NYC singer-songwriter Jessie Kilguss presents her latest single ‘Howard Johnson’s’, previewing her sixth album They Have A Howard Johnson’s There, with an era-inspired nostalgic video by Deborah Magocsi. This album was engineered, produced, mixed and mastered by Charlie Nieland (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Blondie, Scissor Sisters) at Saturation Point Studios in Brooklyn.
For this single, Kilguss is accompanied by John Kengla (David Byrne, Ben Kweller, Serena Ryder) on guitar, bass and keys, Rob Heath (Madison Square Gardeners, Julia Nunes) on drums and percussion, and Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Gramercy Arms, Lloyd Cole) and Charlie Nieland on backing vocals. Other tracks on this album features Andrea Longato (Duncan Shiek, Jeremy Jordan, Alphonso Ribeiro), guitarist Kirk Schoenherr (Tegan and Sara, Elle King, Chet Faker), and Rembert Block (Rembert and the Basic Goodness).
“This song originated from some writing I did in a poetry workshop with performance artist Karen Finley. I had seen her read at the fantastic On The Verge Festival, which celebrates women artists of all disciplines at the Wild Project, produced and curated by my friend Heather Litteer. I was drawn to Karen’s writing and saw a post of hers on Instagram advertising an online poetry workshop inspired by the movie Dog Day Afternoon, as well as dogs in general. I had never taken a poetry workshop before but I am a huge dog lover and thought “what the hell”. I like pushing myself out of my comfort zone,” says Jessie Kilguss.
“In the movie, Al Pacino is speaking with his lover about what he’ll do to prove his love and he says something like “I’ll charter a plane to Algeria. They have a Howard Johnson’s there”. It stood out to me because it was so ridiculous and also, my father Howard had passed away a month earlier. So the song is a tribute to my father, Howard Kilguss, and is also inspired by Dog Day Afternoon. My father had a deep connection with dogs, so I thought it was even more appropriate to write this song for him".
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