Blind Willie Johnson, along with Skip James, was part of his father’s record collection, so it is hardly surprising that Fabian Holland recorded his own version of the traditional gospel blues song “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” first recorded by Blind Willie in 1927 using his slide guitar. Many others have recorded this song about redemption and regret, in a wide variety of styles from John Renbourn, Nina Simone, Martin Simpson, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson to Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead and even Tom Jones.
As to be expected, Fabian stamps his unadorned less-is-more style on this fingerstyle interpretation with producer Mark Hutchinson barely touching
the controls apart from the subtle drop of Fred Claridge’s percussion.
The release of ‘A Day Like Tomorrow’ earlier in April, 2015 has seen Fabian consolidate his increasing reputation as one of the finest exponents
of pure finger-style guitar-driven acoustic roots music to emerge in recent years.This, his second album in less than 18 months, has received glowing reviews from Folk Radio UK, FRoots, Acoustic magazine as well as 4 stars from The Daily Telegraph, R2 Magazine and Maverick magazine and 5 stars from The Australian and Rhythm magazine. He has also been featured in an article for Acoustic magazine about the late Eric Roche, who tutored Fabian whilst studying guitar at The Academy of Contemporary Music. In October 2015 Guitar magazine wrote an article about Fabian, his songs, his influences, and beloved Lowden guitars.
With his recent performance at the AFO Conference and plans to tour Italy, the future looks bright for Holland.
Fabian can next been seen at The Cygnet Theatre, Exeter on Friday 20th Nov (ticket link)
For further info please visit:
www.fabianholland.com
Photo Credit: Johnny Dent Photography