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Tote Bag

by Joe Fahey

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Rhibrhumba 00:59
2.
Porta One 03:14
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Early Bird 02:59
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about

Depression you can dance to.

REVIEWS of "Bushnell's' Turtle" by Joe Fahey (Rough Fish Records 2011)

"Joe Fahey has been heading up Minneapolis band Carp 18 for well over a decade now, but second solo album Bushnell's Turtle (***) ROUGH FISH is an eclectic grab-bag of folk, country and rickety old blues. It's very droll in places, most notably on "I Could Not Steal Her Heart (So I Stole Her Car)", though he really excels on the barn-bothering "Resolution"."

— UNCUT Magazine / Americana Roundup, (London, UK) (Jul 13, 2011)

————

Local singer/songwriter/ax-man Joe Fahey returns with Bushnell's Turtle, his second solo release after releasing a nice pair of full-band efforts with Carp 18. Fahey's also worked with The Tangents and The Bottom 40, and you'll see him frequently at just about any jam worth sitting in on around town. His solo albums are always treats though; Catchy, completely original works that allow the man to spread his musical wings and experiment with the many different styles and genres floating around his music-soaked mind. Bushnell's Turtle is no different from his other solo works in that aspect- Fahey pulls a wide variety of genres and studio tomfoolery out of his hat to create an album that carries the rare ability to shine in the studio while retaining the stylistic backbone to roll just fine in an on-stage setting. The disc features no less than 17 disparate musicians (including members of Carp 18 and Joe's uber-talented 16-year-old son Sean, who play on a majority of the cuts) many of whom local music fans would recognize- Boiled In Lead's David Stenshoel, Belfast Cowboy band leader Terry Walsh, and a bevy of local birds who have been listening to and chirping along with Fahey's music as he recorded between his own house and back yard and Tom Herbers' Below Ground Sound in St. Paul. The names help reveal the many different styles Joe employs in the writing of this album, and the guitar work here is simply mind-blowing. It's also nice to hear Fahey belt out a belly buster (“The Art Of Happiness Blues (Even The Dalai Lama Wants To Kick Your Ass”) without a drop of scenester humor, then showcase his love of the blues as an art form on tracks like “Delta Pine Blues.” Simply put, you can't peg this album in any one genre- it's a weaving, fiery beast of a recording, created by one of St. Paul's most underrated musicians and featuring a passel of his personal styles and influences. Joe and the gang plan to amp (pun intended) up their international touring schedule, so make sure you keep an eye out for upcoming local gigs and hear The Truth as it was meant to be heard. Check www.joefaheymusic.com for updates and where to track down the disc. Genuinely fun, yet serious, local music.

— Tom Hallett "Round The Dial Magazine (St. Paul, MN)

————

Joe Fahey is a guitarist, singer and songwriter from Minneapolis, Minnesota who has lost his heart to the simple rock music as we know from musicians like Billy Bragg, Nick Lowe or Ray Davies and The Kinks.

Vibrant, cheerful and uncomplicate...d rock songs he has compiled on his second solo album "Bushnell's Turtle, the sequel to his debut album" Tote Bag "which already dates back from 2006. Joe Fahey is in everyday life which is mainly active as a band leader since 1991 and operating in Minneapolis and surrounding roots rock group Carp 18.

Like the above-mentioned artists as reference, he places a few ballads subtly between these rock songs, which for the appropriate song variation is provided and subtle at the same show that he is in that genre very well at home.

His backing band on this album "The Bottom 40 'he has a place provided for his two sons Sean and Ryan, his wife Kathy who sings the song" The Full Moon Last Night "for guest violinist David Stenshoel group" Boiled in Lead, "and some members of his regular group Carp 18.

