They said it couldn’t be done. Four different songwriters joining forces to form a single

band? There was simply no precedent (outside of CSNY, The Beatles, The Traveling

Wilburys, The Highwaymen, Monsters of Folk, etc). And yet Fantastic Cat did it anyway,

defying the odds and teaming up to record their highly unanticipated 2022 debut, The

Very Best Of Fantastic Cat. Hailed by Rolling Stone as “a wildly satisfying collection of

folk-rock, country, Americana, and good old rock & roll” that offers “equal doses of Dylan

and Springsteen,” the album earned the vocal-trading, instrument-swapping collective

their national TV debut, sold-out headline dates around the US and Europe, festival

performances everywhere from Sundance to Take Root, and a song in the Showtime

series Tulsa King. In 2023, the unlikely four-piece teamed up with all-star producer Butch

Walker for a 50th anniversary take on Wings’ “Band On The Run,” which prompted even

more love from Rolling Stone, who dubbed them “the Harlem Globetrotters of

Americana.”

Individually, each member of Fantastic Cat boasts their own impressive resume along

with a litany of critical acclaim. Paste declared Don DiLego’s latest album a

“stunner.” NPR said Anthony D’Amato “sings and writes in the tradition of Bruce

Springsteen or Josh Ritter.” Rolling Stone called Brian Dunne’s new record “the sleeper

album of the year” 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 velvet-clad rock and roll cooperative far

greater than the sum of its parts.

They say some cats are born fantastic; others have fantasy thrust upon them. These guys

are somewhere in the middle.