Hear a Pre-Father John Misty Josh Tillman Perform on This Day in 2009
Photo by Karl Walter/Getty Music Features Father John Misty
Before Father John Misty became the ironic, over-the-top indie-rock priest we know and love today, he recorded solo albums under the name J. Tillman. On this day in 2009, Tillman performed three songs from his sixth solo album Vacilando Territory Blues as well as an older song from 2007’s Cancer and Delirium. Scroll down to listen to Tillman perform four solo songs—“No Occasion,” “Master’s House,” “When I Light Your Darkened Door” and “Vessels.”
The session was recorded in Austin’s Big Orange Studio during SXSW 2009. Daytrotter’s Sean Moeller wrote of the recording, “Throughout the taping you’ll hear a grackle on the outside of the studio adding its voice to the atmosphere – at the :13, :28, 1:01, 1:42 (right before a tambourine shoe blasts into the mix), 2:09 and 2:52 marks of the song, and we’re thrown into the middle of a prairie where the prevailing winds smell like rainwater and freshly cut straw, with darkness setting in and we think about how he wrote the line, “How easily the heart of man is tamed,” and how it makes sense.”
Read: Father John Misty Finally Shut Up in 2018. We Need Him Back
Listen to J. Tillman’s full Daytrotter session from this day in 2009 below.