F - 'john would have known about the song but he never mentioned it.' (fahey week begins)

 

 "john is one of the heroes of whatever this country has for a culture." - leo kottke. 

fahey week begins

to celebrate fahey week this year horsemouth seems to have succeeded in getting into an argument over the precise meaning of john fahey's use of the phrase city of refuge from his album titled city of refuge (released slightly over 25 years ago). belatedly horsemouth discovers this is with someone who actually interviewed fahey when the album came out in  1997. 

now it may be that fahey's use of  it derives directly from the bible (as has been claimed), or it may be that it is filtered through blind willie johnson's use of it in his song 'I'm gonna run to the city of refuge'. but that's only horsemouth's supposition (it is the kind of supposition that blues fans like horsemouth are apt to make). people who put god and the bible at the centre of their lives may be apt to see it differently. 

john fahey is dead and so he can't be asked (he died 21 years ago today) but he was interviewed at length at the time and if you ask the person who conducted that interview, 

 'john would have known about the song but he never mentioned it.' 

the fan website  the fahey files suggests there's a connection (and here) that the title of the song and willie johnson's name are printed on fahey's album but this is not conclusive. horsemouth would need to possess a copy of the record itself to be sure (and even then that would not be conclusive - it would just show if whoever designed the record put the wille johnson title on there and perhaps that fahey okayed it.) 

certainly the interview shows fahey had enough interest in christian religious matters to discuss them. it's quite phildickian - john was living in abject poverty at this point and yet here he is discussing religion. 

horsemouth was casting around for material for this year and the universe has provided him with it. 

interstellar space day

it is also (by a strange quirk of fate) interstellar space day. - when horsemouth celebrates the recording of john coltrane and rashied ali's interstellar space. here it is represented by a mix of four key tracks.  

there is something between the sparse intensity of fahey's city of refuge I and coltrane's paring of his music down into a duo interstellar space. 

listening to  city of refuge now mostly  reminds horsemouth  of is  benjamin britten's nocturnal (written for julian breem horsemouth believes) all the pieces of a guitar tune are teased out and finally assembled at the end into their original (in britten's case john dowland's come heavy sleep).