Daniel Johnston - not dead. Daniel Johnston's official website is headed "Artist, singer, songwriter and pilgrim of indie music with 30 albums, hundreds of songs, and thousands of fans" - hardly "100,000,000 Millions Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong" is it?The Texan singer-songerwriter and "Folk Artist" has a troubled mental state and institutionalisation, which informs his work. Johnston it appears falls in love often - heavily and ill-fatedly. He suffers crisies of confidence and artistic belief. For him the world (at least the world portrayed in his music) is a bewildering and frightening place; he has friends and supporters but he can't always tell them apart from the demons that plague him. With the exception of the lo-fi cover of the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows (with Half Japanese's Jad Fair the download tracks are taken from The Late Great Daniel Johnston a tribute album where Disc 1 is made up of covers of Daniel's songs by the likes of Tom Waits, Beck, and The Flaming Lips, while Disc 2 has the original versions of the same songs. The covers are slicker and more conventionally played, but for me it is Daniel's minimal originals that stand out. Cheaply recorded, often backed by a single instrument (guitar, piano, or harmonium). Johnston's recordings regularly stray from a use of conventional (some would say correct) notes and progressions. But this only serves to add to the remarkable tenderness, sadness and heart-breaking beauty of Daniel's performances. TracksDaniel Johnston - Story Of An ArtistDaniel Johnston - Devil TownDaniel Johnston & Jed Fair - Tomorrow Never KnowsMercury Rev - Blue CloudsVic Chesnutt - Like A Monkey In The ZooLinksHi How Are You - The Official Daniel Johnston SiteMore Daniel Johnston DownloadsDaniel Johnston Official Fan SiteBuy Daniel Johnston stuff