Of Rivers and Religion

Artist: John Fahey
Label: Collector's Choice
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 617742021226
EAN: 0617742021226
ASIN: B00005MHV3

Release Date: 2001-09-11

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Tracks:

Steamboat Gwine 'Round De Bend
Medley: Deep River/Ol' Man River
Dixie Pig Bar-B-Q Blues
Texas And Pacific Blues
Funeral Song For Mississippi John Hurt
Medley: By The Side Of The Road/I Come, I Come
Lord Have Mercy
Song

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Customer Reviews:

a spiritually soothing and beautiful recording........2006-10-05

This disc is IMHO, one of Fahey's best in both execution and in vision. Time magazine agreed with me, when it named this recording to its Top Ten List of 1972. Unfortunately, the 2000 initial pressings didn't sell that well. I'm glad I bought one of them.

The first of two albums that John Fahey recorded for Reprise in the 1970's---`After the Ball' was the second. Both featured orchestral accompaniment by a crew of Dixieland jazz greats hand-picked by Fahey and producer Denny Bruce.

`Of Rivers and Religion' has only eight tracks, but each one is outstanding in a different way.

Track 1, `Steamboat Gwine Round de Bend' is a slow, sliding delta blues tune in which you can almost envision the steamboat drifting thru the turgid river on a hot Mississippi day. When I had this on vinyl, I'd turn down the tracking and play it even slower. Wish I could do that on my CD.

`Medley: Deep River/Ol' Man River' When Fahey plays hymns and sacred music, he seems to offer up his playing as in prayer, regardless of whatever beliefs John had at the time. Fahey loved medleys, and became particularly adroit at blending tunes together. I believe Kottke picked that up from him. The medleys on this disc are two of JF's finest.

`Dixie Pig Bar-B-Q Blues' An elegantly arranged piece of deliberate, fingerpicking guitar accompanied by 4-string banjo strumming ,mandolin, and fiddle, all of them interlacing their melodies, without colliding with each other.

`Texas and Pacific Blues': Dixieland instruments back a pair of slide guitar/dobros and 4-string banjo, while a trumpet plays the lead blues melody, as majestic and proud as a Preservation Hall performance.

`Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt': A best-known JF tune, recorded many times, but always with reverence and respect for Hurt and his music. This is JF's clearest recording of the song. You can hear every Fahey finger striking every string.

`Medley: By the Side of the Road/I Come, I Come' One of the most beautiful sounds that can be heard on a guitar occurs at the point of where `By the Side of the Road' transitions to `I Come, I Come'.

Must have, must hear music. Another one for the Ages. .......2006-03-07

This album may not be as consistently STRONG as some of Fahey's solo instrumental records, but it is the equal of any in inventiveness. John's use of a "folk" orchestra here seems prefectly appropriate, a worthwhile extension of his guitar style. Here the orchestra picks up where the moody, evocative overtones of John's solo guitar leave off. The orchestra's brass captures some of the very same moods and timbres Fahey's solo guitar captured on the earlier instrumental guitar records. Fahey really knew what he was doing when he put this orchestra behind him. Yes, his guitar work is a bit "buried" in the mix, but the sound has the same effect: haunting and very memorable.

Hypnotic, peaceful, beautiful.......2004-01-04

Although I have since obtained a slew of great John Fahey albums, several better than OF RIVERS AND RELIGION, this one retains a special place in my heart. Partly this is because it was the first John Fahey album I ever purchased. I was seized by it immediately. It isn't quite like any other album I had heard either before or since. Compared to his other albums, it isn't terribly virtuosic: Fahey isn't keen to put on display his utter masterly of complex and startling chord progressions and harmonics (though some do exist on the album; check out various breathtaking moments in his dobro work on "Steamboat 'Gwine the Bend"). This is dramatically toned-down Fahey, and not just on the numbers where he is accompanied by an "orchestra" of such instruments as banjo and mandolin. This album evokes a lazy river on a summer day, and the playing keeps that mood throughout.

A perfect example of what makes me love this album is "Dixie Pig BBQ Blues," where Fahey plays lazily, slowly, and deliberately to a background banjo and mandolin to create a sense of nostalgia that is almost palpable. Fahey plays even more restrained than usual, as if to confirm that the mood is the thing in the piece, not the virtuosic skills of the performers. The band is equally superb and comparably restrained on the magnificent "Funeral Song for Mississippi John Hurt."

One of the great regrets of my concert-going life is that I never heard John Fahey live. In recent years before his death, his health prevented him from performing anywhere, and when he was finally able to perform again, his health caused frequent cancellations. In the summer of 2000 I went to the Empty Bottle in Chicago hoping to hear him, but he had to cancel because of his health. He died not too long afterwards.

Rollercoasting.......2003-01-11

In the 1970s Fahey recorded three "John Fahey and his Orchestra" albums, and this is the first. But it's not an orchestra, that's just a little joke, it's a dixieland jazz band plus some other assorted acoustic accompanists. Fahey fans are divided - some like the trad jazz tracks and some hate them. Fahey himself thought they were the greatest bunch of musicians he'd ever worked with. Anyhow, this album is a real mixed bag. "Steamboat" is a collection of lazy generic slide riffs, very pretty but nothing too challenging; the two medleys (guitar duets) are extremely dull; "Funeral Song" is a rerecording of an old fave from "Requia" and is great but unnecessary; "Lord Have Mercy" is full-on trad jazz and is tedious (sorry John); "Song" is a solo guitar meditation, that's okay - so that leaves only two gems - "Texas and Pacific" which is a trumpet led jazz tune, great melody, and the gradual increase of pace works like magic, and the heavenly "Dixie Pig", which must be in my top 5 Fahey tunes - on that one the dobro player gets the best bits. I think I'll have it played at my funeral service. There won't be a dry eye in the place. But, well, two out of seven ain't that good by anyone's reckoning.

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