Jessie Kilguss shares ‘Fool’s Fight’, showcasing sixth album ‘They Have A Howard Johnson’s There’

NYC-based singer-songwriter Jessie Kilguss presents ‘Fool’s Fight’, a beautiful calling card for her new album ‘They Have A Howard Johnson’s There’ – her sixth to date. Here, she delivers a powerful, indie-folk anthem about surrendering to a relationship so immediate and intense it feels like a cosmic force, compelling the narrator to abandon all societal pretense. 

A name whispered with reverence in deep-cut New York songwriting circles, Kilguss is not one to shy away from the cinematic or the deeply literary. Defined by a clever, layered nostalgia, Kilguss crafts a sonic space that is intimately personal and universally resonant, proving that sometimes, the greatest stories can be found in the most unlikely places. 

Engineered, produced, mixed and mastered by Charlie Nieland (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Blondie, Scissor Sisters) at Saturation Point Studios in Brooklyn, this album is a collection of tracks that are nuanced, building from a simple guitar and voice into something far grander.

“I have a songwriting club with my friend Rembert Block, who is a singer-songwriter-bandleader and also sang backing vocals on my record. We meet every 3 or 4 weeks and share a new song with each other. Our club has been meeting for over two years now, which has been incredibly helpful for keeping us both in the habit of writing new songs on a regular basis,” says Jessie Kilguss.

“When I wrote ‘Fool’s Fight’, I was deeply ensconced in Elena Ferrante’s “Neapolitan Quartet”, which I loved! The song is slightly inspired by those books. As with any song it also relates to my own life but I like to let people project their own stories onto my songs, find their own meaning.”

A fine cartographer of this emotional landscape, Kilguss isn’t just making music; she’s collecting fragments of the past, stitching them into a luminous, deeply felt present. A powerful collection steeped in sweet nostalgia, divine inspiration and sophistication, this album is a masterclass in mood and a sonic exploration where poetic introspection and light-filled melodies intersect with folk-laced resignation.

“This is a collection of songs I’ve written over the past few years, most being inspired, at least in part, by a book (Elena Ferrante’s ‘The Lost Daughter & Neapolitan Quartet’), a movie (‘Dog Day Afternoon’) or a work of art (‘The Ecstasy of St Teresa’). The title comes from a line in the song ‘Howard Johnson’s’, which is a roundabout tribute to my father Howard, who passed away in 2023,” says Kilguss.

“I’ve been working on this album for the past year with producer Charlie Nieland, with whom I have been collaborating since 2007. We started every track with just voice and guitar and built them out from there. Previously, I’ve always gone into the studio with my band to record. This was an interesting way to work as we deconstructed each song and then put them back together..”

This album also involves heavy-hitters like Kirk Schoenherr (Tegan and Sara, Elle King, Chet Faker),  John Kengla (David Byrne, Ben Kweller, Serena Ryder), Andrea Longato (Duncan Sheik, Jeremy Jordan), Rob Heath (Madison Square Gardeners, Julia Nunes), Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Gramercy Arms, Lloyd Cole) and Rembert Block (Rembert and the Basic Goodness).

The lead track ‘Howard Johnson’s’ is a beautiful, melancholic tribute to her late father, Howard, name-checked in a surreal line by Al Pacino in the movie “Dog Day Afternoon”, while ‘St. Teresa in Ecstasy’ is a divine, slow-burn revelation, inspired by Bernini’s dramatic sculpture and the dizzying feeling of being utterly overwhelmed by art or even something celestial. understands the power of great moments, and this song is pure, dramatic and full of radiant harmonics.

Kilguss is a former actress who cut her teeth working with titans like Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder on ‘The Crucible’, as well as Marianne Faithfull and Mary Margaret O’Hara in the Tom Waits / William Burroughs musical ‘The Black Rider’. Kilguss sings with Gramercy Arms, Loser’s Lounge, Jim Andralis & the Syntonics and Benjamin Cartel. She has performed at the Sundance Film Festival and with Freddie Stevenson, touring with The Waterboys, and was an artist in residence at Fish Factory Creative Center in Stodvarfjordur, Iceland in the summer of 2025.

Kilguss’ 2022 album ‘What Do Whales Dream About at Night?’ LP features drummer Brian Griffin (Patti Smith, Brandi Carlisle, Lana Del Rey), bassist Whynot Jansveld (The Wallflowers), composer-producer Naren Rauch, and Nathan Schram (Bjork, David Crosby, David Byrne), with whom Kilguss ran the non-profit organization Musicambia.

‘They Have A Howard Johnson’s There’ is out everywhere digitally, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp.