It’s been a problematic few weeks for The Daily Choice and I.  Where usually I spend my time informing you, the enthusiastic readers of Sound on the Sound, about the hippest, flashiest new music (spin that lazer beamed disco ball again!), as of late I’ve been nose-deep in to the oldies.  Pushing aside the cobwebs of music past to discover, and rediscover, the classics that I’ve put off for so long.  Maybe it’s an age thing, as I’m cresting the big 28 in the months to come, but all of sudden the dimly lit archives of the not so distant past seem so much more full of adventure.

Thus, for the next few, well, who knows, I’ll be digging in to the loamy earth that is fertile ground from which our currently developing history has grown.

And where better to start than in the strange, atonal hollerings of Austin’s very own Daniel Johnston, a musician I sadly have avoided for far too long.  Alex and I watched The Devil and Daniel Johnston last week, and I sat with hands clenched the entire time as the beautiful life of the sad, but amazing, Daniel Johnston unfolded before me.  There’s a sense of heart and emotion and grief in the songs of this rattled songsmith unheard of these days.

Chastise me for taking so long to hear it.

Daniel Johnston - Pothead