John Fahey
John Fahey (1939 - 2001)
Was an acoustic guitar pioneer, who studied folklore and the techniques of the bluesmen. He is the man who introduced stream of consciousness into folk music and turned folk into classical music, and then made it cross the boundaries of Western and Eastern music. The spiritual father of the "American primitive guitar", Fahey turned the guitar solo into a metaphysical exercise. He set up Takoma Records in 1959 to release not only his own albums but also Leo Kottke's "6 & 12 String Guitar" (1971), an artist with whom he later also collaborated.