No Ordinary Fool

Daniel Johnston. Musician. Songwriter. Artist.

Daniel Johnston. A man who once threw the keys of his father’s plane out of the cockpit window. Whilst the plane was airborne.

Daniel Johnston. Unrequieted lover. Pained lover. Eternally hopeful lover.

Like most, my initial experiences of Daniel’s music were through the many artists that covered his songs – Beck, David Bowie, Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev, Wilco, and Tom Waits, to name but a few! Gradually, I acquired a few of his records and learned more about this courageous, lonely, poetic soul.

On Sunday evening, he performed two songs by himself to a warm reception before being joined by an illustrious supporting band – Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, Scout Niblett, James McNew of Yo La Tengo, Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub and Jad Fair of Half Japanese!

Daniel opened with some of his earliest songs including Casper The Friendly Ghost and Hey Joe, which were ideal for getting the crowd going. These were followed by the likes of Fish and Walking The Cow, before he played Go. This song, about encouraging another guy to be with the woman that he loves, was amazing live.

In person, Daneil seems quite shy and withdrawn, yet lacks nothing in terms of confidence once he starts to sing. Each song is usally introduced with a tiniest of vignettes, including the man who was to be put to death for attempting to commit suicide.

Near the end of the set, there was a nice variation between the two full-on songs of Rock This Town and Rock N Roll, both of which Daniel threw himself into, aided by the support of four axes set to “pound” with Love Enchanted, an aching song of longing and sad realisation.

Forever
Love enchanted
Forever
Love will do it to ya
Haunt you like a ghost
It really is the most

There were two encores, which were both performed solo. They were the poignant True Love Will Find You in the End and a brief audience-singalong version of Devil Town.

It was a heartwarming night, it was a somewhat melancholic night. On Fish, the song ends as follows:

She’s got me singing with a broken heart
i keep on messing with my mind torn apart
She’s already forgotten, look at me left in the dust
I guess my art didn’t help very much

There was definitely enough love in the room on Sunday night for that not to be the case. It was a great show!

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Earlier on, the supporting band all had their few minutes to shine. The two performances that stood out for me were Linkous (inevitably), who really must headline his own show here, and Niblett, an English singer-songwriter now resident in Oregan. Niblett was a new one for me and she was quite the revelation. Accompanying herself on either guitar or drums, her voice is supported by the equivalent lungpower of Black Francis in his pomp, while her lyrics are reminiscent of PJ Harvey at her darkest. I have played a couple of her albums since Sunday night and they are also recommended if you like the sound of the description above.