Berkeley Folk Music Festival,concert Poster,1968,howlin’ Wolf,qms,john Fahey,aor

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Berkeley Folk Music Festival,concert Poster,1968,howlin’ Wolf,qms,john Fahey,aor

Offered for sale is an original silk-screened cardboard concert poster from the Berkeley Folk Music Festival held 7/4-7/68 at the University of California (Berkeley, CA), featuring such noted performers as Joan Baez, Quicksilver Messgenger Service, John Fahey (and many others…), and is a rare to find collector’s items as these posters had a very limited print run and distribution (see bio info below).  The poster is in “Very-Good++” condition (nicely preserved; flat; clean; brite image area; minor edge wear / surface marks in spots; very suitable for framing / display), measures 12″ x 20″, and is offered for  $499.99 with FREE shipping/handling, and would make a great addition to any “Art of Rock” Collection! Thanks for visiting my auction listing, and feel free to contact me with further questions or comments.
Quicksilver Messenger Service

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Quicksilver Messenger Service

Also known as
Quicksilver, QMS

Origin
San Francisco, California, United States

Genres
Acid rock, psychedelic rock, jam

Years active
1965–1979, 2006-present

Labels
Capitol, Edsel

Website
quicksilvermessengerservice.com

Members

Gary Duncan
David Freiberg

Past members

John Cipollina
Greg Elmore
Dino Valenti
Nicky Hopkins
Jim Murray
Chuck Steaks
Mark Ryan
Skip Olsen
Mark Naftalin
Casey Sonnebend
Jim Guyette

Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.

Contents [hide] 

1 Introduction
2 Origins
3 Formation
4 Early career
5 Dino Valente joins Quicksilver
6 Later years
7 Remnants and reunions
8 Members
9 Discography
10 See also
11 References
12 External links
[edit] Introduction

Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked in the Top 30 of the Billboard Pop charts. Although not as commercially successful as contemporaries Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead, QMS was integral to the beginnings of their genre. With their jazz and classical influences, as well as a strong folk background, the band attempted to create a sound that was individual and innovative.[1] Member Dino Valenti drew heavily on musical influences he picked up during the folk revival of his formative musical years. The style he developed from these sources is evident in Quicksilver Messenger Service’s swung rhythms and twanging guitar sounds.[2]

After many years, the band has attempted to reform despite the deaths of several members. Recently, original members Gary Duncan and David Freiberg have been touring as the Quicksilver Messenger Service, using different musicians to back them up.

[edit] Origins

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

There is some confusion as to the real origins of the group. According to John Cipollina:

“It was Valente who organized the group. I can remember everything Dino said. ‘We were all going to have wireless guitars. We were going to have leather jackets made with hooks that we could hook these wireless instruments right into. And we were gonna have these chicks, backup rhythm sections that were gonna dress like American Indians with real short little dresses on and they were gonna have tambourines and the clappers in the tambourines were going to be silver coins.’ And I’m sitting there going, ‘This guy is gonna happen and we’re gonna set the world on its ear.”[3]

The next day, Valente was arrested for possession of marijuana, and spent the better part of the next two years in jail. But Gary Duncan notes:

“That’s the story Cipollina told everybody. But according to Dino, that wasn’t the case at all. When he’d been looking for a band, he’d talked to Cipollina, and everybody somehow put two and two together. He actually lived with us when he got out of prison, and while we played some music together and wrote songs, he had no interest in playing in Quicksilver; he wanted to start his own career. Well, when his own career didn’t do so well, he had more interest in playing in Quicksilver!.”

Whether Quicksilver Messenger Service was what Valente had in mind, it appears from Duncan’s recollections that he had at least talked with Cipollina about forming a band; Cipollina remembered that:

“I was recommended to Dino, probably because I was the only guy playing an electric guitar, let alone lead, at the time … We talked about rehearsing one night and planned to rehearse the following night but it never happened. The next day Dino got busted.”

