Monday hymn

May 16, 2011 • 5:33 pm

I meant to put this up this morning, but forgot in the press of departure. It’s one of my favorite guitar players doing one of his best pieces:  John Fahey (1939-2001) playing the old Episcopal hymn “In Christ There is No East or West.”  (For a while, Fahey had the habit of putting one such hymn on each of his albums.) I love it when, at 1:10, he turns the piece into a bouncy bit of blues.

I couldn’t get enough of Fahey when I was young, and bought all of his albums, issued on his own label, Takoma Records.  He was a fabulous writer, stylist, and picker, and couldn’t really be classified as a “folk guitarist.”  He was sui generis. Fahey had a tumultuous life, was a diabetic and a drunk, and died from heart disease at 62.

Fahey fell on hard times and died in poverty. In graduate school, I once paid only $2.50 to see him play at some benefit for a Hindu guru.  During the concert he drank from a thermos of what was obviously booze, and as the performance wore on he got drunker and drunker, finally managing to heap insults on the guru. But his playing stayed fantastic.

I corresponded with Fahey for a while, and still have some of his letters. I asked him about his guitar, and he wrote me that it was a “Bacon and Day Senorita guitar, bought out of a pawn shop with a bowed neck.” I believe it’s that guitar he’s playing on this song, filmed in 1969.

If you want to hear the “normal” version of the hymn, listen to Mavis Staples singing it here.

If you liked this, here are two more live versions (one with live video): Beverly and, my favorite, Brenda’s Blues (a very short version).

29 thoughts on “Monday hymn”

    1. No, you’re right. The end of the first phrase of the hymn (do-la-sol-la-do) is strongly reminiscent of the opening of “She’ll be commin'” (sol-la-do-do-do-do-la-sol-mi-sol-do). It’s mainly the movement between the tonic (do) and the dominant (sol) via only the 6th scale-degree (la) while conspicuously omitting the leading-tone (ti) that makes them sound similar. Sort of a pentatonic flavor. So there you go.

  3. John Fahey! I’m impressed. When I graduated from my adolescent infatuation with 30’s “hot” (swing) music it was because of people like Fahey, John Renbourn and, of course, Eric Clapton. “Impressions of Susan” is a tune that still haunts me 40 years after first hearing it. I saw him at college in 1971. He was as you described: surly, brooding, disengaged from the audience, yet effortlessly produced rivers of sound that stayed with me days after.

  5. Wow. Just–wow. Thanks for the introduction–that is some seriously amazing playing. *Love* listening to unadorned guitar (or lute).

    1. When I need to relax I often listen to baroque music on guitar or lute. Particularly Bach. And particularly in the hands of Julian Bream. 🙂

      1. I actually heard Leo Kottke’s version first, and then traced back to his John Fahey roots. I’ve always loved solo acoustic guitar music, and it was Leo Kottke, John Fahey, and Robbie Basho who released me from the tiresome (and expensive!) business of buying a whole album to get one precious guitar solo.

  8. I saw him play at the Kane Hall at the University of Washington in 1974. He broke a string in the middle of a piece and I have never seen someone change a string in seconds like that. He resumed the piece exactly where he left off. After the Ball was a lovely LP that got bad reviews, I was one of the weirdos that enjoyed both sides.

  9. Sorry, I guess I’m just one of those confrontationalists who can’t take any type of religious music. I played in a bluegrass band, and I’m done with the fake joy music. I’m happy for you though

    1. I also played a 5 string banjo and sundays at a festival could be mind numbing at times, but cutting out Bach, many of the blues and bluegrass tunes don’t fit well for myself. I enjoy great music.

  12. One of the first Fahey albums I bought was Of Rivers And Religion that was in a cut out bin in ’76. Over time I ended up collecting all of his LPs. A fabulous guitarist that led me to Kottke, Lang, Basho, Sete and more. I never got to see him in concert, but am glad that he has many videos that can be seen.

  13. How do you pronounce his last name, Fahey?
    (Will be listening to it all when I get home from work)

  14. I saw John Fahey once when I was in college in Madison WI in 1970, if memory serves. He was great. But as you described, he managed to get himself more and more drunk as the evening wore on. I remember that someone in the room asked him to play something from Blind Joe Death. He didn’t look up. Instead he just growled out…

    “You play it.”

  15. Of course: Richard Thompson!

    Fahey was awesome in his American-primitive sort of way.

    I used to be able to play Fahey’s version of ICTINEOW. Other commitments have dramatically prumed my repertoire.

    Good old BACON guitar!

  16. I was just listening to the Jo Ann Kelly, John Fahey and Woody Mann album from the early 70’s the other day.
    Can’t find anything from that CD online, but just listen to Jo Ann Kelly on this track. It’s hard to imagine that voice and guitar coming from this tiny English girl.

  17. Oh well, while I’m posting some music, here’s some video of a fantastic Musician, Bob Brozman. What a guitarist! He mainly plays National Tricone steel guitars, but is multi-instrumental. Everything from ukulele to a weird thing with about fifty strings that I saw him play in a tiny pub in Nottingham a couple of years ago.

  18. And I remember an evening, decades ago, spent in the basement cafeteria at the U of Minnesota student union watching and listening to Fahey play. Good times long gone.

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