fahey week 2020 day 7 - fahey week ends (basho day)

fahey week ends for 2020 with basho day. it is the anniversary of the birth of john fahey and the death of robbie basho on the chiropractor’s couch. basho was a big fellow plagued with back trouble. unlike fahey who lived long enough to repudiate his earlier ‘cosmic sentimentalism’ basho didn’t and he probably wouldn’t have. while also coming from takoma park basho’s vision was a lush religious, romantic one. basho sings too, often wordless and yearning, there are spoken word interludes and dedications to his guru.

to go all biblical the american primitives begat the wyndham hill new age guitar school. while fahey embraced electric guitar, noise collages and song titles such as the death and disembowelment of the new age, basho let himself be recorded by wyndham hill and arguably produced his best work visions of the country. but it wasn’t what the new age-ers were looking for.