[edit] Formation

At this time David Freiberg, a folk-guitarist friend of Valente’s, was recruited to the group. He had previously been in a band with Paul Kantner and David Crosby but like Cipollina he had been arrested and briefly jailed for marijuana possession and had just been released.[4] “We were to take care of this guy Freiberg”, Cipollina recalled, and though they had never met before, Freiberg was integrated into the group. The band also added Skip Spence on guitar and began to rehearse at Marty Balin’s club, the Matrix. Balin, in search of a drummer for the band he was organizing (which became Jefferson Airplane) convinced Spence to switch instruments and groups.

To make up for his poaching of Spence, Balin suggested that they contact drummer Greg Elmore and guitarist–singer Gary Duncan, who had played together in a group called The Brogues. This new version of the group played its first concert performance in December 1965, playing for the Christmas party of the comedy troupe “The Committee”. Drummer Greg Elmore and guitarist Jim Murray were added to fill out the original band.

It was a band without a name, Cipollina recalled:

“Jim Murray and David Freiberg came up with the name. Me and Freiberg were born on the same day, and Gary and Greg were born on the same day, we were all Virgos and Murray was a Gemini. And Virgos and Geminis are all ruled by the planet Mercury. Another name for Mercury is Quicksilver. And then, Quicksilver is the messenger of the Gods, and Virgo is the servant, so Freiberg says ‘Oh, Quicksilver Messenger Service’.”

[edit] Early career

Jim Murray left the group not long after they performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967.[5] The band began a period of heavy touring on the West Coast of the United States where they built up a solid following and featured on many star-studded bills at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore West. Sound engineer (and infamous LSD chemist) Owsley Stanley regularly recorded concerts at major San Francisco venues during this period, and his archive includes many QMS live performances from 1966–67, which were released on his Bear Recordings label in 2008-2009.

QMS initially held back from signing a record deal at the time but eventually signed to Capitol Records in late 1967, becoming the last of the top-ranked San Francisco bands to sign with a major label.[6] Capitol was the only company that had missed out on signing a San Francisco “hippie” band during the first flurry of record company interest and, consequently, Quicksilver Messenger Service was able to negotiate a better deal than many of their peers. At the same time, Capitol signed the Steve Miller Band, with whom Quicksilver Messenger Service had appeared on the movie and soundtrack album Revolution, together with the group Mother Earth.

Quicksilver Messenger Service released their eponymous debut album in 1968. It was followed by Happy Trails, released in early 1969 and largely recorded live at the Fillmore East and the Fillmore West. According to David Freiberg, at least one of the live tracks was augmented with studio overdubs and the tracks “Calvary” and “Lady of the Cancer Moon” were recorded in the studio just before Gary Duncan left the band.

These albums, which have been hailed as “two of the best examples of the San Francisco sound at its purest”[7] define the classic period in the group’s career and showcase their distinctive sound, emphasizing extended arrangements and fluid twin-guitar improvisation. Cipollina’s highly melodic, individualistic lead guitar style, combined with Gary Duncan’s driving rhythm guitar, feature a clear jazz sound, a notable contrast to the heavily amplified and overdriven sound of contemporaries like Cream and Jimi Hendrix. In 2003 Happy Trails was rated at #189 in the Rolling Stone Top 500 albums survey, where it was described as “the definitive live recording of the mid-Sixties San Francisco psychedelic-ballroom experience”.[8] Archetypal QMS songs include the elongated, continually re-titled suite based on Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?”, featured on Happy Trails.

Duncan left the group not long after the recording of Happy Trails; according to David Freiberg, this was largely because of his escalating problems with opiates and amphetamines.[5] His ‘farewell’ performances were the studio recordings that ended up on Happy Trails and a final live performance with the band on New Year’s Eve 1969.[5] Duncan recalled 18 years later:

“Well, let’s put it this way, at the end of 1968, I was pretty burned out. We’d been on the road for, really, the first time in our lives. I just left for a year. I didn’t want to have anything to do with music at all. And I left for a year and rode motorcycles and lived in New York and L.A. and just kind of went crazy for about a year.”

Freiberg later recalled that Duncan’s departure shook the core of the band:

“Duncan was the “engine” man, it just didn’t WORK without him … for me. I was really … I was devastated … “.[5]

For their 1969 album Shady Grove, Duncan did not participate, replaced by renowned English session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, who had played on scores of hit albums and singles by acts like The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who and Steve Miller, among many others. Hopkins’ virtuoso piano boogie dominates the album, giving it a unique sound within the Quicksilver catalog.

