Fantastic Cat – Part 1: Anthony D’Amato
The exciting supergroup Fantastic Cat is so great, we’re featuring an episode on each one of it’s members. So with this endeavor, you get 5 nextfavbands! You’re welcome!
In This Episode
- First up is the folk & roll with NJ grit of Anthony D’Amato. His musical journey is full of moments of perseverance and ingenuity where he has often blazed his own trail while also following in the path of the masters like Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.
- In addition to excellent song writing and performing, Anthony is an accomplished photographer, and offers both to his fans with an ingenious merch idea – a photo book of his art that provides the lyrics and a digital download code of the music. This takes the listener on an all new type of journey.
- We also get to he seminal moment of the creation of Fantastic Cat and learn that Anthony is properly rated as the best of the cats.
- We are joined this episode by guest co-host George Hrab and we catch up on his upcoming holiday music (2 different offerings!) and learn about the pre-school who took a democratic approach in naming its classroom turtle.
Biography
Born and raised in New Jersey, D’Amato first rose to international attention with ‘The Shipwreck From The Shore,’ his 2014 debut for New West Records. Inspired in part by time spent studying with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Irish poet Paul Muldoon, the album garnered rave reviews on both sides of the pond, with NPR inviting D’Amato for a Tiny Desk Concert and lauding that “he writes in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen or Josh Ritter,” and Uncut proclaiming that his songwriting “echoes with early Bob Dylan.” D’Amato followed it up in 2016 with the Mike Mogis-produced ‘Cold Snap,’ which earned him his first national TV appearance along with an Artist You Need To Know nod from Rolling Stone, who hailed his writing as “folk music raised on New Jersey grit.” In 2017, D’Amato released a collaborative EP titled Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which raised more than $10,000 for refugee aid, and in 2019, he returned with the Five Songs From New Orleans, a stripped-down acoustic collection that earned even more praise from Billboard to Rolling Stone. Along the way, D’Amato toured extensively across the US and Europe, sharing bills with the likes of Ben Folds, Valerie June, Keb’ Mo’, The Felice Brothers, American Aquarium, and many more.
