FAHEY, JOHN - Blind Joe Death

"2024 repress. 180 gram exact repro of the original 1959 recording of the first John Fahey album (recording half of it under the moniker "Blind Joe Death"). This has the stark black & white sleeve with just the artist names in block letters. This album was famously re-recorded in both 1964 and 1967, but this is the first reissue of the more primitive debut edition (some takes not included on the 1996 Takoma CD compilation of all three versions). Referred to as the "gas station" edition by Glenn Jones, due to Fahey's manner of employment at the time. "In 1959, John Fahey's debut album Blind Joe Death became the first release from his own (and co-founder Ed Denson's) tiny Takoma label. With that release, Fahey set in motion a new era of independent guitar recording activity. The influence of Blind Joe Death extends way beyond its minimal pressing run of 100 LPs. Fahey brought a new kind of sophisticated primitivism to an international audience. His huge, closely-miked, steel-strung guitar sound reinterpreted such basic folk and blues techniques as stops, pull-offs and slides inside a musical structure that owed more to jazz than to folk music. His unique array of open tunings -- not just open G and D but also C, D minor, G minor and C drone -- and his paced, never-in-a-hurry approach to playing (some uncharitable souls might say 'dirge-like') sound like no other guitarist. Fahey wryly commented to guitarist Dale Miller 'I can make syncopation sound like death.'"