John Fahey – Proofs & Refutations

Dazzling fingerpicking composer, guitarist John Fahey tribute

Deceptive style influenced by Delta bluesmen of yore

"There is something about guitars — maybe something magical — when played right, which evokes past, mysterious, barely conscious sentiments, both individual and universal," wrote musician John Fahey in his book How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life.

Fahey might have been describing his own contemplative work, which mined antique Delta blues and old-time country picking and fused them in a dark, transcendent style — which Fahey described as "American primitive guitar."

Recorded in 1995 and 1996, mostly in John Fahey's room at a Salem, Oregon boarding house, the performances on Proofs and Refutations prefigure the ornery turn of the page that marked Fahey's final years (he died at age 61 in February 2001), drawing another enigmatic rabbit from his seemingly bottomless musical hat, making confoundingly delightful demands upon your listening (and thinking) ears.