- Irwin Chusid
Irwin Chusid (b. 1951), based in Hoboken, New Jersey, is a record producer, journalist, music historian, radio personality and self-described "landmark preservationist." His stated mission has been to "find things on the scrapheap of history that I know don't belong there and salvage them." Those "things" have included such previously overlooked but now-celebrated icons as composer/bandleader/electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott, Space Age Pop avatar Esquivel, … - Daniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston is an American singer, songwriter and musician. Johnston was the subject of the 2005 documentary "The Devil and Daniel Johnston." He currently lives in a house adjacent to his parents' home in Waller, Texas. Johnston, who has been diagnosed with manic depression, has been classified as an outsider musician. His songs are typically painfully direct, and often display a disturbing blend of childlike naïveté with darker, "spooky" themes. - Wesley Willis
Wesley Willis (May 31, 1963 - August 21, 2003) was a musician and artist from Chicago. A diagnosed schizophrenic, he gained a sizable cult following in the 1990s after releasing several hundred songs of unique but simple music, with emphasis on his humorous stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Most of his exposure came as an internet phenomenon during the early days of peer-to-peer file sharing (via Napster). - Jandek
Jandek is the musical project of an outsider musician who operates out of Houston, Texas. Since 1978, Jandek has self-released 50 albums of unusual, often emotionally dissolute folk and blues songs without ever granting more than the occasional interview or providing any biographical information. Jandek often plays a highly idiosyncratic and frequently atonal form of folk and blues music, often using an open and unconventional chord structure. - Wild Man Fischer
Larry "Wild Man" Fischer (born Lawrence Wayne Fischer, 6 November 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA) has the claim to fame of being responsible for Rhino Records' first release - "Go To Rhino Records" (1975). Fischer has been variously described as a jobless, homeless, paranoid, certified-psychotic street singer, and as the missing link between Syd Barrett and Homer Simpson. - Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento (born April 2, 1941, in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is the stage name of Barret Eugene Hansen, a radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music parodies. He created the persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM. After Hansen played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demented" to play that. Thereafter, the name stuck. - Tiny Tim
Herbert Buckingham Khaury, better known by the stage name Tiny Tim, was an American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist. He was most famous for his rendition of “Tiptoe Through The Tulips” sung in his distinctive high falsetto / vibrato voice. He was generally thought of as a novelty act, though his records display a wide knowledge of American songs. - Shooby Taylor
William "Shooby" Taylor (a.k.a. "The Human Horn") (September 19, 1929-June 4, 2003) is 'a little bit famous' for scat singing over various records, including the Ink Spots, the Harmonicats and country gospel in a baritone voice. He is noted for his highly idiosyncratic scat style, using sounds and syllables quite unlike those used by other scat singers. Shooby Taylor was born in Indiana Township, Pennsylvania, on September 19, 1929. - Joe Meek
Joe Meek (born Robert George Meek; April 5, 1929 in Newent, Gloucestershire — February 3, 1967 in London) was a pioneering English record producer and songwriter acknowledged as one of the world's first and most imaginative independent producers. His most famous work was The Tornados' hit "Telstar" (1962), which became the first record by a British group to hit #1 in the US Hot 100. It also spent five weeks atop the UK singles chart, … - Harry Partch
Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 - September 3, 1974) was an American composer and instrument builder. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation. - Legendary Stardust Cowboy
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, born Norman Carl Odam on October 10, 1947 in Lubbock,Texas, was an incoherent rock and roll performer who invented an early example of the genre that came to be known as psychobilly in the 1960s. While often considered a novelty artist, he considers himself a serious performer. He recorded his only "hit," the song "Paralyzed", in 1968, in what was, apparently, a moment of spare time in a recording studio in Texas. - R. Stevie Moore
Robert Steven Moore (born January 18 1952) is, primarily, a singer/songwriter. Though described by his fans as the "father of DIY home recording", he has none-the-less remained, for the most part, obscure throughout a career which began in the early-1970s. This fact, among others, has led to his work being considered outsider music by those who abide by such distinctions. Moore releases lo-fi CD-R's/cassettes through the R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club, run from his home, … - Lucia Pamela
