About Me
Eric Andersen has spent most of his life roaming Beat Avenue. It isn't a street that's led to fame and fortune - too full of left turns - but it's enabled him to follow his muse into a unique songwriting style that combines the poetic and the plainspoken, the throb of an open heart and the cynical second glance of the betrayed lover, the perpetual motion of a soul on fire.Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1943, Eric grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., where he taught himself to play guitar and piano. In his teens, he formed folk groups to perform the political songs of Woody Guthrie and The Weavers and immersed himself in the writings of Rimbaud, Baudelaire, and the Beat Generation of writers and poets Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso.Eric embarked on Beat Avenue by embracing the movement's "no rules" outlook and rootless freedom, which still dominates his creative outlook and lifestyle. He hitchhiked West in 1963 to meet his idols and inspirations in San Francisco's North Beach and Berkeley, an experience figuring prominently in the 26-minute genre-defying title song of his 2003 "Beat Avenue" 2-CD set.After his "discovery" by the touring Tom Paxton, Eric relocated to Greenwich Village, the hub of the blossoming folk scene, and started writing his first classics - "Violets of Dawn," "Thirsty Boots," "Come to My Bedside" - which helped set the template for the poetic, introspective singer-songwriter movement that blossomed in the late Sixties. Andersen's circle of contemporaries included Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Fred Neil, and David Blue, among others - he paid eloquent tribute to them on his two most recent CDs, 2004's "The Street Was Always There" and 2005's "Waves," performing vibrant versions of some of their signature songs.Andersen's own skills as a songwriter have long been recognized by critics and fellow performers alike. The late Robert Shelton of the New York Times presciently described an early Andersen composition as "typical of the new language and poetic patterns of what will one day be called `an Eric Andersen song'." Those distinctive qualities have subsequently been captured on about two dozen original albums and in cover versions by artists including Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Peter, Paul & Mary, the Grateful Dead, Fairport Convention, and others. Among the songwriters he directly influenced: Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Andersen also took part in the legendary 1970 trans-Canadian train tour featuring Janis Joplin, the Dead, and The Band, later immortalized in the "Festival Express" movie and DVD.Despite a career studded with heartbreaking near misses - Eric was almost signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein before the latter's death; the follow-up CD to his 1972 commercial breakthrough, "Blue River," was mysteriously lost by Columbia Records (eventually rediscovered and issued in 1991 as "Stages: The Lost Album") - he has fearlessly expanded his musical and poetic vocabulary to encompass a bruised realism in his imagery, incorporating scenes from his constant international travels and collaborating with the likes of Lou Reed and the late Townes Van Zandt. In the early '90s, Andersen forged an award-winning partnership with former Band bassist Rick Danko and Norwegian musician Jonas Fjeld that yielded two CDs, including the "One More Shot" live/studio set on Appleseed.In recent years, Andersen has released a steady stream of acclaimed CDs on Appleseed and maintained a touring schedule that includes the U.S., Canada, Japan, France, the Netherlands, Norway, and elsewhere. He's appeared on the Bravo cable TV channel's series of artist interviews and has been the subject of several XM Satellite Radio specials. In 2003, Eric received Italy's most prestigious songwriting award, the Premio Tenco. In February 2007, Eric was one of the recipients of a "Superstar" award during a "20th Anniversary Tribute to the Life and Legacy of Andy Warhol" presented by New York's Gershwin Hotel.(taken from amazon.com notes)I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
