John Fahey
John Fahey
John Aloysius Faheywas an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who played the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitive Guitar, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of the music and its minimalist style. Fahey borrowed from the folk and blues traditions in American roots music, having compiled many forgotten early recordings in these genres. He would later incorporate...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth28 February 1939
CountryUnited States of America
While I recognize in the back of my mind that I am an occasionally brilliant guitar composer and arranger, innovator and player.
I know many inferior guitarists who are very proud of the fact that they are as good as they are, when in fact they are only moderately good.
But I say these things in an objective dispassionate manner because, you know, and I can't explain why, but being one of the greatest guitarists in the world simply is not very important to me.
I had a big background in listening to classical music and I started trying to compose, like I was playing the guitar but I heard an orchestra in my head.
Well I was on the one hand, the more I played the guitar the more I began to really love the guitar and to love virtually any kind of music that anybody played well on guitar.
There is something about guitars—maybe something magical—when played right, which evokes past, mysterious, barely-conscious sentiments, both individual and universal.
Oh, 1962. The music scene was so bad that several of us decided to come out to Berkeley and take over the folk music scene here.
Everybody else was just trying to copy folk musicians, I wasn't trying to do that.
As soon as the groupie finds out that you make errors in everyday life like everybody else does and that you are human, they turn on you and hate you.
Well when I made my first record I thought it would be a good joke to have me on one side, have the lable say John Fahey on one side, and this guy Blind Joe Death on the other side.
We'll buy over 800,000 gallons of diesel fuel so every rise in cost is a major issue for us.
But when I come off stage, I do not want adulation, I do not want to be worshipped.
So I was really composing for full orchestra and of course I didn't know enough chords or harmonies yet but I came up with some interesting stuff.
We're trying to find ways for our kids to give back to the community, give back to the school, ... We're also really working on giving them the work they can take with them way beyond high school.