Lucia Pamela (May 1 1904-July 25 2002 Los Angeles), was an American musician, bandleader, and eccentric. She is remembered today largely for an album and coloring book concerning an imaginary trip to the moon. Pamela studied at the Beethoven Conservatory of Music and Voice in Germany. She joined Flo Ziegfeld's "Broadway Follies" after her return to America and was voted Miss St. Louis in 1926. - Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson (born Roger Kynard Erickson on July 15 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre. One of rock and roll's most famous cult figures, Erickson is perhaps as well-known for his mental illness (and subsequent recovery) as for his musical talents. - Hasil Adkins
Hasil Adkins (pronounced "Hassil," not "Haysil") (April 29, 1937 - April 26, 2005), was an Appalachian country, rock and roll and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz. He generally performed as a one-man band, playing guitar and drums at the same time and singing. Hasil was equally skilled on the harmonica and on keyboard. - Peter Grudzien
Peter Grudzien is an American country/psychedelic singer-songwriter, photographer, commercial artist, musician and recording engineer. Grudzien's music has been well-known in the outsider music community since its inclusion in Irwin Chusid's book "Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music" (2000). "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" is included on the companion CD for the book. - Eilert Pilarm
Eilert Dahlberg (born April 4, 1953), who uses the stage name Eilert Pilarm is a Swedish Elvis impersonator whose fame (such as it is) stems from his striking lack of resemblance to Elvis Presley, both vocally and physically, and his shaky command of the English language in which he sings. Worthy of mention is that Eilert suffers from a light schizophrenia and he actually thought himself a reincarnation of Elvis or Elvis himself. - Bruce Haack
Bruce Clinton Haack (1931-1988) was a musician and composer, and a pioneer within the realm of electronic music. He was born in Alberta, Canada. Haack had a notoriously disturbed childhood, growing up in a dysfunctional rural Alberta home. He received a degree in psychology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Later, he attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York on a scholarship, where he made many friendships that would prove important to his career. - Florence Foster Jenkins
Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-November 26, 1944) was an American soprano who became famous for her complete lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability. - Bj Snowden
B. J. Snowden is a singer, songwriter and performer based out of Massachusetts. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, she earns her living as a school teacher, teaching music in schools from Boston to Philadelphia. - Bingo Gazingo
Bingo Gazingo is an elderly outsider musician from New York City. His sole album, also titled "Bingo Gazingo", was the only single-artist album ever released by WFMU. A former postal worker, Bingo Gazingo's music consists of him reading lyrics off of a sheet which he wrote beforehand, to an improvised musical accompaniment. Often, while performing live, the background music to his frantic, … - Skip Spence
Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence was a musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Spence was a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger Service before Marty Balin got him to be the drummer for Jefferson Airplane. After one album with Jefferson Airplane, their debut "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off", he left to co-found Moby Grape, once again as a guitarist. Spence suffered from schizophrenia. - Naomi Hall
Naomi Hall is an American musician. She gained fame in the outsider music community after her music was featured on the Incorrect Music Show. After her introduction on that show, Hall was asked to cover another outsider artist's work, B.J. Snowden's "In Canada" and would record its introductory theme. Hall currently lives in Seattle, Washington and continues to record and perform her music. - Jan Terri
Jan Terri is a blues musician from the United States. Her albums include "Baby Blues" and "Chic a Go Go". - Alvin Dahn
Alvin Skylar Dahn is an outsider musician who gained fame within the growing outsider music community after his singular work was featured frequently on the Incorrect Music Hour. One of his most popular songs, the apocoliptic, "You're Driving Me Mad" has been described as sounding like "a metal song sung by Ned Flanders". He has also been referred to as "Dahn Halen" for the iron edge of this amazingly infectious tune. - Moondog
