News & Updates — Layla

The first "folk" guitarist I got really into was John Fahey and his curious Takoma albums. Fahey's music combined blues, country, classical, avant-garde and finger-pickin' roots styles and other international folk musics all together. From dissonant to haunting, country blues to modal epics, it covered a lot worth hearing. Takoma was his label, started with money saved from his gas-pumping gig and it went on to be a very influential independent label, releasing many classics not only by Fahey, but also records by Bukka White, Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke, Canned Heat, Charlie Nothing, Bola Sete, George Winston and others. He...

Despite never being what I would call "an acoustic guitar guy", I always dug the ever-reaching and even educational style of John Fahey's music. An early "world music" blender, his records covered country blues, gospel, Indian ragas, ambient sounds, classical, avant-garde and various international folk styles, documented on a classic run of '60s & '70s sides. I can't say as much for Eric Clapton, although I like his music enough, I just don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy Fahey's. Certainly, Clapton also scoped wide influences: blues, country, jazz, psychedelic rock, Arabic, reggae, etc. One of my favorite tunes...