Hi, How Are You—A Day Of Music, Connection, And Mental Health Awareness

Don’t miss Hi, How Are You Day when it [returns this Friday at The Paramount](https://tickets.austintheatre.org/13069) “to celebrate Daniel Johnston and mental health awareness,” bringing the community together for an annual benefit concert that “encourages open, honest conversations about well-being.” This year’s headliner is Nathaniel Rateliff, whose performance will “honor Daniel’s legacy and inspire connection through music.” Hi, How Are You Project co-founder Tom Gimbel summed up the mission simply [to KXAN](https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/celebrating-daniel-johnston-hi-how-are-you-day-expands-across-austin/): “Have a ‘Hi, how are you?’ conversation… Go second level — ask, ‘How are you really?’” The concert has become known as “Austin’s friendliest concert,” where “people will be standing in line and just go, ‘Hi, how are you?’ and strike up a conversation.”

**Meet Daniel Johnston:** In 2019, when Daniel Johnston died, obituaries poured out from new outlets across the world—[Austin Chronicle](https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2019-09-11/austin-songwriting-genius-daniel-johnston-dead-at-58/),[ ](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/12/daniel-johnston-obituary)[Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/daniel-johnston-obituary/),[ New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/arts/music/daniel-johnston-dead.html),[ Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/daniel-johnston-dead-883161/),[ The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/09/daniel-johnston/597985/),[ ](https://www.npr.org/2019/09/11/759904906/daniel-johnston-acclaimed-singer-songwriter-dies-at-58)[Irish Times](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/daniel-johnston-enigmatic-cult-songwriter-dies-aged-58-1.4015916),[ and BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-49673013)—for “one of the greatest songwriting geniuses of our time.”
And yet, despite his enormous musical legacy, his friends and family hope that the biggest legacy Johnston leaves behind will be to “remove the stigma around mental health, and to encourage open conversations about well-being.” 

**It All Starts With “Hi, How Are You?” **As the Austin Chronicle wrote, the “Hi, How Are You” mural, depicting art from Johnston’s album by the same name, “has become an indelible part of the Austin landscape: as emblematic of the city as the UT Tower [and] Barton Springs.” The mural illustrates Johnston’s original artwork, which graces the cover of [his 1983 album](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW2cmIIomac) by the same name. Today, though, Hi, How Are You?, is an invitation, an expression of empathy, a desire to connect over mental health struggles instead of stigmatizing them. Johnston, who had both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, knew that the meaningful connections these simple words invite can mean the difference between life and death.

**Meet Nathaniel Rateliff: **With a voice critics describe as capable of “pulverizing its way through the pop music ceiling,” Nathaniel Rateliff emerged nationally with the raw, soul-shaking anthem “S.O.B.,” a song that helped ignite a modern soul revival, Garden and Gun [reports](https://gardenandgun.com/feature/nathaniel-rateliff-soul-searcher/). A longtime Denver fixture before mainstream success, Rateliff is a “seasoned veteran” whose music is rooted in lived experience—songs that are “warts-and-all descriptive, singing about stuff that hurts to be reminded of,” yet still meant to move people emotionally. As Rateliff puts it, he’s always trying to write songs that “hit you in the stomach, but make people feel like things will be just fine.”

**When:** Friday, January 23 @ 8PM (Doors: 7PM) | **Where: **Paramount Theatre | **Tickets:** [Here](https://tickets.austintheatre.org/13069).