Takoma Records

Takoma Records was a small but influential record label founded by John Fahey in the late 1950s. It was named after Fahey's hometown, Takoma Park, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

History

Takoma Records began with a custom pressing of 100 copies of John Fahey/Blind Joe Death, an album of his own guitar playing released by Fahey around 1959. He had no distribution and sold the pressing mainly to friends and at music parties. A copy of this record recently sold on eBay for several thousand dollars.

Fahey moved to Berkeley, California, and the label was really launched when he rediscovered the country bluesman Bukka White. With Eugene "ED" Denson, Fahey drove to Memphis, and the pair produced White's first recording in 23 years. Later in 1963 they released it, as well as Fahey's second album of his own music.

Over the next several years word spread about the music. At the same time independent "folk music" labels like Rounder were springing up and establishing distribution systems. The content of the Takoma label expanded to include other guitarists, such as Robbie Basho, and other types of folk music. Contemporary Guitar, a compilation recorded in 1966 and featuring Fahey, Basho, White, Max Ochs, and Harry Taussig, displays Takoma's interest in diverse acoustic-guitar styles, from plantation blues to raga. At the same time the label ventured into the avant-garde with The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing. Acoustic guitar music, especially that of Fahey, remained the mainstay of the label.