John Fahey: Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You

Label: Dust to Digital

One of the more impressive box sets we've seen this year (if not longer), this mammoth work—more than 10 years in the making—throws back the veils of time to tell the story of how John Fahey came to be the John Fahey, the early years (1958-65) of the spiritual godfather to almost everyone who's picked up an acoustic guitar in the last 40 years, and a human bridge between the present and America's folk-blues history. The stats are amazing: five CDs, 115 recordings that are either very rare or never-before heard, plus an 88-page book with contributions from a half dozen or so legitimate scholars and friends (as well as a 1967 interview, published here for the first time). Those are the numbers; the music itself occupies a jaw-droppingly beautiful shadowland nestled in some dusty corner, heretofore sheltered from light. Feel how time comes to a near halt for Fahey's "On Doing an Evil Deed Blues," find your true north within "In Christ There Is No East or West," and ... well, you get the picture. This is a genuine work of art, and it will live and breathe alongside you forever.