John Fahey - How Green Was My Valley?

[mascara838]

Yeah, the version on "The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death" is a bit different from this.

[bbx52]

Hiowdy!!!...actually this is a sort of mashup of "Worried Blues" and "How Green Was My Valley:...Cheers! Blind Brand X...

[Adeptmind]

This song proves he is a robot.. listen to how he speeds up and slows down the picking tempo with the pitch (key) he's playing in! Robot!!

[Mikyhendrix1]

@ProLit Don't exaggerate.........Hendrix is untouchable!

[luisaroa1]

yeah, is amazing



[Monkeymosh]

Nah fuck this i prefer Steve Vai!

[rasputozen]

@ProLit waaay different style of players

[futuredays92]

all the fuckers that say fahey is average should listen to fare forward voyagers or america (the voice of the turtle and mark 1:15). his entrancing power never ceases to amaze me

[tataso]

Is just amazing

[itsfloodindownintex]

what tuning is he in?

[skilldren]

@itsfloodindownintex I'm guessing an open tuning such as E or G. When I was a kid I taught myself some Fahey and Kottke tunes using open tuning.

[TomGmayday]

In 1965, a classmate at Montgomery College in Takoma Park told me about a local guy that was revolutionizing the guitar. He was two blocks away.

(7) goto (3) repeat until DEATH.

[jwalsh671]

I love this song! Fahey slides his way to heaven!

[1Delta]

these performances are simply priceless.

thanx for posting.

[mishajoel]

Another great post!!

Thanks Walt!!

I'm already in G tuning.

[bluescountryfolk]

He's just got that something special. A real musician at work.

[flyfifer51]

Fabulous playing - does anyone know the tuning John is in?

[hollowneck]

Yeah, he's using "Open G" shape, tuned down some.

[henrycate]

The Glenn Gould of the guitar!!!!

[hollowneck]

God how I love this tune!!!

It makes meel feel like that guy in the audience who can't help but holler out a "whoop" cos it's so THERE man, it just ROLLS!!!!

Is there some kinda statue of John Fahey somewhere?.. If there isn't then there damnwell should be.

[greglisterud]

I have the same record. It's called Dance of Death Vol. 3 and other plantation favorites. I learned how to play drop C listening to it as a kid. The album contains a song called Poor Boy (not to be confused with Poor Boys Along Way From Home.) If any one knows how to play this or can post it live please help a guy out.

[counterlucid]

John Fahey tends to play the same tunes on many albums and give them a different names.

[blackfoliage1]

This man is unbelievable.

[PerhapsToast2]

so awesome

[Krittikas]

Fahey was ONE OF A KIND! Have no doubt you are playin' away up there in the clouds somewhere... PLAY ON, JOHN!  :-D

[KarloR27]

Oh I've got that slide guitar blues. Bob Brozman should try that. Kick ass.

[matthewtj887]

what kind of guitar is that

[sanestmanintheworld]

This is an Acoustic Hawaiian Guitar. It has a square hollow neck for extra rigidity . The hollowness all the way up the neck helps the tone. The strings are strung high for playing with a metal steele. This is not a resophonic (Dobro) guitar, but a round hole acoustic made of mahogany or other hard wood.

[lenaspieltblues]

Sorry for intervening:

JF plays a Kona Weissenborn from the 1930th. Was made of Koa.

All the best, lena

[L12gw]

:O

that was awesome!!!!! :D ^^

[Th3Turtl3]

Hendrix had great technique and passion... look at any video of him playing and study his face. Imo he had as much passion as guys like Son House. On the other hand great video of Fahey.

[ctu609]

who cares about technicalities...the guy plays with his heart...and it made all the difference.

[lhaverson]

I totally agree with what Anhedonicthefirst said. Its so true there are lots of technically amazing guitarists and musicians out there, however most of them don't have the feeling and passion about music that people like John Fahey and mississippi john hurt had, which ultimately made them great musicians.

[ceepatton]

oh what do you know? another fucken idiot

[AnhedonicTheFirst]

Fahey's style/technique wasn't what made him a good guitarist. It was the product of his playing, which was his music, that made him an awesome musician. Just because you can play the guitar really well doesn't make you a good musician. e.g. Jimmy Hendrix had great technique but quite frankly his music was shit, save a couple of songs. Maybe if Fahey got on stage and started a little fire on his guitar maybe then some of you would be awed.

[ceepatton]

you are a fucken idiot. "frankly his music was shit" fuck off and die

[AnhedonicTheFirst]

I will bet anything that you play Guitar Hero.

[ceepatton]

Umm.. Okay you got me.. Quite frankly you are retarded. Jimi didn't need a little fire to thrill crowds. He was an amazing guitar player and songwriter: excellent music. Great technique, no passion: Yngwie Malmsteen Fuck you

[AnhedonicTheFirst]

lol Who's the retard? U come on here and tell someone to go "fuck off and die" because they made a comment about someone you know absolutely nothing about. Listen, kid, go see a shrink or relax.

[AnhedonicTheFirst]

Omg! Then you go on to site a swedish musician?!?!? LMAO! Plz dude...plz stop making comments plz lol. Youre fucked in the head or something.

