“Blood Royal” marks the beginning of a collaboration for John Darnielle, but also is the result of a display of honesty.

Track: “Blood Royal”
Album: Orange Raja, Blood Royal (1995) and Ghana (1999)

In 1996, just after Nothing for Juice came out, John Darnielle performed in Maryland at a place called Fletcher’s. It closed in 2009 when ownership changed hands. The Facebook page for the place has three posts, two just before they closed and one update six years later with a poorly, but lovingly shot photo of the outside. It’s always a little hard to tell from the recordings, but it sounds like it was maybe a weird show. The crowd talks too much and John Darnielle keeps making jokes about enthusiasm when he prompts the crowd with questions. It’s a very curious look at another time, with discussion of smoking on stage in a place that doesn’t exist anymore and barely exists as a thing to be researched.

This is one of the only live versions of “Blood Royal” you can find. It’s a good one, but not completely dissimilar from the official one. Alastair Galbraith was even there to play violin, as he does on the standard track. Galbraith says he once saw John Darnielle perform with the Bright Mountain Choir and appreciated his intensity and honesty. When John Darnielle asked him to collaborate, it was a no-brainer.

That show at Fletcher’s isn’t essential to your understanding of this song, but it is worth hearing because that’s why Orange Raja, Blood Royal exists. John Darnielle is the beating heart of the Mountain Goats and always has been, but the band has developed because people saw what he was doing and found it undeniable. “Blood Royal,” haunting and strange at first listen, isn’t just the product of that collaboration, it’s part of the reason it all exists in the first place.