Shimmy-Disc announced last month, a brand new LP from Daniel Johnston, titled “ALIVE in NEW YORK CITY” — a full live concert captured in front of an audience of his most devoted fans in New York, the city of Daniel’s dreams. Today, the label has chosen to share a second single from the record, a never-before-heard recording of Johnston performing his track, “The Spook”. This track is the second single from the upcoming live record, following the release of “Silly Love” alongside the LP announcement in October.

The new release shows Daniel at the very height of his performing powers, with his poignant voice and exquisite heart beating in full bloom, and the audience is with him all the way. No other live performance recording we’ve ever heard captures the marriage of audience & performer in the way this one has. Hearing it, is like being there. Daniel gave it all on this very special night.This is the first official vinyl release of Daniel performing live in the USA, and Shimmy-Disc is proud to be partnering with The Daniel Johnston Estate for this historic vinyl event.

Recorded and live-mixed by Kramer in April of 2000, the long-lost tape was found by Kramer 20 years later, marked solely with the words “NYC April 2000”. So despite best efforts (and adding to the mystery behind the origins of this recording), we are unable to determine with 100% certainty the actual venue at which the performance took place, since Daniel played several gigs in NYC at around this same time. The LP contains one brilliant Daniel Johnston performance in its entirety, unedited, unaltered, and unforgettable, concluding with a brief excerpt from a street interview Daniel gave in New York City that was recorded during the same explosively creative period in his extraordinary life. It’s a real time-capsule for Daniel’s fans, and a real tear-jerker… “You’re never really gone”, he says.