[edit] Dino Valente joins Quicksilver

The next two albums, Just for Love and What About Me?, are sometimes called the “Hawaiian” albums because they were recorded mostly in a studio in that state, and both have a similar Hawaiian motif to their cover designs. They also sound similar to each other and very different from the group’s earlier repertoire. Guitarist Gary Duncan is back. But an even bigger change is that Dino Valenti becomes the lead singer and (under a pseudonym) main songwriter. What had been a jamming guitar band became little more than the backup musicians for a folk / pop oriented singer-songwriter; naturally this alienated some fans, but the records sold relatively well and produced the group’s one legitimate hit radio single, “Fresh Air”. Before the next recordings, John Cipollina, David Freiberg, and Nicky Hopkins all went their separate ways.

[edit] Later years

The band continued with the lineup of Gary Duncan, Greg Elmore, Dino Valenti and David Freiberg until September 1971 when Freiberg was jailed for marijuana possession. He was replaced by Mark Ryan (bass) and the group added Mark Naftalin (later replaced in 1972 by “Chuck Steaks”) on keyboards, and this lineup recorded two more albums, Quicksilver (Nov. 1971) and Comin’ Thru (Apr. 1972),[9] a mere 36 minute album with “Doin’ Time in the USA,” as the album’s most familiar cut. Harold Aceves, formerly a roadie for the band, was added in 1972 as a second drummer to Greg Elmore. Mark Ryan was fired in 1972 after missing a plane and was replaced by Roger Stanton. Stanton had played with Aceves in a popular Phoenix, Ariz. band known as Poland. Stanton was then replaced in 1974 for a brief period, by Bob Flurie, who was a well known east coast virtuoso guitar player, who was called upon for this brief period to take on bass player duties (the trio of Aceves, Stanton and Flurie were later to be found in another great San Francisco band formed by ex-Country Joe and the Fish guitar player, Barry “the Fish” Melton) after which the group disbanded.

In 1975, original members Greg Elmore, Gary Duncan, Dave Freiberg, John Cippolina, and Dino Valenti reunited for the album, Solid Silver featuring cameo performances by Nicky Hopkins on a couple of tracks, plus contributions from various San Francisco area musicians, including Jefferson Starship’s Pete Sears. By this time Freiberg had become a member of Jefferson Starship — he had worked with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick to form a trio on the album Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun, leading to full-time membership in the dying days of Jefferson Airplane as the band evolved into Jefferson Starship.

Since Solid Silver, Gary Duncan assembled various lineups performing as Quicksilver Messenger Service still performing today.

[edit] Remnants and reunions

After leaving Quicksilver in October 1970, Cipollina, Reyes and original member Jim Murray formed Copperhead (which resembled Quicksilver updated for the 1970s) followed by Raven, which resembled Copperhead. In 1974 Cippolina guested with Quicksilver-idolizing Welsh progressive rock group Man, playing with them at their 1974 Winterland concerts and guesting with them on a subsequent UK tour, which resulted in the 1975 live album Maximum Darkness.[9] Cipollina died in 1989, at the age of 45, from emphysema, probably attributable to his heavy cigarette habit. His performances had typically featured a trademark lit cigarette perched on a guitar string stub.

Hopkins continued his career as a studio musician, including playing with Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock. He died in September 1994. Dino Valente died in November 1994.

In the 1980s Gary Duncan resurrected the name and released the albums Peace By Piece in 1986, Shapeshifter Vols. 1 & 2 in 1996, Shapeshifter Vols. 3 & 4, and Strange Trim in 2006, along with several live albums and a website, quicksilvermessengerservice.com. He toured on and off for the next decade or so under names “Gary Duncan’s Quicksilver” and “Quicksilver ’96″.

In 2006, Gary Duncan and David Freiberg launched a 40th-anniversary Quicksilver celebration tour as Quicksilver Messenger Service. They still perform as of 2010, often opening up for Jefferson Starship.

