A harpist headlined at Toad’s Place Wednesday night . Not a blues harpist. A harp harpist. On CD, Joanna Newsom’s jarring vocals and outer- planetery lyrics draw two distinct reactions: love or hate. Fans (like me) consider it the music of a psilocybin-influenced forest princess poet. Apopleptic officemates or housemates consider it the sound of Melanie undergoing a root canal or extruded through a meat grinder. Yet live at Toad’s, the music seemed to lose some of its rougher vocal and lyric edges. What enables a folkie, literary harpist songwriter to draw a crowd to Toad’s on a weeknight? Theory: More than a musical category, Newsom’s act fits into the “courageous” slot; she’s talented, and she remains true to her quirky and genuine muse, even though many ears consider it too weird. That more than a specific genre resonates with young, searching audiences.