In my studio (or, erm, my living room, really, let’s be honest), some of you may have noticed a single black and white photo on my bookshelves. The photo is of a young, fresh-faced John Fahey, and it’s about time I gave you all a proper introduction to one of my biggest musical inspirations.

An enigmatic guitarist, composer, and musicologist, Fahey revolutionized acoustic guitar music in the 1960s with what later became known as the ‘American Primitive’, a unique blend of folk, blues, classical, and the avant-garde.

‘On the Sunny Side of the Ocean’ (1965) is probably one of Fahey’s most signature compositions (he did not have any, shall we say, ‘hits’), unfolding with a series of gentle, rolling arpeggios that open out into strong, vigorous strumming patterns that flit from conventional harmonic progressions to raga-like descending and ascending semitones. It’s bold, blunt, and fairly repetitive, yet beneath this exterior, Fahey employs virtuosic technique and an array of technical innovations that marked a significant departure from the conventions of the time.

One of Fahey’s hallmarks was his use of open tunings. With ‘On the Sunny Side of the Ocean,” Fahey tuned his guitar to an Open C (CGCGCE), which allows for a rich resonance and a dreamy, bell-like sonority that meant most the time all strings could be vibrating and in play at once. Open tunings gave Fahey the freedom to explore fuller-voiced harmonies, with lots of drones on the higher and lower ranges, and unexpected chord voicings. They also made the guitar ring with sympathetic overtones, lending a unique atmospheric depth to his recordings. Unlike traditional fingerstyle that often relies on standard tuning, Fahey’s approach allowed him to easily alternate between melodic lines and thundering bass notes without losing clarity or momentum.

Another signature element of Fahey’s style was his bold, syncopated fingerpicking. Rather than simply keeping time, Fahey played with rhythm, often introducing subtle hesitations, quick bursts of notes, and off-beat accents. Here, you can hear a confident thumb keeping a steady bass—sometimes reminiscent of country blues “dead thumb” technique—while his fingers dance across the higher strings. The result is a dynamic, textured interplay: melodies seem to float above a rolling, hypnotic undercurrent. Fahey's command of syncopation brought a subtle swing and unpredictability to his playing, turning each performance into a fresh exploration rather than a rote repetition.

Unlike many traditional folk guitarists who adhered to straightforward song structures, Fahey experimented with time, space, and repetition, but within the cyclical patterns, Fahey introduces variation and improvisational flair. This loose structure, paired with open tunings and rhythmic invention, allowed him to stretch the emotional possibilities of solo guitar music, creating a more provisional, introspective, spontaneous, and deeply personal style of solo guitar playing.

The genius of Fahey is that he showed us that a guitar – a realtively simple instrument that was once described to me as “a box attached to a table leg” – could express mystery and complexity without complex scores and delicate ornamentation. In a time when guitar music was often hemmed in by genre conventions, Fahey cleared a space for artistic freedom and personal expression. ‘On the Sunny Side of the Ocean’ invites us to wander — if only for a few minutes — into that open territory and to appreciate the immense possibilities of using only wood, six strings, two bare hands, and sheer clout.