Collection: John Fahey

John Fahey was an American guitarist from Washington, D.C. whose work opened folk and blues guitar up to stranger, more personal territory. Drawing on blues forms but refusing to treat them as museum pieces, he wrote instrumental pieces that could feel rooted in tradition one minute and quietly disruptive the next.

Records such as The Legend of Blind Joe Death, Death Chants, Breakdowns and Military Waltzes and Requia show the range of his approach, from intricate acoustic playing to more searching, abstract compositions. Fahey remains a singular figure: a musician steeped in American vernacular music who used it to make something entirely his own.