John Fahey was almost certainly the most creative and effective American guitarist to emerge from the 1960s and 1970s -- an era that produced dozens of extraordinarily talented musicians. Even so, he remains largely unknown except to other guitarists and a few afficionados. His accomplishment was to move the steel string dreadnought guitar from backup accompaniment common to blues and country music into the concert hall by providing a powerful and mysterious repertoire of solo instrumental music.
That music may initially have been based on reworkings of strong but technically limited fingerpicking styles and melodies invented by the country blues masters, but it soon expanded into sustained improvisations incorporating Indian and European classical music structures woven into fascinating tonal syncopations. By the time this record was released, he had synthesized a complex and rich style and this record, a composite of two albums recorded for Vanguard in 1967 and 1968, captures some of his most polished work.
As an artist and avant guard visionary, he went on to record for nearly thirty more years: he had long spells when he was good and long spells when he wasn't. But his work on Vanguard was his first chance to record for a major label, and he made good use of the opportunity. While the music on this record comes from the albums Yellow Princes and Requia (also available from Yahoo France), this record contains the best of both of his Vanguard recordings.