When Brooklyn-based musician and New Yorker magazine contributor Howard Fishman first heard Connie Converse’s amateur recordings from the early 1950s, he was convinced they could not be real. Converse’s songs were too good not to know, and too anachronistic to make sense. This overlooked artist — who mysteriously disappeared one day in 1974 and was never heard from again — seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana, the Great American Songbook, classical art song and the singer-songwriter movement spurred on by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell — but a full decade before them.
Fishman embarked on a dozen years of research to find out everything he could about this fascinating, largely unknown musician, and the result is “To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse.” Fishman will discuss his book and Converse’s improbable story—from trailblazing musician to forgotten iconoclast to cult favorite whose songs have been covered by Jeff Tweedy and Big Thief — with Bob Dylan Center Director Steven Jenkins.
“To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse” will be available for purchase at the event, and Fishman will sign copies following the conversation.
Listen to Connie Converse on Bandcamp.
Details
Sunday, Oct. 1 at 2 p.m.
Doors: 1:30 p.m.
Bob Dylan Center
The Darby Family Screening Room
116 E Reconciliation Way
Tulsa, OK 74103
Tickets
Free for members.
Free for nonmembers with paid admission on the day of the event.
