The British folk musician Bill Fay released two cultishly beloved albums in the early ’70s, and then he went about 40 years without releasing anything. Fay returned with his LP Life Is People in 2012, and he’s been fairly active since then. Last year, for instance, Fay released an LP called Countless Branches. Now, Dead Oceans, the label that has released Fay’s three comeback albums, is planning a reissue of the man’s early-’70s work and a series of 7″ singles of Bill Fay covers.

Early next year, Dead Oceans will release a new version of Still Some Light Part 1, a compilation of Fay’s early-’70s work that was first released in 2010. The album features acoustic home demos from Fay, and the new edition will feature new artwork, and it’ll be available on vinyl for the first time. As for the covers series, Steve Gunn, the Brooklyn-based guitar wizard who just released the album Other You a few months ago, has offered up a loose-but-faithful take on “Dust Filled Room,” a song that originally appeared on Fay’s 1971 sophomore album Time Of The Last Persecution. In a press release, Gunn says:

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 honor to record one of my favorites of his, “Dust Filled Room.”

Listen to Gunn’s version of “Dust Filled Room” and Fay’s original below.

The Still Some Light Part 1 reissue is out 1/14/22 on Dead Oceans.