Daniel Johnston

Johnston is hailed as icon of something called "outsider folk." This is just a politically correct way of saying the dude is a crazy person who writes endearingly quirky music -- honest, naive, gentle, primitive and so on. But Johnston's personal problems have nothing at all to do with the fact that he's an excellent singer-songwriter. Blurring the lines between indie pop and confessional folk, Johnston is a master of both lyrical imagery and seriously catchy hooks. What more could you ask for?

Terminally flip, gene and Dean Ween (not really brothers! not their real last names!) think
everything is a giggle. Musical maestros of the free-floating irony that signifies slacker
humor, Ween spoof disco, folk, '70s funk and even bathetic college-radio earnestness (the
priceless "What Deaner Was Talkin' About"). They also assay ludicrous spaghetti-western
balladry ("Buenas Tardes Amigo") and extend cautionary advice ("Don't Shit Whe... More >

Just like K. McCarty, I prefer my crazies childish and well-supervised--only I also prefer their own voices ("Love Wheel," "Happy Time")