In 2002, there was a Quicksilver tribute band formed called Quicksilver Gold. They performed the music of the Quicksilver Messenger Service and members included Dino Valenti’s son, Joli Valenti, as well as John Cippolina’s brother, Mario Cippolina, and some members of Zero. This band broke up in 2004.[10]

The band appeared at the Rhythm Festival in August 2008 alongside their musical contemporaries Jefferson Starship.

[edit] Members

Quicksilver Messenger Service line-up (by year)

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1965 – 1967

Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
John Cipollina – guitar
Jim Murray – guitar, vocals
David Freiberg – bass, vocals
Greg Elmore – drums

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1967 – 1969

Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
John Cipollina – guitar
David Freiberg – bass, vocals
Greg Elmore – drums

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1969

John Cipollina – guitar
David Freiberg – bass, vocals
Greg Elmore – drums
Nicky Hopkins – keyboards

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1969 – 1971

Dino Valente – guitar, vocals
Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
John Cipollina – guitar
David Freiberg – bass, vocals
Greg Elmore – drums
Nicky Hopkins – keyboards

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1971 – 1972

Dino Valente – guitar, vocals
Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
Mark Ryan – bass
Greg Elmore – drums
Mark Naftalin – keyboards

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1972 – 1975

Dino Valente – guitar, vocals
Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
Mark Ryan – bass
Greg Elmore – drums
Chuck Steaks – keyboards

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1975

Dino Valente – guitar, vocals
Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
John Cipollina – guitar
David Freiberg – bass, vocals
Greg Elmore – drums
Michael Lewis – keyboards

Quicksilver Messenger Service
1975 – 1979

Dino Valente – guitar, vocals
Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
Skip Olsen – bass
Greg Elmore – drums
Michael Lewis – keyboards

1979–2006

Group Disbanded; Some Gary Duncan bands billed as Quicksilver toured during the 1990s

Quicksilver Messenger Service
2006 – 2008

Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
David Freiberg – guitar, vocals

with (usually)

Chris Smith – keyboards
John Ferenzik – bass
Prairie Prince – drums
Linda Imperial – vocals

Quicksilver Messenger Service
2008 – 2009

Gary Duncan – guitar, vocals
David Freiberg – guitar, vocals

with (usually)

Chris Smith – keyboards
John Ferenzik – bass
Donny Baldwin – drums
Linda Imperial – vocals
[edit] Discography

Revolution (movie soundtrack) (UAS 5185 (1968)) with Steve Miller Band & Mother Earth
Quicksilver Messenger Service (1968)
Happy Trails (1969)
Shady Grove (1969)
Just for Love (1970)
What About Me (1970)
Quicksilver (1971)
Comin’ Thru (1972)
Solid Silver (1975)
Peace By Piece (1986)
Shape Shifter Vols. 1 & 2 (1996)
Live at Fieldstone (1997)
Shapeshifter Vols. 3 & 4 (2006)
Strange Trim (2006)
Three in the Side
Live at the Sweetwater
Live at the 7th Note
Six String Voodoo
Live 07 (2008)
Reunion (live at The Sweetwater, Mill Valley, CA, June 7, 2006) (2-CD, 2009)[11]
Happy Trails (1969)
Maiden of the Cancer Moon (2-LP, 1983)
At the Kabuki Theatre (2-CD, 2007)
Live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 9th September 1966 (CD, 2008)
Live at the Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco, 28th October 1966 (CD, 2008)
Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 4th February 1967 (2-CD, 2008)
Live at The Fillmore, San Francisco, 6th February 1967 (CD, 2008)
Live at The Carousel Ballroom, San Francisco, 14th April 1968 (2-CD, 2008)[12]
Live at the Quarter Note Lounge, New Orleans, LA, July 1977 (2-CD, 2009)[13]
Quicksilver Anthology (1995) BGO CD 270
Sons of Mercury 1968-75 (1991)
Unreleased Quicksilver Messenger Service – Lost Gold and Silver (2-CD, 1999)
Classic Masters (Remastered, 2002)
Castles in the Sand (studio jam 1969/70) (CD, 2009) [14]
John Fahey (musician)

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John Fahey

Fahey in studio with Recording King guitar

Background information

Birth name
John Aloysius Fahey

Born
February 28, 1939(1939-02-28)

Origin
Washington, D.C., U.S.