[1949gene]

123jlp-- I meant to give you a thumbs up, agreeing completely, as I do, with your view.

Sorry for the mistake.

[123jlp]

If you dont like fahey don't listen to his music.

Who cares about the fretting hand...the right hand is more important in my own op.

People love fahey because he had feeling.

[Shim267]

Agreed.

[1brocka1]

i still cant see why this guy is worshiped everything he playes is so simple and repetative its the very basics of open tuning playing AND he cant sing! am i missing something?

[ithcy2]

yes. yes, you are missing something.

[dpg25]

1brocka1 - His music is about soul and feeling. Not technical ability or making something more difficult than it needs to be. If you can't see that then yes, you most definately are missing something.

[yourdickisfunky]

he makes simple notes sound beautiful. there's so much emotion to his songs.

[boundtohave]

This is Fahey's arrangement of the common "Poor Boy" tune, not "How Green..." His technique and phrasing deteriorated after about 1968 I'm sorry to say, but his work up to that point is unequalled in terms of composition and technique both; and after all he invented this kind of instrumental music, cobbled together as it was from old blues and country and pop music.

[miasm]

there's a few fingerpickers that can be considered better than fahey technically. fahey himself even admitted that kottke was better. but no instrumental folk revivalist was a better songwriter or was more attuned to how to elicit emotion through melody. i'd even put fahey among the great blues players of the 1930s.

[vanceoliver]

Is he playing a weissenborn?

Wish I had one.

[Harf]

I Like That Natural Sound

[porkytard]

evolution of this fahey fan:

(1) hears of some freak named john fahey who composes for acoustic guitar.

(2) is dazzled by the technical prowess.

(3) listens beyond the superficial and finds the indescribable.

(4) ascends.

(5) picks up a guitar.

(6) descends quickly.

(7) goto (3). repeat until DEATH.

[denverexec2000]

hysterical and true - I still run thye cycle after 40 years. Once you firgure out the technique is not the hardest part, it's the feel..and the better you get the more elusive it is..then you realize there is no point in actually trying to be him...then you die.

[piehole23]

@porkytard That wasn't my experience at all. In the fall of 1969 I read a review of The Yellow Princess, ordered the LP , put it on my very cheap little portable player, and 60 seconds in, I was hooked and have never stopped being so. RIP John.

[musik102]

John's technique is very average. Any dobro player could manage this standing on their head. His right hand keeps repeating the same pattern, and his left hand - for the most part - just keeps the bar straight across all 6 strings and moves to the 3 chord positions. Compared to Kelly Joe Phelps, for example, this is very unimaginative.

[realconor1978]

dude, wat the fuck r u smokin, fahey's a savage guitarist, r u sayin ur beter?

[insidetheguns]

It'all a feel thing dude, you should take this for what it is because the way it is is the way it should be, period.

[denverexec2000]

Fahey's slide playing is "average" in technique, I can go with that. I think it is well above average on straght guitar. His compositions are a strong point, but less so on slide. Point: all the technique in the world does not make you better. How much "technique" did Mississippi John Hurt have? Nobody can touch him because he was actualized. Maybe there is a better term for it, but no improvement in technique would make him better, nor Fahey. That's why Fahey is a god to music lovers.

[lenaspieltblues]

I agree with you: His music is between notes and technique, and he is a timeless master in doing this "between". Of course: other point of views are possible. But for me his playing is a wonderful inspiration and shows me what music is about.

[sw0mgt]

I'd go even further and say Fahey's technique is quite poor, especially his fretting hand. But it doesn't matter... he is a gifted performer and he is very enjoyable to listen to. You're entirely right... Fahey is so good because he is Fahey, nothing more.

John Hurt's technique was quite good, in my opinion. Although raw and primitive, his characteristic use of the thumb in his alternating bass lines sound -damn- good. His arrangements are fairly complex, too. Fahey is much more primitive.

[spaaarky21]

Not a groundbreaking or otherwise technical song but a nice one never the less. I like it, the album version especially.

[musik102]

It is not awesome. It is not amazing. It is very average.

[oldwaysgotthrwayagn]

To each his own. Some place equal value of emotion and feeling to technical difficulty. If you don't feel this song that is with you. In my opinion, I find the negativity and egoism of your comment average.

[singingdablues]

Average???? You gotta be kiddin'!!!

Awesome and amazing are two of the very first adjectives that came to mind when I first heard John Fahey's music, and nothing I have heard since has changed my mind.

[yolemafreux]

Enorme !

[Ziffelsnout]

I have most of John's cds. A true individual and I miss him greatly. I happy we have youtube to revisit his music:@)

[ddrruummmmeerr]

there was no one better than him on the guitar

[neopandorex]

hum .. discutable :P

[flyhaf]

Look man. John Fahey was great. An imaginative cat. I like all of his stuff, but Kelly Joe Phelps (who I bet doesn't believe in competition ... at *all*) can outplay him on lapslide *without* using his right hand at all. He's that good.

[marjet]

awesome! thanks so much!

[NuG919]

simply amazing!!!