The impetus for "I am the Resurrection" came in October 2003 in an email exchange between myself and avant/rock chameleon Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth, Gastr del Sol), an avowed Fahey champion and (I assumed) likely sympathetic ear. I simply asked Jim if he thought I (an admittedly biased Fahey disciple) was crazy to think people would come out of the woodwork to pay tribute to John Fahey. He was, after all, a sort of surreptious influence on most everything going on in truly alternative music...wasn't he? Jim replied that he most certainly thought interest in the project would be great, and so he and I, seperately, set about creating a wish list of possible contributors, a process that sent me digging through my record collection, mining for the ghost of Fahey that shone through so many contemporary recordings.
At some point, though, be it because of workload or trepidation at the immensity of the project before me, or what have you, the idea languished, and nearly withered on the vine. It wasn't until nearly a year later, when that ghost of Fahey, so present in my record collection, started creeping back into my speakers, that I revisited the thought of mounting a tribute. "Freakfolk" was gaining steam, and Fahey's thumb(pick)print was all over the scene. There was Devendra Banhart apeing John on "Tit Smoking in the House of Artesan Mimcry." And there was M.Ward crafting (and transfiguring) his alter-ego Vincent O'brien, taking cues from John's Blind Joe Death. And there was Currituck Co., channelling the Takoma school on "Sleepwalks in the Garden of the Deadroom." And on and on and on....
So, with the leap-of-faith blessings of Vanguard president Kevin Welk, I set about hunting down these Fahey followers and committing their fandom to record, all with the hopes of shedding a little limelight on this long neglected genius/legend/iconoclast/visionary. M.Ward was one of the first and most enthusiastic to respond to my inital inquiries in August of 2004, offering not only to contribute, but to work with me to shape the project, with all eyes focused on ending up with a project that, in the end, would stand not only as a first rate tribute to John's music and its many manifestations, but also would exhibit that abstract, intangible, and yet very real thing found consistently and not-so-curiously native to Fahey fans, that is to say, an absolute, passionate, and nearly all-consuming respect and admiration.
And I think we did it, as the nothing-short-of-brilliant performances that fill this disc resonate with the at once haunting and inspiring din of the Great Koonaklaster himself. I want to personally thank the tireless efforts of all involved, cheifly the incomparable M.Ward, whose dedication and vision are equally staggering, that have delivered us here, at long last, to a record I take great pleasure and reward in listening to.
Enjoy.
-Stephen Brower
