The Daily

Happy April Fool’s Day! How serious can foolishness be? We found the answer in a piece by The New Republic’s music critic, David Hajdu, who just announced the world premier of two newly discovered songs by the legendary Nick Hathaway, a singer that no one has ever heard of.

This time last year, Hajdu brought our attention to Hathaway’s seemingly untimely death, (which we posted about here). Hathaway had that rare kind of talent that is “truly not to be believed,” and in a new article on the mysterious composer, Hajdu writes:

For the tens of fans of Hathaway’s music around the world and in his hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania, the past year has been as eventful as any other. Yet eventfulness is hardly the measure of Nick Hathaway’s life and work. Nor is quality, that big bugaboo of critics, artists, audiences, and others who like the arts. To fix on things like historical significance or aesthetic value is to ignore the larger inconsequence of Hathaway’s music, the essential inessentiality that makes the whole of Hathaway’s oeuvre of so little interest.

Now, thanks to Hajdu and the Nick Hathaway Society of America, International (T.N.H.S.O.A.I.), two newly discovered works have been performed for the world by some of music’s greatest names, including Theo Bleckmann, Allan Harris, Jon Weber, Chris Washburne, Michael Hashim, and Matthew Morrison.

Enjoy! And also, happy April Fools. Because it’s all a meticulously plotted ruse (except for the musicians; they are genuinely great, and so is the music).