After the Ball (album)
| After the Ball | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by John Fahey | ||||
| Released | 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 1971–1973 | |||
| Studio | United/Western Recorders, Hollywood, CA | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 35:21 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Producer | John Fahey, Denny Bruce | |||
| John Fahey chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| Robert Christgau | A− |
| Allmusic | |
After the Ball is an album by American folk musician John Fahey, released in 1973. It was his second and last recording on the Reprise label and like its predecessor, Of Rivers and Religion, it sold poorly.
Following in the same mold as Fahey's debut with Reprise, Of Rivers and Religion, accompanists were used on most of the material. Denny Bruce was once again co-producer and many of the musicians were the same. Jack Feierman again wrote the ensemble arrangements. Like Of Rivers and Religion, the Dixieland-style jazz danceband numbers were unlike anything else Fahey had done before. Following the fulfillment of the two-album contract and lackluster sales, Fahey was released from Reprise and went back to recording for his own Takoma label.
Speaking of both Of Rivers and Religion and After the Ball in a 1998 interview for The Wire, Fahey recalled, "I don't understand why they got bad reviews. It's like every time I wanted to do something other than play guitar I got castigated."
"Bucktown Stomp" is an adaptation of "Smoketown Strut" by blues guitar player Sylvester Weaver. The version of "Candy Man" here is based on the Reverend Gary Davis' version. Fahey later re-recorded "Hawaiian Two-Step" as "Spanish Two-Step".
The title song "After the Ball" by Charles K. Harris was popularized in Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern's 1927 musical Show Boat.
In his Allmusic review, critic Jeff Schwachter wrote "...the album suffers from too many mood swings. Individually, however, the tunes are strong and the arrangements very accessible and light." and "The album cover and even the selected tunes and titles are cuttingly funny, but the songs themselves are played warmly and delivered with care, heartfelt arrangements, and a slightly satirical sentimentality."
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