For those unaware, 2023 has been an exciting year for Doctor Fish, especially the last part with finishing up The Last Troubadour album and getting ready to release “Harry Chapin (Every Monday Night)” as its lead-off single.

The 1970s were the golden age of folk-rock singer-songwriters like Chapin as well as Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Gordon Lightfoot. Doctor Fish is a little younger than those great troubadours but from the same era and thus their music is his native language.

“When I was younger, I had it figured out. I clearly understood what life was all about. But life, of course, knew better and had its way with me. You know that I’m still standing, just not where I thought I’d be.” So sings Doctor Fish in “Tuesday Morning,” from his debut with Renaissance Records, The Last Troubadour.

Doctor Fish’s songs reveal a proud musical throwback—a guitar-wielding, storytelling, folk-rock singer-songwriter. No fake retro act: he is one of the last surviving purveyors of that style from the era of its originators, the aforementioned Jim Croce, Harry Chapin, James Taylor, and Cat Stevens.

Vents Magazine heralds The Last Troubadour as “One of the best albums we’ve heard in ages.” “Rock History Music” Vlogger John Beaudin thanks Doctor Fish “for making me stare at the speaker for the first time in years. We need more music that makes us stop in our tracks. Top shelf.”

Produced by multi-platinum veteran David Kershenbaum, the album features bassist Leland Sklar (James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Carole King) and drummer Denny Fongheiser (Heart, Counting Crows, and Shawn Colvin), along with other top studio musicians from around the world.

1. Arizona Skies
2. Tuesday Morning
3. Morning
4. Sexual Creature
5. Anastasia
6. Man Loves A Woman
7. I’m Not Done Yet
8. Hang The Moon
9. Harry Chapin
10. And So This Is Love
11. Last Troubadour

This emotively impassioned, heartfelt and generously sumptuous new recording opens on the descriptive, sweetly enveloping Arizona Skies and then confidently leads us into the strident Tuesday Morning, before we are brought forth the dutiful hipsway found within Sexual Creature, the aching yearn within Anastasia and the sleek Man Loves A Woman.
Along next is the countrified flare within the rhythmic I’m Not Done Yet and the low slung minstrel-imbibed Hang The Moon and they are followed seamlessly by the melodious first single, Harry Chapin, the album rounding out on the warm embrace of And So This Is Love, closing on the upbeat and jubilant live track Last Troubadour.

Doctor Fish’s music reveals a particular affinity to that of Harry Chapin. The late singer-songwriter inspired one of his most popular songs, “Harry Chapin (Every Monday Night)." Harry’s son Jason has called it “a great tribute to my father,” and Fish has given several interviews with Jen Chapin about her father’s legacy.

Doctor Fish pens story songs in a folk-rock style like the late activist songwriters, but his syncopated melodies and rich chord progressions also reveal his background as a jazz musician.

He grew up playing saxophone and backed legends, including Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. “But I wound up taking a sharp left turn,” he laughs. “I picked up a guitar and began writing and singing songs.” He continued songwriting and earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan. He went to Japan to conduct doctoral fieldwork for three years by studying with the 4th generation master of Shinto music and returned to live in the country, working as a translator and editor.

Fish’s journey brought him to North Carolina, where he built a music education program for popular music studies at Catawba College. He helped students advance to successful careers in many parts of the music industry, from performance to major talent agencies. Now living in Durham, NC, he is pursuing his own interrupted goals as a performer.

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