Fantastic Cat – Very Best of Fantastic Cat

Blue Rose, CD, 2022

The Guardian dubbed Don DiLego “one to watch.” NPR said Anthony D’Amato “sings and writes in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen or Josh Ritter.” Rolling Stone called Brian Dunne’s latest single a “stunner” and praised Mike Montali’s band, Hollis Brown, as “the soundtrack for a late-night drive through the American heartland.” Collectively, though, the four transcend their respective roots, emerging as an instrument-swapping, harmony-trading, tear-jerking, wise-cracking rock and roll cooperative far greater than the sum of it’s parts.

The album gleefully careens between genres and decades, mixing electrified 60’s folk and 70’s AM radio gold with 80’s heartland rock and 90’s alt-country. The result is a record that balances careful craftsmanship and ecstatic abandon in equal measure, a raw, intoxicating collection captured live in the moment and fueled by the chemistry of four longtime friends making music for the sheer joy of it.