Undoubtedly, the conventional lore, exponentially propelled by the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, builds a towering mystique around Daniel Johnston – a troubled genius, a volatile and mysterious persona, a songwriter informed by mental illness, a musician catapulted to international success thanks to smart product placement by way of Kurt Cobain.  But seeing him live is something else entirely.  Seeing Daniel perform in an intimate setting like the Good Folk Festival on Saturday stripped away that mystique entirely.

This was my first time seeing Johnston, and I was really taken aback at seeing something truly unique.  But prior to that, we had a chance to see Daniel’s table at the exhibition.  I imagine that the prospect of showing and selling his art was a big incentive for Daniel’s family to make the special trip to Louisville.  Daniel, Mountain Dew in hand of course, was signing autographs, creating doodles, and chatting with a fanbase that’s arguably more well-wishing than most.  My best good buddy Brandon was able to snag one from him (pictured below) and was glowing about it shortly afterward.  Daniel’s sister had accompanied him this time, manning the table and taking care of logistics.  Daniel’s art is quite impressive, especially in real life, with the seamless meshing of pop art, surrealism, cartoonism, and colorful pastiche.

Daniel only played four songs, which is about average as he has immense stage freight. His stage presence is exactly what you’d expect from hearing his innocent, fragile voice.  Daniel strums through each song energetically, with a slight jitter, not looking up from his songbook stretched across a music stand in front of him.  The childlike innocence that permeates Daniel’s being is understood by everyone in the crowd, politely laughing at a botched joke like you would of a child’s.  Nick at Backseat Sandbar said: “Daniel stopped shortly after this song to tell us about a dream that he had in which a man was sentenced to death for committing suicide.  There was no follow-up, but a few chuckles from the crowd emerged.  After playing “Mask” he told us that he told us wrong about his dream, and that the man was sentenced to death for attempting to commit suicide, and the man was him.  He was sitting in the back of the court room and he reacted by screaming, “NOOOOO!”  Corrected, more laughs were garnered.”

He ended the show with the heavy “Freedom,” with the coda “Last night I dreamed / I died in my sleep / Only to awake / Lying in a coffin,” and then, “thanks everybody!”.  Quite an emotional gutpunch.

Afterward, we stuck around and examined all the booths.  It was a pretty large art fair, taking up two spacious exhibit spaces in the Mellwood Art Center.  The fair, by the way, was amazing.  It was mostly young artists showcasing excellent, subversive artwork.  And of course, Daniel had one of the largest booths there.  After seeing most of the other art, we returned to Daniel’s booth.  Most of the crowd had cleared out, and Brandon’s girlfriend Katheran was trying to find the original of the print she bought for his birthday. That’s when Daniel’s sister approached us: “can I help you all find anything?” she asked excited.  At that point, I knew what was coming – Brandon, as someone who works with children for a living, is bright and friendly as a motherfucker, so robust conversation was going to happen.  And we learned a lot.

Brandon asked a lot of questions, especially issues brought up in The Devil and Daniel Johnston.  Thankfully, Brandon did this in a tasteful way, as the film sometimes tries to indict the family at worst, portray them in not the most positive of lights at best.  No matter, Margie, though somewhat visually disappointed that we couldn’t purchase any original art, was gracious in speaking with us.  She mentioned a dislike for Jeff Tartakov, the original manager for Daniel, who moved his cassettes into proper distribution, noting that Jeff did not divvy up money proportionally.  “People are always trying to cheat Daniel out of money.  Someone would come up and say ‘hey, we’ll give you $50 to play.’ [imitating Daniel excitedly] ‘Awww, $50?!’ And so that’s why we’re here.”  She also shared that their mother, Mabel, is going through a lot of health problems at the moment straining the family.  It was during this time that Daniel strode determinedly through the crowd behind us to the booth, and behind the table exclaimed to Margie “I’m hungry, can I have some money for lunch?”  “Of course, I’ll give you $20, but no sugar!” she responded.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something really cool about seeing an intimate family moment like that, seeing what life with Dan (as Margie refers to him) might be like.

We bid goodbye and made our way through the rest of the fair.  At the expense of sounding totally cheesy, Daniel Johnston is really cool.  He creates original artwork, inspiration music, and hides away in his parents’ basement without a care in the world.  He showcases himself, and you get all his triumphs and all his scars with it.  And it’s funny to see so many musicians posture this idea of cool, yet Daniel is cooler than all of them while radiating all that’s not cool (mental illness, living with the folks, sweatpants).  The other thing I took away from the concert is a respect for Margie and the Johnstons.  Sure, they recognize the business the family generates from Daniel’s success, but it’s also undeniable that they have reached the point of understanding what Daniel’s best interests really are, and they roll with it with love and patience.  So much patience that they even sell the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston.

Thanks to my friend Katheran for the photos.  It should be mentioned that she’s a reporter, so these are totally legit.

MP3 :::
Daniel Johnston – I Killed the Monster