John Fahey Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You 5cd

5cd
2011/1958-65
new
Before he put out records on his own label, a college age Fahey made recordings (sometimes under pseudonyms) for fellow Maryland 78 collector Joe Bussard. Here they are, along with a bunch of other rarities meant to give you a leg up into the frequently surreal and byzantine world of Fahey's blues hagiography, as well as a window into his guitar style before it was fully formed. Glenn Jones has been working on this box, in some form or another, for about 15 years, but the seams of the effort don't show. Blind Thomas is disconcerting at first (Fahey cannot sing a blues growl to save his fucking life), but once you get used to the vocalizing, he's extremely funny. Slide work shows up in the middle of disc 3, and although his amazing thumb was clearly there from the start, the playing jerks forward in quality. 'Weissman Blues' in particular, though just one guy and some strings, sounds like a plane is letting bombs drop through the middle of the song. About 1/3 of the box is unissued, but the rest could mostly only be heard if Fonotone's Bussard cut you your own record on his basement lathe by way of mail order. Pristine liner notes that gently show you how to tell a veena from Sibelius, also how to tell a Stanley Brothers joke, and finally, how to hear the astonishing variety of Fahey's right hand attacks (something his guitar progeny these days rarely manage to incorporate into their own playing). Tracklisting: Interview, Franklin Blues, Smoketown Strut, Steel Guitar Rag, Takoma Park Pool Hall Blues, Buck Dancer's Choice, Pretty Polly/Shortnin Bread, Barbara Namkin Blues, In Christ There Is No East Or West, Stak O Lee Blues, The Transcendental Waterfall, John Henry, Over the Hill Blues, St Louis Blues, On Doing An Evil Deed Blues, Reinumeration Blues, The Transcendental Waterfall, Mississippi Boweavil Blues, Green River Blues, Over the Hill Blues, Chris' Rag, St Louis Tickle, Pat Sullivan's Blues, Blind Blues, Poor Boy Blues, Long Time Town Blues, Blind Thomas Blues Part 1, Blind Thomas Blues Part 2, New Newport News Blues #2, Wanda Russell's Blues, Going Away To Leave You Blues, Lay My Burden Down, Hill High Blues, John Henry, Paint Brush Blues, Blind Thomas Blues Part 3, Blind Thomas Blues Part 4, You Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond, Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin Bed, Banty Rooster Blues, Tom Rushen Blues, Yallaboosha River Blues, You Gonna Miss Me, Wissenchaftlich River Blues Part 1, Wissenschaftlich River Blues Part 2, Zekiah Swamp Blues, Nobody's Business, Going Crabbing Talking Blues Part 1, Going Crabbing Talking Blues Part 2, You Better Get Right So God Can Use You, Wiessman Blues, Dasein River Blues, Racemic Tartrate River Blues Part 1, Racemic Tartrate River Blues Part 2, Smoky Ordinary Blues/Dance of the Inhabitants, I Shall Not Be Moved, Old Country Rock, Little Hat Blues, Guitar Solo Title Unkown, Guitar Solo Title Unknown, Some Summer Day, The Langley Two Step, Dream of the Origin of the French Broad River, Saint John's Hornpipe, Sail Away Ladies, Dreaming Under the B&O Trestle, 900 Miles, Prince George's Dance, Improvisation for Flute and Guitar, Dorothy/Calvert Street Blues, Brenda's Blues, Buck Dancer's Choice, Night Train to Valhalla, In the Pines, Pretty Polly, Take This Hammer, Yazoo Basin Blues, Stomping Tonight on the Old Pennsylvania/Alabama Border, Smoky Ordinary Blues, Revelation on the Banks of the Pawtuxent, Bean Vine Blues, Green Blues, Stone Pony, Dorothy/Calvert Street Blues, Davys Have Gone By, Some Summer Day, Texas & Pacific blues, John Henry Blues, Brenda's Blues, St Patrick's Hymn, Bicycle Built For Two, The Blues You Saved For Me, House Carpenter, How Long, The Portland Cement Factory at Monolith California, You Take the E Train, I Sing a Song of the Saints of God, How Long, O Jesus I Have Promised, Untitled, Untitled/O Jesus I Have Promised, I Am a Rake and Rambling Boy, Goodbye Old Paint/Whoopie Ti Yi Yo Git Along Little Doggies, Goodbye Old Paint, Simple Gifts, Untitled, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prarie, Goodbye Old Paint, Western Medley, Durgan Park, The Bitter Lemon, Old Southern Medley, Bottleneck Blues.