The New Possibility: John Fahey’s Guitar Soli Christmas Album

Recorded, as John Fahey claimed, after he was inspired seeing a record store prepare for a yearly order of Bing Crosby Christmas albums, 1968’s The New Possibility ended up being his most consistently popular effort through the years, though he later claimed to have heard mistakes on it. Hard to tell if so: its fourteen performances, drawing on traditional songs or 19th century carols, indeed solely feature Fahey’s guitar and nothing else, a marriage of quiet sentiment and his vivid abilities on the instrument, down to the bluesy tinge of the concluding “Silent Night.”