Of Rivers and Religion

Of Rivers and Religion was the first album Fahey made with the producer and manager Denny Bruce, who negotiated the Reprise contract after failing to reach terms with Vanguard. Jack Feierman arranged most of the pieces, and many of the New Orleans session players had worked on the soundtrack of Disney's Song of the South. The sleeve photograph was staged at Tom Sawyer's Island at Disneyland. Chris Darrow recalled that when he first heard Fahey he thought the record had been turned from 45 to 33, so slowly did Fahey play.

The record was hard to market and Reprise showed little enthusiasm, though Time named it one of the top ten albums of 1972. Bob Palmer praised the change of direction in Rolling Stone that year, and Robert Christgau gave it an A and later ranked it 25th among the records of the decade. Recalling it and After the Ball in 1998, Fahey told The Wire that every time he wanted to do something other than play guitar he was castigated. Collectors' Choice reissued it on CD in 2001, and Warner paired it with After the Ball in 2003.