|
|
 |
This is the archive of the combined Barking Spider and Andy Broad Portsmouth Blues Site mailing lists.
For the latest information on what's on at The Bullfrog Blues Club click here
Barking Spider Promotions Mailing List |
|
This Friday, October 23rd., Kris Dollimore returns to The R.M.A. Tavern in Eastney, with his brilliant tribute to the music of John Fahey. The gig is, once again in the Gun Room. The Barking Spider rates last December's gig as one of the best ever in the Gun Room - so don't miss this one!
Tickets are just £4, on the door - or in advance on www.barkingspider.abelgratis.com.
Kris has played some of the
world's greatest stages including The Royal Albert Hall and
Tokyo's Budokan. He has also appeared on TV on 'Later with
Jools Holland', 'Top of the Pops' and America's 'Tonight' Show with Jay Leno.
Previously the lead guitarist for the successful band The Godfathers, a couple of years ago Kris eventually took the decision to follow his heart and go it alone. Having
performed the length and breadth of the country since then, Kris is gaining recognition as a world class musician whose reputation and hard core following is growing by the day. His music is
now as primitive as you can get - just Kris, a guitar and the stomping of
his foot. Though firmly rooted in the blues, his tastes
and influences are wide and varied, and free from repetition - sometimes playing
a John Fahey inspired instrumental, sometimes a desert blues trance and sometimes a good
ol' John Lee Hooker stomp and boogie.
As Fahey is one of Kris' musical heroes and inspirations, his legendary John Fahey gigs treat this musical maverick's legacy with great respect and skill, and produce a superb tribute to one of acoustic music's true innovators and eccentrics.
Check out www.myspace.com/krisdollimore and www.krisdollimore.com
John Fahey was a crucial figure in expanding the boundaries of the acoustic guitar. In a career that saw
him issue several dozen albums, Fahey played with a fierce imagination and versatility and was probably the first to demonstrate that the finger-picking techniques of
traditional country and blues steelstring guitar could be used to
express a world of non-traditional musical ideas. His releases during the mid-1960s employed odd guitar tunings and
sudden style shifts rooted firmly in the old time and blues stylings of
the 1920s. Fahey continues to
exert an influence on contemporary musicians to this day.
In 1959 Fahey formed the much respected Takoma Records in order to issue
his own album - just 100 copies were pressed, and it took three years
for Fahey to sell them all. Labelled "Blind Joe Death", many so -called 'experts' were fooled into thinking that there really was
a living old blues singer called Blind Joe Death....
A great scholar of the blues, in 1963 Fahey then tracked down blues legend Bukka White, recorded him and released an album, the first "non Fahey" Takoma album. That year Fahey also released his own second album,
called Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes. To his surprise his own album sold better than White's, and Fahey had a
career going. But still Fahey did'nt begin playing in public for
another year.
Fahey moved to Los Angeles in 1964 to study a folklore master's program at U.C.L.A. His master's thesis was on the music of Charley Patton. Fahey later discovered guitarists such as Leo Kottke, whose debut release on Takoma sold over 500,000 copies. Other artists with albums on the label included Mike Bloomfield, Maria Muldaur, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Canned Heat.
By the mid-1970s, Fahey succumbed to a serious drink problem, and later chronic fatigue syndrome. By 1990 his creative output was at an all time low, and gigs had dried up. He had married and divorced three times, and was reduced to living in poverty in cheap hotels, pawning his guitars to make ends meet.
However,following a entry in 1994's 'The Alternative Record Guide' , Fahey discovered he now had a whole new audience, which included bands like Sonic Youth. A two-CD retrospective called 'The Return of the Repressed'
all combined to kick-start Fahey's career. Suddenly new releases
started to appear, and all the early Takoma releases were reissued.
Fahey
had changed. Now his music was harsh, grating,
and confrontational, although his passion for traditional roots music did not subside. In 1995, Fahey used an inheritance to form another label, Revanant Records, to reissue obscure recordings of early blues,
and anything else Fahey took a fancy to. Revenant's most famous release was a seven-disc retrospective of Charley Patton and his contemporaries, which won three Grammy awards in 2003.
Fahey performed in Europe in Autumn 1999, including London's Queen Elizabeth Hall in September.
In February 2001, just a few days before what would have been his 62nd birthday, John Fahey died after undergoing a sextuple bypass operation.
Excluding compilations, Fahey released over 40 albums. In 2009, five years after his death, no fewer than six John Fahey
tribute albums have been released as a testament to his reputation as a giant of 20th century American music.
For more info (and there's loads!) check out http://www.johnfahey.com, a brilliant site.
Kris Dollimore's tribute to John Fahey is this Friday, October 23rd., in the Gun Room of The R.M.A. Tavern, 58 Cromwell Road, Eastney, Portsmouth Hants., PO4 9PN. Doors open 8 p.m - the front bar will be open all afternoon, and you can buy your tickets at the bar, Or book in advance (secure booking via Paypal) from www.barkingspider.abelgratis.com. Or pay on the door! Just £4...