I don't know exactly what to make of this. For one thing, I had no idea that John Fahey ever played lap steel. The song itself is pretty nondescript, and toward the end there is a very odd discussion of "that instrument" in which Fahey seems to agree that there are only "five or six songs" that can be played on it:
[This message was edited by Ben Sims on 24 May 2006 at 08:18 AM.]
Michael Lee Allen
From: Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
Posted 23 May 2006 7:16 pm
REMOVED
Last edited by Michael Lee Allen on 28 Feb 2011 1:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
George Keoki Lake
From: Edmonton, AB., Canada
Posted 23 May 2006 8:53 pm
Sounds like the A Major tuning. Nothing to write home about !
Ron Bednar
From: Rancho Cordova, California, USA
Posted 23 May 2006 9:16 pm
Well, that was 37 years ago...
Ben Elder
From: La Crescenta, California, USA
Posted 23 May 2006 9:53 pm
Early Kona Style 3 (made by W. but different dimensions, short, solid neck) to be witheringly accurate. Visible sitting against the wall on the Vanguard Two-fers LP (and an earlier Vanguard LP) with the dark-haired, clean-shaven, thin guitarist sitting on a stool playing a (Bacon & Day?). Apparently the same guitar being embraced on the cover of an 1980s railroad-themed Takoma LP by the heavier, bearded graying guitarist. Stolen several years earlier, he told me a few months or a year before his death.
For my money, Fahey was the first modern-era player to make Weissenborn-family Hawaiians visible (audible as far as that goes) again after the Hawaiian music's mass popularity settled into dormancy. These guitars didn't have as immediate a player-savior to rescue them from obscurity as Bashful Brother Oswald (and later Josh Graves) revived the Dobro. But by the sixties and after, Fahey, David Lindley, Ry Cooder and Steve Fishell helped make Weissenborn a familiar name...albeit at at rarefied prices.
[This message was edited by Ben Elder on 23 May 2006 at 10:58 PM.]
Jeff Au Hoy
From: Honolulu, Hawai'i
Posted 24 May 2006 1:36 am
Reminds of me of the kids in college that would sit at the piano and do new age sounding improvisations over major chords with a very constipated look on their face.
Mark Switzer
From: Los Angeles California, USA
Posted 24 May 2006 2:17 am
I`m pretty sure Fahey was the first person I ever saw play one of those Kona/Wissenborn thingies. Sure turned me on at the time.
I vaguely remember seeing this show on PBS TV. It was part of a series featuring a different guitarist playing a different style each week. There was a woman who played Hawaiian nonpedal one week and an appearance by Hot Tuna (as a duo) on another. I anybody besides me knows anything about this (I don`t remember the name of the show or host) I`d like to know.
Bill Leff
From: Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Posted 24 May 2006 6:08 am
I wonder what Jerry Byrd would have had to say about this?
Wouldn't have been pretty ...
Jeff Au Hoy
From: Honolulu, Hawai'i
Posted 24 May 2006 6:34 am
I watched the clip again and actually John says, "I only know, you know, five (or) six songs..."
The host sure sucks up a lot of air time looking for words she can't think of.
I wish the camera would've at least caught John blowing snot into the red hankerchief.
John Bushouse
Posted 24 May 2006 6:36 am
Well, it seems like he approached the Kona using the same playing style that he used on Spanish-style guitars - in other words, if you don't like his playing on the Kona, you probably wouldn't like his other recordings, either
Ben Sims
From: New Mexico
Posted 24 May 2006 7:04 am
Interesting - I always assumed that all of Fahey's slide work was done on a conventional slide guitar, not having any visual or written evidence to the contrary. I'm pretty sure that there is no lap steel playing on either Blind Joe Deah or Death Chants, Breakdowns, and Military Waltzes, the two Takoma albums I have.
Also, I do like John Fahey a lot, but his Kona playing on this song seems kind of flat and uninspired to me. Kudos to him, though, for promoting an instrument that nobody else was interested in at the time (including, apparently, the host of the show).
It's interesting to see the different perspectives of the Hawaiian players and the more folk-oriented people on this forum about stuff like this. You do kind of wonder what Jerry Byrd and John Fahey might have had to say to each other if they had crossed paths in the late '60s!
[This message was edited by Ben Sims on 24 May 2006 at 08:11 AM.]
As a player, all of Fahey's work leaves me cold though he deserves credit for championing solo acoustic guitar in the 60s before it was cool and for recording Mike Auldridge's debut album. I doubt a pro like Jerry Byrd would get what Fahey was about. In terms of technique, JB would eat him for lunch!
Bryan Bradfield
From: Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
Posted 24 May 2006 6:37 pm
Mark Switzer - I think the PBS show host was Laura Weber.
Jeff Au Hoy
From: Honolulu, Hawai'i
Posted 25 May 2006 10:07 am
I have too much time on my hands this week. I watched the vid clip a third time. I think what John did is pretty cool. Yeah Jerry Byrd could flick the bar around some, but I doubt he could get the very same sounds. I still don't believe in "good" or "bad" steel technique. Maybe only "efficient" and "inefficient". So, much aloha to Mr. Fahey for expressing himself this way, drugged up or not.
Gerald Ross
From: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Posted 25 May 2006 10:29 am
Not too impressed with John Fahey's performance. I don't care if it was 40 years ago.
The host of that show and the woman in the video clip was Laura Weber. She had a weekly show on PBS TV in the late 1960's teaching beginning guitar.
I watched that show religiously every week. She taught me my first fingerpicking patterns. I had a HUGE crush on her (come on... I was only 14 years old. She was an older woman - and with a guitar no less! ).
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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'
[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 26 May 2006 at 04:40 AM.]
Matt Lange
From: Wisconsin, USA
Posted 26 May 2006 9:11 am
Not only did Fahey record Auldridge's debut album, but he also discovered and recorded Leo Kottke, my favorite "spanish" guitarist.
I like Fahey a lot, although a lot of his stuff is pretty simplisic, like the song here. He plays it like he would play a folk song on a regular acoustic, steady bass with a simple melody on top. This is, for the most part, how i play lap style, although most of my compositions are a bit more complex than this one (or so i'd like to think ). I'd also say that this isn't the best example of his lap style playing, but i'd agree that if you dislike this song, i doubt any of his other stuff would get you too excited.
