With A Good Day For A Migraine Jesse lays bare bittersweet stories of streets where "the sun goes down like a shipwreck", where fathers lose their daughters, families implode & lovers
succumb to the swoon and self hatred of addiction. Life's debris carried on the tide of a beautifully rich and tender voice.

Sensitive production from Christian Pyle preserves the intensity and immediacy of the songs and underpins Jesse's guitar playing - an instrument that has been his companion since he was six years old.

In normal circumstances, singer-songwriter Jesse Younan's fourth album - A Good Day For a Migraine - could have been the one that transformed him from well-kept secret to an Australian star.

It was not to be. The 35-year-old musician was diagnosed with leukemia in February this year, just days after completing his album.

He died in Sydney's Westmead Hospital on Tuesday evening with his family by his side.

"He was definately one of the most original voices and I think he had the potential to become one of the most respected songwriters in the country." said Glenn Wright, owner of Younan's record label, Vitamin Records.

"He was a great guitarist and a great storyteller. It was all ahead of him."

The singer, who grew up in Parramatta, had been in hospital for acute myeloid leukemia since February.

His latest album, released in May, was his most critically acclaimed, with glowing reviews appearing in all of Australia's leading newspapers and magazines, including The Australian.

This newspaper's reviewer, Mahir Ali, said Younan's "skills as a vocalist and instrumentalist are undeniable".

One of those songs was used breifly in the last series of Big Brother while Younan was in hospital. "He really perked up when I told him that," said his manager, Matt Jessimer. "His spirit had been realy good in the past few weeks."

Younan has been playing guitar since the age of six and released his first CD, Palimpsest, in 2004. His combination of inventive, often romantic lyrics and deft guitar stylings had seen him compared with folk artists such as Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson and John Martyn.

"For an independent artist, it's through reviews and live work that you spread the word," Wright said. "From the day (his latest) album was released, he couldn't do a gig."

Younan is survived by his mother and father and his eight-year-old daughter, Ella, from a previous relationship.

Ian Shedden
Music Writer

Migraine

Take Something Beautiful

Palimpsest

Black Dog

Been Walkin' Off My Blues

No Smooth Sailing

Always A Glasgow Boy

Father To A Child

Swimming In Stone

Annie's Song

Queeny

Dirty Death

Streetlight Sunrise

Troubled Times

Annie's Song (Live)

Black Market

Swing (Live)

Be With You

Forever (Live)

Black Market (Live)

Bea (Live)

A Good Day for a Migraine

Medicine Man

A Father's Song

Steve Charman interviews Romina Carmen about Singer/Songwriter Jesse Younan and the tribute concerts in Australia.

Recorded from RDI (Recommended Daily Intake) program on MainFM, Victoria, Australia 13 October 2017

Steve Charman interviews Romina Carmen about Singer/Songwriter Jesse Younan

Jesse Younan 21.05.73 - 22.07.08

On Tuesday afternoon 22nd July, 2008 singer songwriter Jesse Younan died in hospital in Sydney with his family at his side. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukeamia in February 2008 and had been receiving treatment in hospital, during which time he displayed an incredible will to live.

Jesse was laid to rest at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney on 25th July 2008.


A self-taught musician, Jesse Younan started playing the guitar when he was six years old. His early memories of playing the guitar involved recording music off the radio and then playing along with his favourite bands. As he learnt to play by improvising, it was a natural progression to start writing his own songs. His playing has been compared to guitarists such as Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and John Martyn. However, Jesse Younan’s sound is unique - a gorgeous fusion of folk, blues and the music he heard as a young boy. 

Likewise, Jesse is more likely to cite John Denver or Prince as influences rather than artists such as Nick Drake, Devendra Banhart and Elliot Smith to whom he has been compared. 

A gifted lyricist, his heartbreaking songs of love and struggle are carried by a distinctive, deep voice full of emotion. Listening to A Good Day for a Migraine, his 4th release, you get the sense that Jesse lives it as he sings it – a nomadic existence on the fringes, his experiences channelled through guitar and voice – or perhaps that is just the finesse of his art..




Jesse Younan

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