John Fahey: A Tribute
I first heard John Fahey’s solo acoustic guitar playing on an album when I was a teenager. I liked his strange, minimalist, visually and emotionally evocative instrumental compositions, performed in open tunings in an alternating-bass fingerpicking style.
I found his guitar playing accessible and was able to figure out how to fingerpick from his record “Amerika”.
For my 17th birthday my sister took me to New York City to see him play at a club called Max’s Kansas City.
He walked on stage, sat down on a wooden chair, put a large mug of red wine and a towel on the floor next to him and played a continuous improvisation for 30 minutes or so.
Then he stopped, wiped his face with a towel (it was quite hot that day and there was no air conditioning), downed the entire mug of wine, scanned the audience briefly, and played another rambling improvisation for another half hour.
Then he left the stage.
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