'he lived like a vagrant' (fahey week 2021 begins)

ladies and gentlemen it is fahey week once again.

fahey week 2021 commences. 

february 22nd the anniversary of his death  to february 28 the anniversary of his birth

horsemouth begins by comparing john fahey and that other curmudgeon harry everett smith. 

harry everett smith was a collector. people have heard the anthology of american folk music but have not seen his other collections, listened to his other recordings or watched his movies. 

One of his obsessions was paper aeroplanes, which he mostly found on New York’s streets between 1961 and 1983.

'in retrospect, it's clear that he was a major figure, but in his lifetime he lived like a vagrant.' 

so says andrew lampert, one of the compilers of the book. 

and this is the problem. people cannot understand that both fahey and harry smith did not have successful careers that would lead to a nice house in the suburbs and tenure and yet at the same time they were significant. it makes them nervous, it's as if the object of their attentions wasn't worthy.

fahey's fans have this, playing fingerstyle guitar (being a real musician who can actually play) seems so virtuous and blameless that it is difficult to believe it led him to alcoholism, prescription medicine abuse, life in welfare hotels and obesity (and yet it is so). 

both fahey and harry smith were anthropologists turned tricksters. survival and the continued production of art required some fairly nefarious and reprehensible ducking and diving. 

both had a vexed relationship with the folk establishment. with the 'political' model of how folk music was said to cause change, both looked back (via the lens of record collecting) to a kind of american music that was gone and sought not merely to replay it but to create something new with it.

on 20th february 1991 (30 years ago the day before yesterday) harry smith received the chairman's merit award from the national academy of recording arts and sciences (the final award and completely misrepresented his work by the way).  'he saw america changed through music.' 

dylan is another one (who takes the material and makes something new with it). probably henry flynt also. 

over the week horsemouth will endeavour to lay out more material by fahey.