The Fisher King

Last week Jeremy Fisher made the long haul from Vancouver, BC to NYC to celebrate the release of his first US release 'Goodbye Blue Monday.' His label Wind-up Records kicked things off with a party on the balcony of The Delancey on the Lower East Side. Press and label staff chatted over drinks before Fisher wowed the crowd with an intimate acoustic set. Here's a shot of (left to right) me, Wind-up's Steve Karas, Shore Fire's Mark Satlof, Fisher and Shore Fire's Rebecca Shapiro.


The following day I met up with Fisher and his manager "Parkside" Mike Renaud for a few press outings. First up was an interview at Westwood One. Fisher spoke at length about the music from his new album, his stop-motion videos -- if you haven't seen them yet, check out "Cigarette" on YouTube -- and his upcoming tours with The Weakerthans and The Last Town Chorus and Australian one-man band Xavier Rudd. The hardest part for me was finding my way from the cafeteria to the studio. One Westwood One crew member compared the hallways to a labyrinth. He was right.

After the interview, Fisher, Parkside and I set our sights on Billboard.com and the MUDtruck. We met Billboard's Katie Hasty and headed over to Astor Place. Fisher, Parkside and I were rookies to the MUD but it didn't take long before we were sold on the orange truck's robust joe. Parkside and I stood by the Cube, enjoying our iced coffee and listening to Fisher and Hasty bounce back on forth on recording, touring and formal v. informal music education, among other topics.

Here's a pic of Fisher and Hasty.


And here's a pic of Parkside with his and my empty MUDtruck iced coffees. (For the record, MUD hasn't offered us any courtesy cups for this plug, though we are keeping our fingers crossed.)


Following a quick visit to Wind-up, we ended Fisher's press day at Madison Square Park for an interview and performance taping for CNN.com. Fisher sat on a park bench with his 1947 Gibson LG2 and his harmonica and played the irresistibly catchy "High School" from 'Goodbye Blue Monday.' A crowd quickly formed as Fisher sang the first chorus. Fisher ran through the tune twice so CNN.com could get different camera angles. The onlookers remained until Fisher finished the second rendition and a few asked me where they could buy the album.

Here are a couple pics from the park.


(Left to right: CNN Cameraman Rick Hall, Fisher and CNN Producer/Host Shanon Cook)


Fisher busy at work. I mean, play.