Died
February 22, 2001(2001-02-22) (aged 61)

Genres
American Primitivism, folk, avant-garde

Occupations
Guitarist

Instruments
Guitar

Years active
1959–2001

Labels
Takoma, Vanguard, Reprise, Table of the Elements, Varrick

John Fahey (February 28, 1939 – February 22, 2001) was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, 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 classical, Portuguese, Brazilian, and Indian music into his œuvre.[1] Fahey wrote a largely apocryphal autobiography and was known for his coarseness, aloof demeanor, and dry humour. He spent many of his latter years in poverty and poor health, but also enjoyed a minor career resurgence with a turn towards the more explicitly avant-garde. He died in 2001 due to complications from heart surgery. In 2003, he was ranked 35th in the Rolling Stone “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list.[2]

Contents [hide] 

1 Career

1.1 Later years
2 Documentaries
3 Discography
4 Written works
5 References
6 External links
[edit] Career

John Aloysius Fahey was born in Washington, DC, into a musical household—both his parents played the piano. In 1945, the family moved to the Washington suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland to a house on New York Avenue that Fahey’s father Al lived in until his death in 1994. On weekends, the family often attended performances of top country and bluegrass groups of the day, but it was hearing Bill Monroe’s version of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel No. 7″ on the radio that ignited the young Fahey’s passion for music.[3]

In 1952, after being impressed by guitarist Frank Hovington, whom he met while on a fishing trip, he purchased his first guitar for $17 from the Sears-Roebuck catalogue. Along with his budding interest in guitar, Fahey was attracted to record collecting. While his tastes ran mainly in the bluegrass and country vein, Fahey discovered his love of early blues upon hearing Blind Willie Johnson’s “Praise God I’m Satisfied” on a record-collecting trip to Baltimore with his friend and mentor, the musicologist Richard K. Spottswood. Much later, Fahey compared the experience to a religious conversion and remained a devout blues disciple until his death.[3]

As his guitar playing and composing progressed, Fahey developed a style that blended the picking patterns he discovered on old blues 78s with the dissonance of contemporary classical composers he loved, such as Charles Ives and Béla Bartók. In 1958, Fahey made his first recordings. These were for his friend Joe Bussard’s amateur Fonotone label. He recorded under the pseudonym Blind Thomas as well as under his own name.[4]

In 1959, Fahey recorded at St. Michaels and All Angels Church in Adelphi, MD and that material would become the very first Takoma record. Having no idea how to approach professional record companies and being convinced they would be uninterested, Fahey decided to issue his first album himself, using some cash saved from his gas station attendant job at Martin’s Esso and some borrowed from an Episcopal priest. So Takoma Records was born, named in honor of his hometown.[5] One hundred copies of this first album were pressed.[6] On one side of the album sleeve was the name “John Fahey” and on the other, “Blind Joe Death”—this latter was a humorous nickname given to him by his fellow blues fans. He attempted to sell these albums himself. Some he gave away, some he sneaked into thrift stores and blues sections of local record shops, and some he sent to folk music scholars, a few of whom were fooled into thinking that there really was a living old blues singer called Blind Joe Death. It took three years for Fahey to sell the remainder.

Fahey and his mother, Takoma Park, 1945

After graduating from American University with a degree in philosophy and religion, Fahey moved to California in 1963 to study philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. Arriving on campus, Fahey—ever the outsider—began to feel dissatisfied with the program’s curriculum (he later suggested that studying philosophy had been a mistake and that what he had wanted to understand was really psychology) and was equally unimpressed with Berkeley’s (hippie) music scene. Fahey loathed the polite Pete Seeger-inspired revivalists he found himself classed with. The following year, Fahey moved south to Los Angeles to join the folklore master’s program at UCLA at the invitation of department head D.K. Wilgus. Fahey’s UCLA master’s thesis on the music of Charley Patton was later published.[1][4] He completed it with the musicological assistance of his friend Alan Wilson, who shortly after became a member of Canned Heat.[7]

During this period, Takoma Records was reborn. Fahey decided to track down Blues legend Bukka White by sending a postcard to Aberdeen, Mississippi (White had sung that Aberdeen was his hometown, and Mississippi John Hurt had been rediscovered using a similar method). When White responded, Fahey and ED Denson, a Washington, DC area friend who had also moved west, decided to travel to Memphis and record White. The recordings by White became the first non-Fahey Takoma release. Fahey also, finally, released a second album in late 1963, called Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes. To their surprise the Fahey release sold better than White’s and Fahey had a career going.

