3 Musical Geniuses: Daniel Jonston, Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre and Guy Blakeslee of Entrance

I am making this article to help spread the word about a few special musicians who everyone should know about and one day will. Often when people of this caliber of musical genius come around they are so far ahead of everyone else that it takes a long time for people to catch on. The following three people you will read about all started about 10 years seperate of each, are all still playing music and are all at different stages of "success". Their music is not important to the mainstream audience yet...emphasis on yet. But this music is extrememly important and inspirational to those who have caught on and it is safe to say that music as we know it would be completely different if it was not for these artists.

Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston started in the early 80's and is still playing today after multiple trip and many years in mental institutions.

Since the 80's Daniel Johnston has been considered one of the best american singer/songwriters by a very select group of people who were able to hear him. For over a decade Daniel was playing erratically around the country often taking months to a year off at a time to either enter a mental institution or go into hiding.

His songs have been covered by bands such as Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo and Nirvana who were huge fans or friends of his.

Daniel had many opportunities to become famous whether it was from forcing his way onto MTV in the 80's or being in the middle of a bidding war between two record labels while living in a mental institution. Anytime it seemed like fame was on the horizon, Daniel was able to get himself into trouble enough to avoid that, one time even taking a planes controls away from his father sending the plane into a nose dive almost killing them both.

Daniel was the subject of a 2005 documentary called "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" which covered his whole career and actually put his name in the spotlight again in the small indie rock community.

His music is simple and beautiful and his story is legend. Check out "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" even if you are not a fan. It is an amazing story.

Anton Newcombe

Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre started in the early 90's and is still playing music today after years battling a tough drug addiction.

Anton Newcombe is the singer of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. He is also the sole writer on 95% of their entire catalog and usually recorded and produced all of the BJM's records.

Brian Jonestown Massacre's music covers styles from psychadelic rock to wonderful folk to country. Each album has a different sound but everyone is equally impressive. One year Anton Newcombe wrote and recorded 3 full length albums and released them himself.

Like Johnston, The Brian Jonestown Massacre had multiple oppotunities to become rich and famous but just before it was time to do so Anton Newcombe's self-destructive behavior would kick in. Whether it was drug addiction or getting into literal fist fights with his band during industry showcases.

When you hear Newcombe's music you can hear that he has already had a major influence on what has become popular in the past few years with the retro, 60's revival that permeated its way into the mainstream.

Anton Newcombe's music gained a little more notoriety from a documentary called Dig! that chronicled The Brian Jonestown Massacre's friendship and fued with the Dandy Warhols.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre still make music today. Anton Newcombe has almost all new members of his band after kicking everyone out before going into rehab a few years ago.

Guy Blakeslee

Guy Blakeslee is still relatively unknown. Unlike Daniel Johnston and Anton Newcombe you can not write a lot about his past or all his insane stories. The reason for that is because it is happening right now.

I do not know if he is crazy, I do not know if he is a drug addict. All I know is that Guy is writing some of the best music in years under the name "Entrance".

He has release 3 albums since 2003. The first two are beautiful and haunting folk albums. His third and latest release is entitles "Prayer for Death" and is his first "plugged in" album. It covers different genres of psychadelic, stoner, sitar and folk music.

I suggest getting into him now so you can become part of the history that people will one day be talking about in documentaries about this time when Guy Blakeslee came out of nowhere and changed how people viewed music.