John Fahey

The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death, originally released in 1965, is one of Fahey's earliest recordings; it's also one of the guitarist's most rewarding. Everything here is tactile and uncluttered: beauty, melancholy, humor, reflection. Yet it's these very qualities that make it so easy to ignore just how subtle and complex Fahey is when it comes to fusing country blues with both Western and Indian classical. Progressive folk doesn't get any better than this.