One of the most played songs from "Bushnell's Turtle" is the radio hit "I Could Not Steal Her Heart (So I Stole Her Car)". But there are also many songs that deserve to be hunted by the ether. It dots we opening track "Sunday Painter's Sunday", the melancholy ballad "Are There Clouds?", The previously mentioned "The Full Moon Last Night", the punk rocking, but very funny "The Art Of Happiness Blues (Even The Dalai Lama Wants to Kick Your Ass) "and the acoustic ballad" Your Tell-Tale Heart. "

With a sound that strongly reflects the music so interesting period of the golden sixties succeeded already in 1979 the music started veteran Joe Fahey in with the help of some close relatives through his second solo album "Busnell's Turtle" an very great album to deliver overflowing with catchy, catchy and highly enjoyable pop and rock songs. Clever!

— Valsam "Rootstime.BE" (Halen, Belgium)

————

'Bushnell's Turtle' is Minneapolis musician Joe Fahey's second solo release after 2006's well received solo debut 'Tote Bag'. After a few listens it becomes apparent that while Joe Fahey is a talented singer songwriter with a sack full of great material, he's a little confused as to how to get it out.

That's not to say that there's not some fantastic tunes on this CD - it's just that it doesn't gel together as a great album should. Here's a case in point: track two is 'Resolution', a lolloping, stroppy stroll of a song which wouldn't be out of place on a Violent Femmes B side. Next up is 'Half Full', which Fahey clearly pinched out of Peter Buck's notebook one afternoon (and which contains the killer line: "I love you in the present, in the past and in the future tense.") It's a little too jumpy, a little too in awe of it's influences to be original. At one point we even get to a kind of Ritchie Blackmore moment on the 80's rock influenced 'Mark of the Wolf'. Nothing at all wrong with throwing the kitchen sink at a project but ultimately it needs to feel right. And this doesn't - quite.

However, a fair amount of sharp humour is a real bonus with a number of the tracks being evidence of a rapier wit being honed. 'I Could Not Steal Her Heart (So I Stole Her Car)' is, while being morally dubious and abhorrent to Daily Mail readers, a lovely laid back heartfelt strum while 'The Art of Happiness Blues (Even the Dalai Lama Wants to Kick Your Ass)' has to be the best case of bracketing a title I've ever come across.

One major flaw of the album is the editing process. At least three of the fifteen tracks here could have been ditched to make it a crisper, leaner effort, particularly the annoying pub rock of 'The Camel Watusi' and the pleasant but pointless 'Breakfast With the Loudbeaks'.

Somewhere within the fifteen tracks on this CD, a fantastic album is trying to get out. Joe Fahey certainly has the licks and the talent, he just needs to pull it all together as a cohesive whole and he could really make waves.

— Matt Fancy "AllGigs.CO.UK" (London, England)

————

Two sons and various backing musicians including his band Carp 18 were all involved in making Joe Fahey’s second solo record, and have only served to over complicate matters. There is a lack of cohesion in these fifteen tracks which spills over into Fahey’s production so that nobody seems to know exactly what fits where. Every number is a sing along, but you find yourself singing the wrong words.

There’s a large slice of bar room humour here with ‘I Could Not Steal her Heart (So I Stole her Car Instead)’ having had some radio time and ‘The Art of Happiness Blues (even the Dalais Lama wants to Kick your Ass)’ being a bit of a riot. ‘Clouds’ is trippy and vaguely political and a Rolling Stones/Kinks feel runs freely throughout it all. This is no Carp 18 though and feels for all the world like an attempt to get previously unreleased material onto the shelves whilst giving the boys some studio time and a bit of publicity to boot. It feels rushed to be honest. Although you really want to love Fahey and his gang for their f*** you, stick it to the man, we’re just going to do our thing attitude, it pains me to say that he doesn’t have the ammo to pull it off. He has too many songs here and they can’t decide what they want to be. Going straight from the 80’s power pop of ‘Mark of the Wolf’ to Josh Ritter’s school of Lawrence, KS on ‘Your Tell-Tale Heart’ is just one example. When he sounds like Bob Dylan on ‘Green’ it’s as though he can’t wait to sound like someone else on the next song and that’s the problem. Fahey has yet to find his true voice as a solo artist and until he does he’ll always be looking for his style.