Moondog, the "nom de plume" of Louis T. Hardin (May 26, 1916 - September 8, 1999), was an American composer, musician and poet, who also invented musical instruments - all this despite being blind, and, for three decades, homeless. - Gordon Thomas
Gordon Thomas is a singer/songwriter/jazz trombonist from New York City who recorded a series of self-financed albums of his own optimistically idiosyncratic music, which he often gave away for free. - Gabby La La
Gabby Lang, better known by her stage name, Gabby La La, is a multi-instrumentalist (including sitar, ukelele, accordion, theremin and toy piano), signed to Prawn Song Records. Her music crosses multiple genres including obscuro, bizarre, alt-freak, weirdo and comic novelty. La La's eccentric debut album, "Be Careful What You Wish For...", … - Sexton Ming
Sexton Ming (born 1961) is a British artist, poet and musician who was a founding member of The Medway Poets (1979) and the Stuckists art group (1999). - Cherry Sisters
The Cherry Sisters – Addie, Effie, Ella, Elizabeth and Jessie Cherry - were a touring act from Marion, Iowa with a folksy musical show around the turn of the twentieth century. Contemporaries did not really appreciate their form of "art" and the sisters instead became popular as musical performers reputed to be comically inept and unable to realize it. - Mrs. Elva Miller
Elva Ruby Connes (October 5, 1907 - July 5, 1997), who recorded under the name Mrs. Elva Miller (and usually simply called "Mrs. Miller"), was an American singer who gained some notoriety in the 1960s for her versions of popular songs like "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto", and "Downtown" rendered in an untrained, Mermanesque, vibrato-laden voice, often out of tune and off the beat. - Clayton Counts
Clayton Counts (born August 19, 1973 in Midland, Texas) is an American writer, composer, and musician, best known for a mash-up album he released under the pseudonym The Beachles, which combined The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds". The collection is controversial and resulted in a cease and desist order. - Eden Ahbez
eden ahbez (April 15, 1908 - March 4, 1995), born Alexander Aberle in Brooklyn, New York and adopted by a Kansas family and raised under the name George McGrew, was one of the few genuinely unique characters of pre-rock American popular music. He refused to use capital letters to spell his name. Ahbez composed the song "Nature Boy", which became a #1 hit for eight weeks in 1948 for Nat "King" Cole. He lived a bucolic life. - Sondra Prill
Sondra Prill (born 1970) is a singer from Tampa, Florida who starred in her own public-access television show from 1987 until 1992, which has become a moderately popular Internet Meme. Her show -- entitled <i>My Show</i> -- and her "yelling-like" off-tone singing has made her a popular viral video star on websites such as YouTube. Despite her recent popularity, her current whereabouts are unconfirmed as of 2007. - Corn Mo
Corn Mo is a the stage name of Jon Cunningham, a Brooklyn-based musician. Corn Mo sings, plays the accordion, keyboards, and sometimes performs as a one man band. His music style is a mixture of circus music, glam rock, and humorous novelty songs. He is currently recording his third album. - Wing
Tsang, Wing Han, popularly known simply as Wing, is a New Zealand singer of Hong Kong origin. Having taken up singing as a hobby after emigrating to New Zealand, Wing gained an audience by entertaining patients at nursing homes and hospitals in and around Auckland. This prompted suggestions that she release a CD; the result was a debut entitled "Phantom of the Opera", featuring the title song from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, … - Jared Smith
Jared Smith is an American amateur singer specializing in Spanish. His singing career achieved some notoriety in the mid-1990s when his brothers Colin and Ian of Freeverse Software combined a recording of his singing with an animated smiley face. The resulting program was intended to be their mother's birthday gift. The two brothers later sent the singing software to their friends, who subsequently passed it to their own friends. - Leila Bela
Leila Bela (born in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-born American avant-garde musician, musician, writer, actress, multi-instrumentalist, playwright and record producer from Austin, Texas. - Yuri Landman
Yuri Landman (born January 2, 1973) is a Dutch artist most well known for his work as an experimental luthier, but also active as a comic artist, musician, singer. - Gertrude Morgan
Sister Gertrude Morgan (1900-1980) was a preacher, missionary, artist, musician, and poet who worked in New Orleans in the 1960s and '70s, notable primarily for her folk art. She was born in 1900 in Lafayette, Alabama, and moved to Columbus, Georgia at the age of eighteen. She was married to Will Morgan in 1928, but at the age of 38 heard a voice from God telling her to become a street evangelist. She left her family and husband to move to New Orleans, …
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