It’s a fair bet that any solo acoustic guitarist on the indie/underground circuit will at some time or other be compared to John Fahey. Montreal based Harris Newman made the perceptive comment that since Fahey experimented with so many different styles and “did everything at one time or another”, anybody who plays instrumental guitar could conceivably be compared is him.
This partly reveals the exalted status of Fahey’s work but ,sadly, also reflects the lack of imagination or understanding of many music critics.
One of the main problems is that it assumes an uncritical reverence for Fahey’s complete output that not all artists share. Harris Newman himself said “I hate about a quarter of his catalogue, am ambivalent about a half of it, and think that about a quarter of that is among the best music ever recorded”.
Two guitarists who are used to being likened to Fahey are London-based James Blackshaw and Seattle born Sir Richard Bishop. While both have made no secret of their admiration for Fahey, if you expect to hear clear evidence of this on their latest releases, you’re in for a disappointment.
In an interview with Ben Chasny for Fretboard Journal, Bishop said “I get compared to John Fahey all the time. It seems like the only frame of reference for some people but I don’t play or sound like him at all. I can’t finger pick worth a damn” . A more accurate point of reference has always been that of someone like Django Reinhart, but Bishop has also been influenced by a range of world music like Middle-Eastern, Indian raga or European Gypsy styles.
Some of these elements can be heard in the improvisational freak-out band Sun City Girls for whom he mainly played Gibson electric guitar. This band, which also featured Bishop’s brother, Alan, ended with the tragically premature death of the third member, drummer and ‘ranter’ Charles Gocher in 2007.
As a solo artist, Sir Richard has mainly focused his incredible skills on the acoustic guitar but on his current album – The Freak of Araby – we’re now treated to the eclectic electric side of his personality which he displayed as a Sun City Girl.
Blackshaw is a different kettle of fish. He started out with vague aspirations as Punk Rocker before his loner tendencies and discerning musical ear was attracted by fingerpickers like Fahey and Robbie Basho. Prior to his latest release – The Glass Bead Game – he has put out six solo studio albums, been part of a project called Brethren of the Free Spirit and compiled and contributed to a fine collection of solo works with a pseudo-mystical flavour called The Garden of the Forking Paths.
The evident spiritual bent of the latter is something a running theme of Blackshaw’s work. Doubtless this is what sparked his original interest in blues/raga inspired pieces and it has also taken his musical journey into modern composition through a fascination with composers such as Debussey, Steve Reich, Milton Feldman and Henryk Górecki. On ‘Glass bead Game’, there’s even a Zen-like austerity to the one word song titles – ‘Cross’/”Bled’/’Fix’/’Key’/’Arc’.
Blackshaw’s gradual drift away from overtly ‘popular’ towards exploratory ‘classical’ music was plain on his 2008 album ‘Litany of Echoes’ where for the first time he played piano as well as guitar. He continues along this road now for his first album for the Michael Gira’s Young God label.
The hypnotic looping 12 string guitar work is still in place but this far from being the record’s sole focus. There are wordless Phillip Glass style vocal accompaniment on the opening track ‘Cross’ for instance and no obvious guitar at all on the ambitious 18 minute plus closing track (Arc). The orchestral sweep of the album takes it well beyond the narrow folk genre and is positively symphonic in feel.
While Blackshaw takes to the celestial high ground, Bishop is content to stick with Pagan principles. For this reason these two albums suit contrasting moods. Blackshaw’s is strongly contemplative while Bishop taps into a rawer and more extroverted spirit.
One thing is for sure, neither have much in common with John Fahey so ,however desperate you are to find a convenient pigeonhole to slot them into, do not mention the F word!
i wrote the review of blackshaw’s new album that tiny mix tapes published this past week and contemplated the same problem: to mention fahey in TMT’s “others” category in the review or not to? i think his recent work, like you say, moves away from fahey and toward reich and riley. i did, though, list basho and glenn jones as “others.” i don’t see much of a similarity with fahey and bishop at all. definitely django, and maybe even paco de lucia.