His releases during the mid-1960s employed odd guitar tunings and sudden style shifts rooted firmly in the old time and blues stylings of the 1920s. But he was not simply a copyist, as compositions such as “When the Catfish is in Bloom” or “Stomping Tonight on the Pennsylvania/Alabama Border” demonstrate. Fahey described the latter piece as follows : “The opening chords are from the last movement of Vaughan Williams’ Sixth Symphony. It goes from there to a Skip James motif. Following that it moves to a Gregorian chant, Dies Irae. It’s the most scary one in the Episcopal hymn books, it’s all about the day of judgment. Then it returns to the Vaughan Williams chords, followed by a blues run of undetermined origin, then back to Skip James and so forth.” A hallmark of his classic releases was the inclusion of lengthy liner notes, parodying those found on blues releases. Typically, these were epic acts of self-mythologization, mixing personal biography, reverie, folklore, and myriad obscure blues and bluegrass references.

Later albums from the sixties, such as Requia and The Yellow Princess found Fahey making sound collages from such elements as Gamelan music, Tibetan chanting, animal and bird cries and singing bridges. In 1967, Fahey recorded with Texas psych-rock trio The Red Crayola at the 1967 Berkeley Folk Festival, music that resurfaced on the 1998 Drag City reissue, The Red Krayola: Live 1967. The Red Crayola subsequently recorded an entire studio album with Fahey, but the Red Crayola’s label demanded possession of the tapes and recorded documentation of those sessions has been missing ever since.[citation needed]

In addition to his own creative output, Fahey expanded the Takoma label, discovering fellow guitarists Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho and Peter Lang, as well as emerging pianist George Winston. Kottke’s debut release on the label, 6- and 12-String Guitar, ultimately proved to be the most successful of the crop, selling more than 500,000 copies. Other artists with albums on the label included Mike Bloomfield, Rick Ruskin, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Maria Muldaur, Michael Gulezian and Canned Heat. In 1979, Fahey sold Takoma to Chrysalis Records.[1] Jon Monday, who had been the General Manager of the label since 1970 was the only employee to go with the new company. Chrysalis eventually sold the rights to the albums, and Takoma was in limbo until bought by Fantasy Records in 1995.[5]

[edit] Later years

By the mid-1970s, Fahey’s output abated and he began to suffer from a drinking problem. He lost his home in the dissolution of his first marriage, remarried, divorced again, and moved to Salem, Oregon in 1981 to live with his third wife. In 1986, Fahey contracted Epstein-Barr syndrome, a long-lasting viral infection similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, which exacerbated his diabetes and other health issues.[8][9] He continued to perform in and around the Salem area, as he was managed by friends David Finke and his wife Pam. The trio attempted to keep Fahey’s career afloat by radio appearances and small venue performances. He broke up with his third wife and his life began to spiral downward. He made what appeared to be his last album in 1990.

Although he won his five-year battle with Epstein-Barr, Fahey spent much of the early 1990s living in poverty, mostly in cheap motels. Gigs had dried up, due to his health problems. He paid his rent by pawning his guitars and reselling rare records he found in thrift stores.[8][9]

Following a 1994 entry on Fahey in Spin magazine’s spin-off Alternative Record Guide publication, Fahey learned that he now had a whole new audience, which included alternative US bands Sonic Youth and Cul de Sac, and the avant-garde musician Jim O’Rourke. Byron Coley published a large article called “The Persecutions and Resurrections of Blind Joe Death”[10] (also in Spin magazine) and at the same time a two-cd retrospective called The Return of the Repressed all combined to kick-start Fahey’s career. Suddenly new releases started to appear in rapid succession, in parallel to the reissue of all the early Takoma releases by Fantasy Records.[4][9]

