R.I.P. singer/songwriter Bill Fay, 1943-2025

Sadly, singer/songwriter Bill Fay – an inspiration to Gary Louris, David Tibet, Jim O'Rourke, Jeff Tweedy and others – has passed away. He'll be greatly missed.  

Dead Oceans reissuing Bill Fay's early 70s demo recordings on vinyl

The first volume of Bill Fay demos Still Some Light will be out available on vinyl January 14th via Dead Oceans

Here's the scoop...

Dead Oceans has announced a two-part re-issue of Bill Fay’s 'Still Some Light', a double album compilation made up of 70s album demos and 2009 home recordings, available for the first time on vinyl. 'Still Some Light Part 1' is set for release on January 14, 2022.

Still Some Light was originally released on compact disc as a two CD collection in 2010. Reimagined with new artwork and available for the first time ever on vinyl, Still Some Light Pt. 1, collects Fay’s archival recordings from 1970 and 1971. Many of the songs are intimate sketches which were eventually re-recorded for Fay’s landmark second album, Time of the Last Persecution. The announcement follows the release of Countless Branches on January 17, 2020, Fay’s acclaimed seventh studio album and third since his decades-long hiatus.

For the upcoming release of Still Some Light Part 1, David Tibet, a long-time fan and collaborator of Bill Fay’s, wrote the following introduction:

It must have been around 2000 that I first heard of Bill Fay. The artist and polymath, Jim O’Rourke, asked me if I had ever heard of him. Like almost everyone in the world, apart from rare-vinyl obsessives, I said I hadn’t. Jim then extolled Fay’s virtues in a fascinating pæan to him and his creations, and I was already hooked without having heard anything Bill had created.

There was a See For Miles CD which included both of Bill’s incredibly rare albums from 1969 and 1970, as well as his sole single from 1967. I bought it, put it on, and in swept “The Garden Song”. From that very first song, I knew I had discovered the artist who, for me, was the greatest singer-songwriter I had ever heard.

So I had to find Bill Fay. But there were very few leads out there; the usual comment was based on the cover of Time of the Last Persecution—“I think he’s somewhere leading a religious group”; “he’s disappeared completely’; “he’s become a Christian hermit somewhere”. Through various synchronicities I did manage to find Bill and we have been very good friends now for almost a quarter of a century, so I hope Bill won’t mind my stating he is indeed a very private man. 

I spoke with Bill Stratton and Gary Smith, two of the people who had worked with him in The Bill Fay Group, and on the recording sessions which eventually became the Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow album, first released by our Durtro Jnana label as a CD in 2005.

I was honoured and delighted to get to know Bill well. Bill is the kindest, most generous, most supportive, most gentle, and most talented of men. Anyone reading this, I am sure, already knows of the profundity, and simplicity, of his work, and the intense emotional truth and honesty it carries—all of which Bill himself also has in his soul. Still Some Light, which you now are offered, was the second release we did with Bill, a collection of treasures from the Bill Fay treasure-chest, full of delights, and reality, and as real as rainbows. – David Tibet, Hastings 18 October 2021

Pre-order Still Some Light, Part I right here: https://billfay.deadoc.co/still-some-light-part-1

Alongside, a special series of 7" singles will be released, consisting of different musicians’ interpretations of Bill Fay classics. First up, Steve Gunn covers a personal favourite, 'Dust Filled Room' (check the clip below) will be followed by Kevin Morby's version of 'I Hear You Calling.'

"Bill Fay’s music was a revelation to me when I first discovered it: the commanding power of his words; the modest, universal language of his sorrow. And listening to his music still makes me feel as if an old friend had been lingering in the shadows, emerging at just the right time. It was a real honour to record one of my favourites of his, Dust Filled Room." – Steve Gunn, Brooklyn, NY

One For The Weekend: Bill Fay

Here's Bill Fay performing "Be Not So Fearful" off his classic 1970 album for Deram followed by an interview on BBC's Radio 4 from 2012. 

UK singer/songwriter Bill Fay returns with Countless Branches

Bill Fay releases his new album Countless Branches on January 17th. Listen to "Filled With Wonder Once Again" below. 

You can pre-order a copy of Bill Fay's Countless Branches via your preferred service right here. 

