Jandek

Jandek is a musician, presumably from Houston, Texas. Since 1978, he has self-released 41 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting a real interview (but see documentary below for a phone interview early in his career) or providing any biographical information.

Jandek plays a very strange and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. Jandek's music is unique, but his lyrics closely mirror the country blues and folk traditions of Eastern Texas.

Barely a handful of people claim to have contacted Jandek, whose steadfastness in anonymity is legendary. Without any conventional attempts at promotion, he releases albums through his own record label Corwood Industries, which is addressed at a Houston post office box. Fans can write to Corwood for a typewritten catalogue and order Jandek’s albums, usually at inexpensive prices. Jandek’s work has been available on vinyl and on compact discs. Many of his albums feature pictures of the same young man (seen above) at various ages, whose identity is not known for certain. Some have suspected that the man pictured is Jandek but others have doubted someone so reclusive would release his picture.

While not proven, it is believed that Jandek's real name is Sterling R. Smith, and that he lives in the Houston area.

Jandek’s first album, Ready for the House (1978), was first accredited to a band called “The Units” but it was obviously a solo work. Jandek presumably plays acoustic guitar and has recorded much of his work apparently unaccompanied (assuming that the person singing is also the person playing guitar). However many other songs feature female vocals and/or different male vocalists. Others feature bass guitar, electric guitar and/or drums, presumably played by collaborators. No proper credits list has ever appeared on an album, but song titles have included "Nancy Sings" and "John Plays Drums".

A huge part of Jandek’s allure stems from his small but devoted fan base that includes Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore, Kurt Cobain, and K Records founder Calvin Johnson.

Outsider music expert Irwin Chusid brought quite a bit of attention to Jandek by including an account of his own dealings with Corwood Industries in his book Songs In The Key of Z: The Curious World of Outsider Music. Katy Vine tracked down a "Jandek-like person" and gave an account of her experiences in the August 1999 issue of Texas Monthly. While Vine knew the man's name and address, she kept them secret at his request. Vine reported that she was almost certain that the man she spoke to was Jandek, and that he is the man pictured on Jandek's album covers.

In 2004, a documentary on Jandek was released, Jandek on Corwood. It was directed by Chad Freidrichs, and produced by Freidrichs and Paul Fehler.

The mystery of Jandek's identity was partially resolved later that year when Jandek performed live in Scotland, at the Instal 04 music festival in Glasgow. This was Jandek's first known live performance. The man on stage was obviously the same man who appears on the album covers. Corwood stipulated that the performance was not publicized in advance. In May 2005 however, Jandek made announced appearances at the Music Lovers’ Field Companion festival in Gateshead, England and at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, Scotland.

Discography:

• Ready for the House (1978)
• Six and Six (1981)
• Later On (1981)
• Chair Beside a Window (1982)
• Living in a Moon so Blue (1982)
• Staring at the Cellophane (1982)
• Your Turn to Fall (1983)
• The Rocks Crumble (1983)
• Interstellar Discussion (1984)
• Nine-Thirty (1985)
• Foreign Keys (1985)
• Telegraph Melts (1986)
• Follow Your Footsteps (1986)
• Modern Dances (1987)
• Blue Corpse (1987)
• You Walk Alone (1988)
• On the Way (1988)
• The Living End (1989)
• Somebody in the Snow (1990)
• One Foot in the North (1991)
• Lost Cause (1992)
• Twelfth Apostle (1993)
• Graven Image (1994)
• Glad to Get Away (1994)
• White Box Requiem (1996)
• I Woke Up (1997)
• New Town (1998)
• The Beginning (1999)
• Put My Dream on This Planet (2000)
• This Narrow Road (2001)
• Worthless Recluse (2001)
• I Threw You Away (2002)
• The Humility of Pain (2002)
• The Place (2003)
• The Gone Wait (2003)
• Shadow of Leaves (2004)
• The End of It All (2004)
• The Door Behind (2004)
• A Kingdom He Likes (2004)
• When I Took That Train (2005)
• Glasgow Sunday (2005)

External links

• A Guide to Jandek (http://tisue.net/jandek) by Seth Tisue
  • about Jandek's live performances (http://tisue.net/jandek/live.html)
• Jandek on Corwood (http://www.jandekoncorwood.com) a documentary film
• JANDEK: The Great Disconnect by Irwin Chusid (http://www.wfmu.org/LCD/22/jandek.html)
• 1999 interview with Texas Monthly (http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:tTtQDNx2cH4J:www.texasmonthly.com/mag/1999/aug/jandek.php+%22Jandek+and+me%22&hl=en)