John Fahey Various Artists  Friends Of Fahey Tribute
Released: 2006
Label: Slackertone Records
Format: [email protected] 

Friends of Fahey Tribute celebrates the late John Fahey (d. 2001), creator of what he called "American primitive guitar." A project initiated by a Vietnamese-American who goes by the single name Tinh, it brings together guitarists who count Fahey as an influence or at least a particularly admired colleague. (Well, it's not quite all guitarists; George Winston opens the disc with a piano reading of Fahey's "Steamboat Gwine 'Round de Bend" and concludes it with a harmonica version of same.) Inspired by hymns and early blues, Fahey's compositions have a stately, deliberate aura encompassing a sense of American time, affording one the impression that Fahey was hearing something just out of listening range of his fellow citizens. The music is -- no other word will do -- beautiful. Though evoking a lost past, it is, however, never sentimental, cloying or nostalgic.

Tracklist:

01. George Winston - Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend (7:23)
02. Tinh - I Remember John Fahey (2:34)
03. Woody Mann - Spanish Nights (4:26)
04. Mark Lemhouse - How White's Restaurant Destroyed My Life (2:09)
05. John Doan - In John Fahey There Is No East Or West (4:35)
06. Peter Lang - Witness To The Messenger (9:06)
07. Mitch Greenhill & Mayne Smith - The Evolution Of Blind John Turtle (3:02)
08. Terry Robb - Fahey At Bush Park (2:31)
09. Tinh - Home / Auld Lang Syne (4:53)
10. Peter Lang - Poor Boy (2:54)
11. Stefan Grossman & John Renbourn - Under The Volcano (5:58 )
12. Paul Geremia - When Your Way Gets Dark (3:09)
13. Terry Robb - Impressions Of Susan (5:09)
14. John Fahey - Why Haven't I Heard From You? (5:45)
15. George Winston - Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend (3:19)