking as Blind Joe and the feigned erudition of liner notes that go nowhere. But if the jokes helped him stabilize sufficiently to make these delicate and eloquent compositions, then bless him. I also have some things with a dixie-sounding ensemble on 'River & Religion' and
'Old Fashioned Love' with its incomparable and transporting version of,'A Persian Market'. And the surprisingly sprightly'Christmas Albumn'. But this one is very atmospheric stuff and a rich complement to those two early, rurally inspired and similarily resilient Band albums. Looks like I'll have to upgrade to CD.

This album is great and should be a must for those who like more traditional Fahey. i myself love all of his stuff, yes even Womblife and City of Refuge. "On the sunny Side of the Ocean" might be my favorite Fahey composition ever and the album is worth buying for that alone. IF YOU LIKE OR PLAY THE ACCOUSTIC GUITAR YOU MUST OWN THIS ALBUM!

I bought this in the '70s when I was just getting into country blues and fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing. What a stroke of luck! Not only are the pieces on "Blind Joe Death" great to listen to, but they are also (in many cases) fairly simple to figure out and play. They also open up the world of alternative guitar tunings (open G or "Spanish"; open D) to the uninitiated. Having just said that some of these pieces are relatively easy to play, I should also say that I'm still trying after decades to make them sound as good as Fahey does. This is a fantastic collection of songs that just gets better with repeated listening. "Blind Joe Death" is essential listening for you fingerpickers out there and for anyone else who likes acoustic guitar music.

I love this music! It goes into my favorites stack. Also, the eight page sheet of notes inside the case has info about the various guitar tunings used.