Website: www.erikbalkey.com
Schedule: www.musi-cal.com
Downloads: www.itsaboutmusic.com/erikbalkey.html
CDs: www.cdbaby.com/all/erikbalkey
An engaging mix of honesty, intimacy and humor. An agile voice accompanied by sparse and deliberate guitar work. Dirty Linen Magazine says, "Balkey's confident delivery and sparse arrangements frame the songs with uncommon poise."ERIK BALKEY has spent significant time on the road since January 2002. For a while, he kept just a post office box in Philadelphia, and he took to the highway with his guitar and notebook as well as paint brushes and rollers. He picks up interior house painting jobs to sustain his travels, and performs all over the country from Maine to Texas, Florida to Chicago covering over 50,000 miles annually.Balkey writes 30-40 songs per year. Some of the recent songs are gathered on his newest releases, My Sacred Heart and Sanctuary Road, featuring performances from, among others, Duke Levine from Mary Chapin Carpenter's band and including his performance at the legendary Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas where his songs won him recognition as New Folk Competition Winner.Prior to choosing a life on the road, Balkey began songwriting as part of the Red Bank, NJ music scene in 1994 before a four-year stint in New York City. Among the songwriters in the city, Balkey listened and learned as an active volunteer and performer as part of the Fast Folk Cafe scene of the nineties.Gathering from his experiences and from his work on songwriting craft, Balkey wrote and recorded his debut album, Negotiations & Compromise, in 2001 and followed that with God's Poet Now (a tribute to Dave Carter) in 2003 and While the Paint Dries in 2004. Legendary Philadelphia radio deejay, Michael Tearson wrote in SingOut! Magazine, "These songs are literate, exacting portraits in amber... Nicely played and beautifully recorded." His albums contain songs that have garnered Balkey recognition in over a dozen songwriting competitions across the country including being named Kerrville New Folk Winner in 2005 as well as finalist at the Mountain Stage New Song Festival songwriting competition in 2003 and 2004.Balkey is a member of the Folk Alliance and BMI. He writes the "Songwriter's Tour Guide" and is founder and organizer of the "Plowshares Songwriting Competition." He has held volunteer positions with the Fast Folk Cafe (NYC), Music Among Friends (Hoboken, NJ), the Philadelphia Songwriters Alliance, and Nameless Coffeehouse (Cambridge, MA).See www.erikbalkey.com for information on recordings and performances.
