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America (John Fahey album)

America
America John Fahey.jpg
Studio album by John Fahey
Released 1971
Recorded 1971 at Larrabee Sound, Los Angeles
Genre Folk
Length 38:51 (Original)
79:16 (Reissue)
Label Takoma
Producer John Fahey
John Fahey chronology
The New Possibility
(1968)
America
(1971)
Of Rivers and Religion
(1972)

America is an album by American folk musician John Fahey, released in 1971. Originally intended to be a double album, it was released as a single LP. The unreleased material was subsequently restored in later CD and vinyl reissues.

The America sessions yielded over 80 minutes of music and Fahey worried that a double album wouldn’t sell. Originally planned to be a double-LP, almost half of the material was cut when it was released as a single LP. Music critic Matt Hanks likened this to "Kind of like taking a national census and leaving out Rhode Island." The 1998 CD reissue by Takoma restores the unreleased tracks. The title song, "America", is an extended version of the song originally recorded on Death Chants, Breakdowns & Military Waltzes and was cut from the original release. It is a rare example of Fahey playing a 12-string guitar. Fahey commented on the original and reissue releases in an interview for The Wire, "I thought the material on the second disc wasn't quite up to snuff, but listening to it now, it doesn't sound too bad."

The front and back cover art was created by Patrick Finnerty, the painting titles were respectively "The Turtle in the Millpond" and "The Destruction of Takoma Park, Maryland, 20012 [sic]". The original working title for the album was "Ecology".

In 1972, referring to "Mark 1:15", Fahey said "“Out of all the songs I ever wrote, I consider only two of them 'epic' or 'classic' or in the 'great' category and they are both on this record. It’s taken me more than five years to complete these." The CD reissue edits out roughly two minutes from this track due to the time constraints of a single CD pressing. "Mark 1:15" includes portions of "When the Springtime Comes Again," from Death Chants, Breakdowns & Military Waltzes.

"Dvorak" is an arrangement of the third movement of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 8. "Jesus is a Dying-Bed Maker" is based on the traditional gospel music song "In My Time of Dying. "Dalhart, Texas, 1967" was later revisited as "The Grand Finale" on John Fahey Visits Washington D.C..


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