— Tim Merricks "AmericanaUK" (Liverpool, England)

credits

released October 31, 2006

1. rhibrhumba (0:59)
joe: baritone guitar, non-tubular bells,
no lyrics
tom herbers: wurlitzer sideman, acoustic slide guitar, theramin, tabla
aquarium community: background vocals
percussion by bell & howell, great
northern railway & the freight elevator

2. Porta One (3:14)
joe: acoustic guitar, electric guitars, bass, fuzz bass
tom: skeletons-playing-fussball sounds

3. Are You Here to Dance? (2:39)
joe: acoustic guitar, electric guitars
tom: bass
kraig olmstead: drums

4. Any Given Tuesday (4:25)
joe: acoustic guitar, bass, arp, piano,
high-strung guitar
tom: casio, electric guitar, carnival-cruise-line-shuffleboard sounds

5. Early Bird (2:59)
joe: electric guitars, acoustic guitar,
banjo, pump organ (he said pump organ)
tom: bass, chamberlin, stylophone
bob herbers: drums and short notice

6. nordeast berlin (1:31)
joe: electric guitars, munchkin music &
rainy nights
tom: airwaves

7. Final Destination (Part XLV) (2:55)
joe: bass, electric guitars, acoustic guitar,
dead poet thievery
tom: piano, shakers, snare, pigeons-
eating-angel-food-cake sounds
john bonham: kick drum
charlie watts: snare drum
ringo starr: floor tom
d.j. bonebreak: tom-toms
keith moon: clave

8. Words to Hold Onto (2:52)
joe: acoustic guitars, electric guitar, talk box, handclaps, vox jaguar, rabid muskrat love explosion
tom: bass, acoustic slide guitar, shakers, stomp box, triangle (a vintage grimley)
kraig: drums

9. Fancy Mansion Party (3:57)
joe: electric guitars, accordion,
pump organ (light chuckle)
tom: optigan loop (buh-duh-dah-DAH-dah), electric guitar
mike whitney: bass
logan erickson: piano, prepared piano
lucy the sheepdog: howling

10. Doesn’t it Break Your Heart? (3:40)
joe: acoustic guitar, silly strings (arp)
tom: wurlitzer electric piano, bass
kraig: congas, tambourine,
shakers, claves
mr. roboto: cold, calculated drum beat

11. che lives in penguins (0:53)
joe: electric guitar, high strung guitar
tom: non-tubular bells
mike whitney: bass

12. Let Me Have the Sunrise (3:31)
joe: acoustic guitar

13. Electric Coffee (5:08)
joe: acoustic guitar, electric guitar
kraig: drums

14. Fancy Mansion Party (Reprise) (2:16)
joe: high-strung guitar
tom: pump organ
train: clang
thomas: crash

Mostly recorded on 8-track tape at Third Ear in Minneapolis during the festive & stress-free holiday season of December, 2004. Additional recording was done at Can Crusher Sound & The Scotch Room, Fridley, MN.

Produced by Tom Herbers & Joe Fahey
Mixed, mastered and that kind of stuff by Tom Herbers • Studio assistance by Mike Whitney

Thanks to Mark Downey at Nerve Center for getting the CDs made

Album art, design & some photos by Joe Fahey
Tote Bag photo by Jerry Fahey, London, 1969
Tofte Riviera photo by Kathy Fahey, 2004
Dock photo, plus help putting the dock in, by Dave Helgerson 2006 (thanks, man)
Additional photos by various people

All songs by Joe Fahey
Rough Fish Music
© BMI 2006

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Joe Fahey Minneapolis, Minnesota

REVIEWS ON "Baker's Cousin"

"Pithy yet perceptive views conveyed both gently and with verve. "
— Lyndon Bolton
American UK

*** stars
— Robert Christgau
Dean of American Rock Critics
Consumer Guide January, 2023


Also, make sure to check out my 2021 album "February On Ice" which made Robert Christgau's "Dean's List" for best albums of 2021.
www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=17821
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