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A NEW ALBUM FOCUSES ATTENTION
ON GUITAR LEGEND
JAHBI
by Vanguard staff member Stephen Brower and
musician M. Ward (whose own alter ego Vincent
O'Brien and subsequent transfigura
tion is of direct lineage to Fahey's pseudonym
Blind Joe Death). These two managed to secure
some of the most prominent and talented per
formers to emerge out of Fahey's wake.
These covers are not imitations or reproduc
tions of the originals, but interpretations
or renditions of Fahey's
songs integrat
ed into the art
ists' own musical
contexts. That
the bands freely
reinvent or envi
sion new perspec
tives on his music
is fitting, as Fahey
himself Continu
ally reformed and
strived to evolve all
aspects of his art,
from his musical phi
losophy. to his play
ing style, to the level
of individual song.
Chicago's The Fruit Bats open the al
bum with “Death of the Clayton Peacock,”
from The Transfiguration of Blind Joe
Death. While the track lacks the plaintive
timing of Fahey's slide guitar, the intro
duction of vocal harmonies, bass, drums
and an accompanying banjo fleshes the
original melody out delightfully, and
sets the bar high in terms of unlocking
the creative potential of the original
material. Pelt follows with an intimate
version of "Sunflower River Blues” that
makes you feel as if you've snuck up on
a congregation of Appalachian pickers
in the middle of a private, family-only
performance.
Sufjan Stevens discovered that Fahey
had appropriated "Commemorative
Transfiguration and Communion at
Magruder Park" from a Christian hymn,
so he restored the hymn's original words
of praise to produce a somber, beautiful track
made beatific by Stevens' own personal convic
tions. Calexico's “Dance Of Death" lures out the
T ribute albums are a precarious type.
Their ubiquity, especially of those that
seem merely moneymaking or promo
tional schemes, often neutralizes both
the existence of and good intentions
behind those albums actually attempt
ing to honor an artist. 2003 alone, for
instance, saw tributes to A.F.I., Three
Doors Down, 50 Cent and P.O.D. How or
why this happened is beyond me, but
there's no need to question the motiva
tion* behind Vanguard Records' I Am the
Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey, as
the emergence of this tribute seems a
case of being the right time and, well,
the right time.
February 21 marked the fifth anni
versary of John Fahey's death. February
28 marks the 67th anniversary of his
birth. Given the rise of various folk styles
and bluegrass in the last few years, it's
high time a singular artist should be
securely lodged into the musical vo
cabulary of contemporary listeners. John
Fahey, whose inimitable, but seminal,
style of finger-picking spawned the
term "American primitivism," could be
regarded as the progenitor of those musi
cal forms currently deemed freak folk,
or new werd America. Fahey's influence
runs deep; locally, for instance. Flicker
last April hosted a John Fahey tribute
night, with musicians Don Chambers,
Kyle Dawkins, p at Hargon, Craig Lieske,
Deb Marlow and Marshall Marrotte,
among others, performing in recognition.
Unfortunately, Fahey is far from a house
hold name, and, while his reputation and
recognition continue to grow, it may take
this tribute album to really send people
out to unearth the source material.
The lineup of artists paying tribute
to Fahey on I Am the Resurrection more than
exemplifies the scope of Fahey's influence on
contemporary music. The tribute was co-produced
mystery and dark wonderment inherent in much
of Fahey's work, while Grandadd/s "Dance Of The
Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Philip XI” Of
Spain" layers a warm, dirty synthesizer on top
of the original guitar line to sweetly juxtapose
the organic with the inorganic in full Grandaddy
fashion.
Lee Ranaldo relocates Fahey's early musique
concrete experiments from Memphis to Brooklyn
with "The Singing Bridge Of Memphis, Brooklyn
Bridge Version/ The Coelacanth." Ranaldo's ver
sion is composed of found sounds of traffic,
guitar feedback and urban aural clutter taped at
the Brooklyn Bridge. Beneath the collage, a voice
speaks the word "coelacanth," which is the name
of a fish originally believed extinct, but later
found swimming near Madagascar. The fish out of
time was an object of fascination for Fahey that
inspired a series of paintings and a few songs,
and was an occasional topic of conversation be
tween Fahey and Ranaldo.
M. Ward's offering of "Bean Vine Blues” is a
roots rocker banging out a familiar melody; Peter
Case's solo picking on "When The Catfish is in
Bloom" most purely and masterfully channels
Fahey's sound; Giant Sand's Howie Gelb closes
the album with a playful piano rendition of "My
Grandfather's Clock." The most notably absent
presence on the album is Jim O'Rourke, as he had
a good relationship with Fahey during Fahey's
last years and the two collaborated on 1997's
Womblife.
All the tracks on I Am the Resurrection inter
estingly reposition Fahey's music to demonstrate
just how emotionally and aesthetically dense it
really is, especially since Fahey managed to get
all this complexity out with just a guitar. And
perhaps that's the most respectful way artists
can salute other artists: show that they have
ingested their style, allowed it to inform their
own voice, and can manifest something new and
beautiful from it Each artist's veneration for
Fahey resounds.
Nick Hasty
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30 FLAGPOLE.COM • FEBRUARY 22,2006
