Fahey: Let's Wrap This One Up, Shall We? Uhh, Not So Fast - Part One...

John left Takoma, his own label (huh?), to record two albums for folk standard-bearer Vanguard (oh, more $$$, okay, I get it), and other than the tracks excerpted on the "Repressed" set, I haven't heard these albums. It's confusing to me, because the Fahey recording timeline is very intertwined -- he'll release an album on Vanguard while he's still recording for Takoma and/or Reprise.

So skip ahead to "America" from 1971 (on Takoma), imagined at the time as a 2 LP set, edited down to 1, but re-issued on CD as the 2 LP version (minus 2 minutes). Sounds like A MAJOR STATEMENT is intended here, and..., well, he pulled it off. Traditional tunes rub elbows with classical transcriptions ("Dvorak") and John's longer pieces -- and it all works for me. Okay, I'd happily take back the missing 2 minutes if you'd instead take them out of the last song "The Waltz That Carried Us Away and Then a Mosquito Came and Ate Up My Sweetheart". Oh, and 6:30 or so into "Voice of the Turtle", there's a series of descending guitar chords that later show up (also 6:30+ minutes in) in 1973's "When the Fire and the Rose Are One". Yes, I listened carefully many times to verify this - no slacking off here! I do my homework!!

"America" contains 3 longer songs, between 11 minutes and almost 16 minutes -- and they work. I mentioned much earlier that John doesn't really do 'back-porch, settin' on the porch swing' tunes -- his version is much darker -- but "America", "Dalhart, Texas", "Mark 1:15" and most of "Voice of the Turtle" wouldn't be out of place on that porch. Maybe John's demons were taking the summer off?

   Then the leap to Major Label again, this time Reprise Records (Frank Sinatra's boutique label, part of Warner Brothers). Woo-hoo, big bucks once again! What to do? Hey, let's hire Andy William's touring band to play Dixieland! Good idea? We'll see ... next time!