If you don't care so much for his voice tho "Guitar Music" and "6&12 String Guitar" are just huge. "Regards from Chuck Pink" is his impression of Yanni-ish new age mood music, so you know, if you like that kind of shit go for it. His producer during the 80s was the German technowiz from "Tangerine Dream," a group whose early work might show you the light of the Enoless tunnel few dare to tread. Next to the original Takoma release of the armadillo album "Guitar Music" is probably one of my favorite Kottke albums, and for good live stuff "My Feet are Smiling" was a better live release in my mind than the more recent "Leo Kottke Live" album he did. His 70s material was all pretty much produced by Denny Bruce, a man I sometimes get confused with Lenny Bruce, and even though it's not, some of it can be pretty weird. Now he's on the Windham Hill label like most aging 'new-age' guitarists.

Anyway, technically his best playing from his best period is on that album. "Remembering Blind Joe Death" is more boring than anything else, and any Fahey album with the word "love" in the title is prone to being full of ragtime jazz tunes, which can be a tough load to swallow for some people, though perhaps they're more accessable than listening to a single acoustic steel string drone at great lengths. "Railroad I" and some of the others are all excellent, the Rhino retrospective collection on "Return of the Repressed" kicks a lot of ass. Oh yeah, and there's the late 80's "ocean somethingerother" kind of a blue-green colored album, there's some "beautiful, ethereal, soundscapes that carry the mind to a distant land" type schmuck on it that I rather enjoy.

One of the tougher things to accept for some is that since 92 or so Fahey has come back with a bit of vengence and started recording ambient noise-scapes and the like. His playing sounds ragged and hard when he actually does pick up a guitar. I saw him play at t he Unity Temple in '98 or '97, after he did Airplay at WNUR and shortly after he'd picked up electric guitar. He actually played some of his older tunes, including the disco void. It was fun, but in a way dissappointing. I like what he's doing with the noise rock and he didn't do any at this show, he seemed to be cutting it both ways for the sake of older audiences that wanted to hear the last steam engine train for the 50 millionth time.

That album he did with Cul de Sac is pretty much a complete asskicker in everyway. The version of Disco Void == Rad , but there are also elements of his experimental drollings, so it makes for an interesting listen, "The Epiphany of Glenn Jones." And if you like background noise and whatnot Womblife is pretty. I dig it anyway.

An addendum to all this is John Fahey, R.I.P. Shortly before he passed I saw him play a show at the Empty Bottle, in Chicago. Fall of 2000. It was awesome, he was awesome. He seemed on all counts to be extremely happy to be there. He played acoustic, divorced himself, it seemed, from playing other people's music. It was good music, slow to build, long to interest, completely on. He completely hauled our kicked asses around the dance floor, and he almost got me laid. I'll miss him.

Last I heard he's a sometimes-DJ for MN NPR, lives in the cities, does a lot of tape looping besides playing nutso guitar tunes. I recently dug up two more albums from his earlier recordings with "here come the spheres" and the other had "Burning Up" and some sparser titles, mostly world-beatish conga rhythm experiments interlaced with his usual guitar acrobatics, metal satrianii-wanna-be solos, and note-shy melodies. I sound like some cheeseball rock critic but this guy is really good.

Lastly, Chö is the greatest album ever to hallucinate to.