the conceit that the blues guitarist blind joe death was an actual person and contemporary of fahey is carried further with some tracks credited to being performed by death and fahey. there is debate that fahey never actually appears on some of the tracks and that they are instead old, little-known recordings. fahey has been quoted as saying "that whole record was a hoax. on all the songs that say it's me it isn't and vice versa." barry hansen, a friend and collaborator of fahey's albums told "rolling stone" reporter david fricke that three of the tracks were old 78s that fahey copied to tape and credited to blind joe death. the first track "bottleneck blues" is a 1927 recording made by sylvester weaver and walter beasley. the tracks with fiddlers hubert thomas and virgil willis johnston were made with fahey during his 1966 trip to the south with barry hansen.