Episode 548 - Howard Fishman

Writer, musician and composer Howard Fishman joins the show to celebrate his amazing new book, TO ANYONE WHO EVER ASKS: The Life, Music and Mystery of Connie Converse (Dutton). We get into how he discovered the music of the enigmatic Connie Converse, when he realized her life was a rabbit hole that would take more than a decade to delve through, what it was like to write a biography around the gaps in her life, and the sheer amount of chance, happenstance, and miraculous occurrences that led to this book. We talk about how Connie Converse arose as a singer-songwriter in 1950s NYC (maybe) just a few years ahead of her time, her subsequent role as a public intellectual and progressive activist, her Cassandra-like nature, the analytical mind she brought to music, policy, and every other topic in her life, and how she vanished without a trace in the mid-'70s. We also discuss his time as a research assistant for NYT editor Arthur Gelb, how his idea of artistic legacy changed in light of learning Connie Converse's story, the relationship between artist and audience (and the Cat Stevens story that first brought him to my attention), what it means to renounce one's art, how he tried to do justice to the Connie Converse story, and a lot more. Follow Howard on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Bandcamp • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Patreon or Paypal and via our Substack