The Best Of John Fahey 1959-1977

The title of this compilation is a little misleading. Although it is indeed an anthology, and the most recent two tracks were recorded in 1977, nothing was recorded as early as 1959. In fact, nothing was recorded before the mid-’60s. If you believe the track notes, nothing was recorded before 1967, though it should be pointed out that the two tracks from The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites, given a recording date of 1967 on this CD, are given a recording date of 1964 on Takoma’s reissue of that very album. Anyway, although this is fine music, as a survey it’s not exactly balanced, with the 15 tracks on the original LP coming from just five albums, though John Fahey had released more than a dozen LPs by the time of this collection. So it’s essentially the best, as determined and selected by Fahey himself, from these albums: Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes, The Legend of Blind Joe Death, The Dance of Death & Other Plantation Favorites, and John Fahey/Peter Lang/Leo Kottke. That is, with the addition of two pieces (“Spanish Two-Step” and a re-recording of “Dance of the Inhabitants of the Palace of King Philip XIV of Spain,” originally cut for the 1963 version of Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes) that Fahey cut specifically for this best-of compilation. Rhino’s two-CD Return of the Repressed: The John Fahey Anthology is a wider-spanning, lengthier chronological overview that’s preferable for those wanting a fuller appreciation of his work. But what’s here is good, important acoustic guitar music combining folk, blues, Americana, and unclassifiably weird originality, although it gives short shrift to some of his odder, more experimental 1960s and 1970s work (some of which, admittedly, was done for other labels than Takoma, from whose vaults all of the tracks were accessed). The 2002 CD reissue does have its nice extras: three bonus tracks (including two from the early 1970s, “America” and the 23-minute “Fare Forward Voyagers,” taken from albums not sampled in the original track listing) and appreciations in the liner notes from Leo Kottke, Henry Kaiser, Peter Lang, Jim O’Rourke, and (yes!) George Winston. – Richie Unterberger