Jim O’Rourke went on to produce a Fahey album, 1997′s Womblife, while in the same year Fahey recorded an album with Cul de Sac, The Epiphany of Glenn Jones (Glenn Jones is the lead guitarist of Cul de Sac). This late flowering showed Fahey had changed. Gone were the melodic dreaminess and folk-based meditations of the 60s and 70s, which Fahey himself characteristically denounced as “cosmic sentimentalism”. In characteristically witty fashion, he once said of his style: “How can I be a folk? I’m from the suburbs you know.”[11] Now his music was harsh, grating, and confrontational.

At the same time as he was delving into more experimental electric music, Fahey’s passion for traditional roots music did not subside. After coming into some money upon the death of his father in 1995, Fahey used the inheritance to form another label, Revenant Records, to focus on reissuing obscure recordings of early blues, old-time music, and anything else Fahey took a fancy to.[3] In 1997, the label issued its first crop of releases, including albums by artists such as British guitarist Derek Bailey, American pianist Cecil Taylor, guitarist Jim O’Rourke, bluegrass pioneers the Stanley Brothers, old-time banjo legend Dock Boggs, Rick Bishop of Sun City Girls, and slide guitarist Jenks “Tex” Carman. Revenant’s most famous release would become Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton, a seven-disc retrospective of Charley Patton and his contemporaries, which won three Grammy awards in 2003. Fahey himself won only one Grammy in 1997 for his contributions to the liner notes for Revenant’s Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4[12]

On May 23, 1998, Fahey (guitar) performed an improvised experimental piece on the WNUR-FM Airplay show in Evanston, Illinois in collaboration with Jim O’Rourke (electronics, live-mixing). Later that evening, he gave a solo guitar performance at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park. In the summer of 1999, Fahey returned to WNUR to read from the manuscript for what would become How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life—the working title at that time was Spank. An interview with Fahey by WNUR’s Joe Cannon followed the reading. Fahey appeared to have found new vitality through his writing as well as his now more experimental and improvised compositions.

Fahey performed in Europe in Autumn 1999, including a show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in September. He came on stage, played a set, and then with the words, “It feels like it is time to go home”, left.[citation needed]

In 2000, the American record label Drag City published a volume of Fahey’s esoteric autobiogaphical short stories, How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life, edited by Damian Rogers with an introduction by Jim O’Rourke.

In February 2001, just a few days before what would have been his 62nd birthday, John Fahey died at Salem Hospital after undergoing a sextuple bypass operation.[13]

In 2006, five years after his death, no fewer than four John Fahey tribute albums were released as a testament to his reputation as a “giant of 20th century American music” (Byron Coley).

[edit] Documentaries

Starting work in 2007, Washington D.C. filmmaker Marc Minsker produced a 30-minute documentary on the life of John Fahey entitled “John Fahey: The Legacy of Blind Joe Death.” It chronicles his humble beginnings in Takoma Park, Maryland, through his success as a guitarist and record producer in California, follows him through his dark days in Salem, Oregon, and ends with commentary on his contributions to American music. The film was accepted into the Takoma Park Film Festival and on Friday, May 7, 2010, premiered at the Takoma Park, Maryland Community Center, accompanied by a live performance and discussion with Fahey’s friend, guitarist Peter Lang.[14]

A full length, feature documentary is currently underway by James Cullingham and his Canadian film house, Tamarack Productions entitled In Search of Blind Joe Death—The Saga of John Fahey.[15]

[edit] Discography
Main article: John Fahey discography
[edit] Written works

Fahey, John (1966). A textual and musicological analysis of the repertoire of Charley Patton. (Thesis (M.A.)–University of California, Los Angeles.). Los Angeles. LCCN 67-003863. 
Fahey, John (1970). Charley Patton. London: Studio Vista. LCCN 70-548903. 
Fahey, John (2000). How bluegrass music destroyed my life : stories / by John Fahey. Chicago: Drag City Incorporated. LCCN 99-075130. 
Fahey, John (2003). Vampire Vultures / by John Fahey. Chicago: Drag City Incorporated