''Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice)'' (or simply, ''Fare Forward Voyagers'') is an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

fingerstyle guitar Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of guitar picking, playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with ...

ist and composer John Fahey, released in 1973. It contains three songs, one comprising a complete side of the original LP.

History

Following the fulfillment of his two-album contract with

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Green Day, En ...

and lackluster sales, Fahey was released from Reprise and went back to recording for his own Takoma label. Fahey originally dedicated the album to

Swami Satchidananda Satchidananda Saraswati (; 22 December 1914 – 19 August 2002), born C. K. Ramaswamy Gounder and known as Swami Satchidananda, was an Indian yoga guru and religious teacher, who gained following in the West. He founded his own brand of Integra ...

, but later said the primary reason he was involved with the "spiritual community in the mountains of Lake County, Northern California" was because he was in love with the Swami's secretary. Relating the background to the recording of ''Fare Forward Voyagers'' to

Byron Coley Byron Coley is an American music critic who wrote prominently for '' Forced Exposure'' magazine in the 1980s, from the fifth issue until the magazine ceased publication in 1993. Prior to ''Forced Exposure'', he wrote for '' New York Rocker'', '' ...

in his article "The Persecutions and Resurrections of Blind Joe Death", Fahey recalled "Probably the primary reason I got involved with them was that I fell in love with Swami Satchidananda's secretary, Shanti Norris. So, I was doing benefits for them, hoping to score points with her, and along the way I learned a lot of hatha yoga. I could go over there and get food any time I liked. I didn’t believe in Krishna or anything. It was like being in the middle of '' The Thief of Bagdad''.” The album and song titles are from American poet

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

’s ''

Four Quartets ''Four Quartets'' is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published over a six-year period. The first poem, ''Burnt Norton'', was published with a collection of his early works (1936's ''Collected Poems 1909–1935''). After a fe ...

'' set of poems. Fahey later said the songs were "too demanding" to play live. An earlier version of the title track was released on the 2006 reissue of '' The Yellow Princess''. Themes from "Requiem for Russell Blaine Cooper", "When the Catfish Is In Bloom", and "Dalhart, Texas 1967" can be found in the three songs.The Fahey Files notes on the songs.
Retrieved April 1, 2010.

Reception

''Fare Forward Voyagers'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. In reviewing the album for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Eugene Chadbourne Eugene Chadbourne (born January 4, 1954) is an American banjoist, guitarist and music critic. Life and career Chadbourne was born in Mount Vernon, New York, Mount Vernon, New York, but grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He started playing guitar wh ...

compared it to Indian ragas, but noted a divergence, stating, "the compositions are something in the order of unpredictable miniature symphonies, each with different sections, variations, and developments." Chadbourne also praises the engineering, writing of "... the superb sound on the guitar; the brightly ringing high strings is something that can be heard on many Fahey recordings, but the deeply rich bass string sound is distinct and particularly effective." ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine focussing on rare and collectable records, and the bands who recorded them. It was founded in September 1979 and distributes worldwide. It is promoted as "the world’s leading authority o ...

'' reviewer Grahame Bent praised the reissue, stating "Overall, the influence of Indian ragas is clearly audible both in Fahey’s playing and his compositional approach... the supreme meditative power of Fahey’s playing speaks eloquently for itself on this stunning blend of Zen minimalism and good old fashioned virtuosity."

Reissues

*''Fare Forward Voyagers'' was reissued on CD by

Shanachie Records Shanachie Records is an American, New Jersey–based record label, founded in 1975 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. The label is named for the Gaelic word '' seanchaí'' (anglicised as shanachie), an Irish storyteller. It was previously distr ...

in 1992 with new artwork. *''Fare Forward Voyagers'' was reissued on CD in 2007 by Ace Records.

Track listing

All songs by John Fahey.

Side one

# "When the Fire and the Rose Are One" – 13:55 # "Thus Krishna on the Battlefield" – 6:36

Side two

# "Fare Forward Voyagers" – 23:42

Personnel

* John Fahey – guitar Production notes *Douglas Decker – engineer *Steve Guy – mastering *

Jon Monday Jon Monday (born 1947) is an American producer and distributor of CDs and DVDs across an eclectic range of material such as Swami Prabhavananda, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Huston Smith, and Chalmers Johnson. In 1980 Monday filmed what t ...

– original cover art *

Stefan Grossman Stefan Grossman (born April 16, 1945) is an American acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and singer, music producer and educator, and co-founder of Kicking Mule records. He is known for his instructional videos and Vestapol line of videos and DVDs. ...

– art direction (reissue) *Josephine Ayres – photography *Robert Vosgien – digital mastering

References

External links

''Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice)''
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

, with the 1992 CD liner notes and options to stream the album from licensed platforms * {{Authority control 1973 albums John Fahey (musician) albums Takoma Records albums Albums produced by John Fahey (musician)