Bill Fay's Time

In the March 2005 Issue if Wire magazine I read an wonderful article about a man names Bill Fay. I knew nothing about his previously. By the end of the article I wanted to hear all the great praise that they were giving him. I heard one of his song's on one of many Jim O'Rourke projects and if he did an accurate re-make then I liked what I heard. The music was very mellow and the lyrics where very interesting. My only problem was to find Bill Fay's original. I looked everywhere for the records that he put out. He put out only two so ho hard could it be to find them. Looking on the internet the price was out of my range. I am sure that it was worth it at $100.00 but I did not have that kinda loot.

Then one day it all changed. I was on my downloading program that I always use looking for something other then Bill Fay when I decided to browse the host that had this Incredible String Band album I was looking for. I saw that this user had the Bill Fay. I felt like a young kid at Christmas time getting exactly what they asked for from Santa. When I noticed that he had two Bill Fay albums I grabbed them both. I mean I needed to find all the Bill Fay I could find. I quickly burned two copies of this. One went into the car and the other was for a friend who needed to hear this. I loved her opinion on some of the music I listen to and if she liked it, the disc was a free chance to hear something fresh and wonderful.



On the way to see my friend I was liking song after song. At this point I had no idea what album this was of Bill Fay's but it was well done. His lush vocals, and his simple and it was new to me. The Wire magazine mentioned how really influential he was to people, like Wilco, Jim O'Rourke, and others. When I got to my friends house I handed her the CD and told her to listen to it and quickly tell me what she thought. I needed to have somebody else listen to it to one, tell me I am not crazy liking this stuff, and two, to really get someone who does not know a clue about this style or genre of music. I let my friend listen and immediately she wanted to have a copy. She loved his wonderful voice. She liked his sound and really though this music was contemporary. She told me how he had a lot of uneasiness in his voice, but had so much to say. She wanted to know if there was any more music then what I gave her. I was not sure, but I was bound to find out.



About a year later I found a Bill Fay CD and I picked it up. The rich sound that I heard was making me smile. Wire magazine told me one thing. It told me that he was a gem in the ocean. His lyrics too are just so wonderful. If you got some time just listen to "Pictures of Adolf." I caught wind of the cover by Jim O'Rourke and it to this day still blows me away. I am a completest and trying to find this on original LP was even harder. I still to this day cannot find it. I did some research and one sold for about $1165.00. For me that is too much.

So my recommendation is to pick the CD for about $15.00. It's well worth it. The music is wonderful and it's a lot different then some of my other picks, but it something you can tell your music friends that you found something great and different and actually listenable. Try it and I am sure you will like it. Enjoy! By the way, enjoy the music below.