Dead Oceans has announced the release of Bill Fay’s Still Some Light: Part 2, the second side of the double compilation album made up of 70s album demos (Part 1) and 2009 home recordings (Part 2). Following the recent release of Still Some Light: Part 1 on 14th Jan, Still Some Light: Part 2 arrives on the 6th May, 2022.
Also, Dead Oceans has revealed that the next installment of the special, limited edition 7” single series – running alongside the Still Some Light reissue – is a version of ‘Love Is The Tune’ by LA based harpist Mary Lattimore.
Her interpretation follows previous releases by Steve Gunn, Kevin Morby and Julia Jacklin in the series.
‘My friend Max introduced me to Bill Fay’s records when we worked in a record store together in Philly over a decade ago. His songs have kept me company on many long drives and have soundtracked lots of beautiful, quiet, kind of searching moments in my life. They have such a truth and observational solitude in them. I’m honored to be able to cover a song on the harp in tribute to him.’ – Mary Lattimore
Mary Lattimore ‘Love is the Tune’
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: Part 2, collects songs that made up a home-recorded album Fay made in 2009. The recent Still Some Light reissue announcement follows the release of Countless Branches on 17th January, 2020; Fay’s acclaimed seventh studio album and third since his decades-long hiatus.
Bill Fay’s Still Some Light : Part 2
Still Some Light: Part 2 (2009 Home Recordings) track list:
Vinyl 1 – A Side
- My Eyes
- Solace Flies In
- Long Way From Tipperary
- All Must Have a Dream
- War Machine
- There Is a Valley
Vinyl 1 – B side
- Road of Hope
- Jericho Road
- City of Dreams
- Time to Wake Up Now
- Hello Old Tree
- Anthems
Vinyl 2 – C side
- Still Some Light
- Fill This World with Peace
- I Will Remain Here
- Diamond Studded Days
- God Give Them Some Rest
- Keep Turning the Pages
- Your Life Inside
- I Thought I Heard Someone
Vinyl 2 – D side
- Be at Peace with Yourself
- All at Once
- Peace on Earth
- One Day
- Here Beneath the Vail
- I Wonder
On the upcoming release of Still Some Light reissues, 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
