John Fahey - The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album

Here we are at the end of Christmas celebrating Epiphany. In addition to the traditional gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh I offer to you John Fahey's 1974 re-issue of his 1968 album The New Possibility. An album that was an unexpected surprise and will no doubt become a record I return to over and over.

I had no idea who John Fahey was when I picked up the album, all I knew was it had an interesting cover, that could have been released any time over the last fifty years. It was the definition of simplicity, and it was on Takoma Records, a label I knew from Truth Decay by T Bone Burnett way back in 1980. I figured it was likely some acoustic flavoured collection of Christmas carols and that would be just a-okay by me. One of my all time favourite Christmas albums is A Christmas Collection by Neil Hogan that came out in 1989, and featured finger style steel string renditions of popular favourites.

The album opens with "Joy to the World" and sure enough it was exactly what I was hoping it would be. Now, the album doesn't have a date on the jacket, and the album is devoid of a date stamp and in the dead wax there was the catalogue number and a stamp that said, "Mastered at Allen Zentz L.A., Cali" so I couldn't really get a read on how old this was. Not that this is relevant at all, I just found it interesting. The recording was also really crisp and the guitar was nicely dialed in. There are so many recordings from the late '60s and early '70s that sound, well, terrible.

John curated an eclectic array of standards and some lesser known selections that are skilfully melded together. Most of the songs are finger style, with very little augmentation or studio effects. He does go into hybrid blues mode with slide on a couple of songs and it's really cool. None of the songs are overplayed, and the gymnastics are kept in check. His playing serves the song, something a lot of players could be reminded of on occasion. It's one of the reasons why I don't go back to Tommy Emmanuel's Christmas album as often as I'd like to. While his playing is out of this world, at times the arrangements are more of a showcase of dexterity and ability than musicality. Although I'd give my brother's right nut to be able to play like that. Regardless, this isn't Take Shots at Tommy day, and to be fair (to be fair) his album isn't entirely solo guitar.

It's hard to pull highlights out of the lot, but I will say that some of my favourite moments are on the second side, from "Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming" one of the most beautiful carols ever, and his interpretation of "Go I Will Send Thee" but really they're all so good.

From what I've read this Christmas album came about because he was in a record store around Christmastime and it was artists like Bing Crosby that were everywhere, and a good Christmas album was like a gift that kept on giving. John figured he should make a Christmas record too, and sure enough John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album would remain in print for decades. I'm guessing it didn't hurt that Takoma Records was a label he had started back in 1959 with Ed Denson. He was sort of his own boss in that regard.

It's strange to think that among the names in folk who crossed over from Dylan, Lightfoot and Joan Baez and a host of others, John's name is one I'd never heard. I realized there were a lot of names I knew from that era and it sort of surprised me, as I'm really not a huge fan of the '60s folk scene - although I do love me The Smothers Brothers. RIP Tommy, you were a genius.

Like so many artists before him, and many who would come after, personal demons and poor choices inevitably culminated in an early death. John passed away in 2001 at the age of 61.

Still, he did leave a gift that keeps on giving and if you've a hankering for a wonderful collection of carols played on the guitar, this is something you should give a listen to.

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