Press

"Transcends time and idiom." - The New York Times
“Scintillating…gritty…brilliant.”  -The Washington Post
“Seething passion.” - Variety
"Infectious...ingenious." - The Wall Street Journal
"Haunting and Affecting." The New Yorker
“At a time when performers in virtually every genre are trying to stretch their stylistic boundaries, Fishman refuses to acknowledge that boundaries exist.” 
- The Los Angeles Times

Selected Radio Features:

Other Features:

Praise:

"Tell me about beauty and I'll tell you about Howard Fishman. Moody, dangerous, ancient, modern, ruthless, longing, explosive, and quiet." - freewilliamsburg.com

"Major Talent." - The Wall Street Journal

"Just Terrific." - Leonard Lopate, WNYC Radio

"Fishman reaches deep into the history of American song, puts what he finds in a contemporary blender, and comes up with something entirely his own. " - All About Jazz

“Rustic yet elegant music… an unforced marriage of songwriting and improvisation, borrowing and stealing from a variety of idioms and using them to create something entirely new.” - Downbeat

 "A heart of darkness and light...a highly individualistic sensibility, not unlike Dylan’s and akin to other cult artists including Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, Leonard Cohen, and David Bromberg. Like them, Fishman is no mere revivalist or traditionalist. He’s a chameleon-like vocalist, who purrs menacingly on some of his darker songs, croons on others, and flaunts his comic side wherever possible." -  Berkshire Living Magazine

“Motley and fearless and something of a shock…Restlessness in performers can be a wonderful commodity, especially when it’s joined to creativity. This guy and his compatriots believe in musical fusion and can’t seem to stop fusing every style to every other style.”  - The Village Voice

“Compelling… Fishman sounds something like a less-innocent Jonathan Richman or less-acid Lou Reed. Which means he’s got the range to stroll in the sunshine and prowl the dark streets after midnight, too.” -Boston Herald

 "Shouldn't be confused with the cartoonish version of black music espoused by another liberal arts alumnus, Jon Spencer. [Fishman] and his group exhibit a sensibility that's quite modern, fusing early swing and a confessional, often harsh storytelling style." - New York Magazine

"Originality and freshness." - Acoustic Guitar Magazine

"One of the finest, most charming and most enjoyable music groups in years. Disarmingly un-showbizzy." - Backstage

"An energetic omnivore of Americana and beyond" - The Hartford Advocate

“Part of Brooklynite and Joe's Pub regular Howard Fishman's genius is that he himself is a farmer that gets his ingredients locally. Some of the best and the brightest and oddly undersung local musicians are part of [his] collective”— HELLBOMB

"I was won over instantly." Chip Deffaa, New York Post

"Breathtaking!"— Pariscope

“Hang on, because the ride can take you anywhere… this is a group so talented that you should dismiss the urge to label them. When something is this good, it defies categorization.” — In Theater Magazine

"Can only be described as absolutely fantastic"— BOWERY BOOGIE

“An unsettling combination of Buster Keaton and Lou Reed. The characteristics of [their music] are simplicity, honesty and understatement… subtle in its authenticity.” — EDGE NY

"An ever-evolving deviation from what's unappealing about modernity. Elegiac at times, but with such conviction that they're as vital as they are transformative."— WBURG

“…Bridges traditions as various as New Orleans jazz, pop, country, swing, tango, blues and experimental music. Fishman, who plays a mean guitar and sings in a voice that sounds Tom Waits-gravelly on some tracks and sweetly sentimental on others, explores the terrain of love and romance in his lyrics, embracing timeworn cliches and somehow making them sound fresh again.”  — VALLEY ADVOCATE

“Their playing is inspired, is inspiring, is magic…they bring a feeling to a room that is reunion-like.  An anachronism in time.  Something this pure doesn’t exist anymore.  Well, until now.” — 11211 MAGAZINE

"Fishman is hard to classify as a performer. Just think of him as an edgy troubadour." —  BLOOMBERG NEWS

"Irresistable!"—  TIME OUT/PARIS

”That the sound is complicated to describe does not make it any the less entertaining…. Word-of-mouth is spreading.”
— INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

"You immediately fall under their spell!...A cocktail so on target it seduces all ages!" — LE FIGARO

"Fishman’s songs are richly layered and abstractly evocative, hinting at jazz, folk and cabaret, without ever sacrificing grit or rough edges for the sake of a marketeer’s vision of commercial value." — ANN ARBOR NEWS

"Bubbling over with creative energy."  — THE DAY

"Something never experienced before"— REMINDER NEWS

“Music…played without a trace of irony or affectation.” — WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY

“A singular artist…and a musician’s musician.”— VERBICIDE

"Excellent pan-Americana songwriter"— HUDSON VALLEY ALMANAC REVIEW

“A Cultural catalyst."— John Busbee, "The Culture Buzz," KFMG Radio, Des Moines

"Music that lives and breathes NOW…a high-velocity music, frequently as hyper as punk, but enriched by an intoxicating profusion of chord changes that can sweep you off your feet or send a chill up your spine.”  — WATERFRONT WEEKLY

“A+...I’ve never heard anything like their sound outside of New Orleans and the Deep South..” — WEVD-AM Radio

“It’s hard not to be impressed…one of NYC’s most talented, inventive and hard-working bands.”  — DAGGER

BLOG FEATURES

* Kate Ottavio on Howard's summer 2012 performance in Hartford