The Perlich Post's Top Albums of 2012

1. Kelan Philip Cohran and The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - S/T 

2. Neneh Cherry and The Thing - The Cherry Thing
3. Nat Birchall - World Without Form
4. Iris DeMent - Sing The Delta
5. Beachwood Sparks - The Tarnished Gold
6. Dr. John - Locked Down
7. Getatchew Mekuria and The Ex and Friends - Y’Anbessaw Tezeta
8. Shovels and Rope - O' Be Joyful
9. Sun Araw, The Congos, M. Geddes Gengras - Icon Give Thank + Icon Eye
10. Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires - There Is A Bomb In Gilead
11, Human Eye - Live At Third Man
12, Bill Fay - Life Is People
13. Limiñanas - Crystal Anis
14. Father John Misty - Fear Fun
15. JJ Doom - Key To The Kuffs
16. Los Míticos Del Ritmo - Los Míticos Del Ritmo
17. Johnny Dowd - No Regrets
18. Catherine Irwin - Little Heater
19. Matthew Halsall - Fletcher Moss Park
20. Akalé Wubé - Mata
21. Redd Kross - Researching The Blues
22. Lonnie Holley - Just Before Music
23. Eleni Mandell - I Can See The Future
24. James Luther Dickinson - I’m Just Dead I’m Not Gone
25. K-Holes - Dismania
26. The Trashed Romeos - Where Dreamers Never Go
27. Nick Waterhouse - Time's All Gone
28. Big Dipper - Crashes On The Platinum Planet
29. Heidi Happy – On The Hills
30. Billy Joe Shaver – Live At Billy Bob’s Texas
31. The Bohannons - Unaka Rising
32. Andre Williams & The Sadies - Night & Day
32. Timmy's Organism - Raw Sewage Roq
33. Jessica Pratt - Jessica Pratt
34. Om - Advaitic Songs
35. Patterson Hood - Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance
36. The Walkabouts - Berlin
37. Guided By Voices – Let’s Go Eat The Factory
38. Moonrises - S/T
39. Woods - Bend Beyond
40. Alejandro Escovedo - Big Station
41. Shrag - Canines
42. METZ - S/T
43. Debo Band - S/T
44. Ralph "Soul" Jackson - The Alabama Love Man
45. Beach House - Bloom
46. Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes
47. Abdominal & The Obliques - Sitting Music
48. Moon Duo - Circles
49. Tex Perkins & The Dark Horses - Everyone's Alone
50. Fanga and Maâlem Abdallah Guinéa – Fangnawa Experience

New studio album due from Bill Fay!

Unlikely as it may seem, the Dead Oceans label has announced that they will be releasing a new studio album from legendary UK singer/songwriter Bill Fay on August 21. There have been a couple of somewhat patchy collections of demos and  outtakes over the past decade – notably Wooden Hill's From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock issued in 2004 and the Jnana Records double disc collection Still Some Light from 2010 – but the new Bill Fay recording Life Is People will be his first proper studio set since his 1971 classic Time Of The Last Persecution for Deram (which Esoteric reissued in 2008).

Fay's first two deep and dark solo album's, his self-titled 1970 debut for Decca's Nova subsidiary and Time Of The Last Persecution are both highly prized artifacts, coveted by a small but ardent community of freak-folk fanatics and a largely uncredited touchstone for the 90s Americana movement. Both Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and the Jayhawks' Gary Louris have drawn inspiration from Fay's early masterworks while Jim O'Rourke, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance and David Tibet of Current 93 are also Bill Fay fan club members. So the appearance of album's worth of new Bill Fay material is really good news and it'll be fantastic news if it's actually good. Here's hoping!

Have a look at the Dead Oceans press release:

Bill Fay is one of England’s best kept secrets – a genuine national treasure and we are delighted to release what we believe is his true masterpiece. Titled Life is People, the new record is Fay’s first properly crafted studio album since 1971 and it’s out on August 21.

Back at the dawn of the 1970s, Fay was a one-man song factory, with a piano that spilled liquid gold and a voice every bit the equal of Ray Davies, John Lennon, early Bowie, or Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker. He made two solo albums but quickly disappeared from the music scene, leaving his LPs and his reputation to become cult items, namedropped by the likes of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Jim O’Rourke. But he never stopped dreaming, the music kept on coming. Now, in his late sixties, he has produced a record that shows his profoundly humanist vision is as strong as it ever was.

And it’s a stunning return to form. The lush and expansive effect is completed by a cello, string quartet and a gospel choir, electric organs and pianos and a rich weave of acoustic and electric guitars. Ranging from intimate to cosmic, epic but never grandiose, Bill’s deeply committed music reminds you of important, eternal truths, and the lessons to be drawn from the natural world, when the materiality and greed threaten to engulf everything.

PRAISE FOR BILL FAY

“I can’t think of anyone whose records have meant more in my life.” - Jeff Tweedy

“Each one of the records Bill Fay has put out in four decades is different, and each is indispensable. His graceful melodies, elegantly plain lyrics, and mystical tenderness towards all life move me like little else does. He is rock music’s conscience.” - Will Sheff