Eric Andersen | |
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 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1943-02-14)February 14, 1943 (age 83) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1963–present |
| Website | ericandersen |
Eric Andersen (born February 14, 1943) is an Americanfolk music singer-songwriter,[1] who has written songs recorded byJohnny Cash,Bob Dylan,Judy Collins,Linda Ronstadt, theGrateful Dead,Rick Nelson, and many others. Early in his career, in the 1960s, he was part of theGreenwich Village folk scene. After two decades and sixteen albums of solo performance, he formedDanko/Fjeld/Andersen withRick Danko andJonas Fjeld, which released two albums in the early 1990s.
Eric Andersen's grandfather emigrated fromNorway.[2] Eric Andersen was born inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up inSnyder, New York, a suburb ofBuffalo.Elvis Presley made an impression on him when 15-year-old Andersen saw him perform.[3] He moved toBoston and then San Francisco, where he metTom Paxton, finally settling in New York City at the height of theGreenwich Village folk movement.[4]
Andersen was at one point married to formerCambridge folksingerDebbie Green,[5] who contributed guitar, piano, and backing vocal performances to various records Andersen released between 1965 and 1975. He was a resident ofWoodstock, New York, between 1975 and 1983. He then moved toOslo, Norway, and maintained a residence in New York City.[6] He was cohabiting and has four children with the Norwegian visual artist Unni Askeland.[7] He currently lives in theNetherlands. He married Dutch social scientist and singer Inge Andersen in 2006. He has a daughter Sari (with Debbie Green), who contributed backing vocal performances to hisMemory of the Future album.
In 2022, Andersen was awarded anhonorary doctorate degree fromHobart and William Smith Colleges.[8]
In the early 1960s, Andersen was part of theGreenwich Village folk scene in New York City.[1] His best-known songs from the 1960s folk era are "Violets of Dawn", "Come to My Bedside", and "Thirsty Boots" (the latter recorded byJudy Collins,Bob Dylan, and John Denver amongst others).[9]
In 1964, Andersen made his debut atGerdes Folk City in a live audition forVanguard Records. In 1965 he released his first Vanguard albumToday Is the Highway.[2] In 1966 he made hisNewport Folk Festival debut. The Beatles' managerBrian Epstein was in the process of becoming his manager when he died.[3]Joni Mitchell cites Andersen as the source of her open tunings.
Andersen took part in theFestival Express tour across Canada in 1970 with theGrateful Dead,Janis Joplin,The Band,Delaney Bramlett and others.
Andersen signed withColumbia in 1972 and issued his most commercially successful album,Blue River, on that label. From that album, the song "Is It Really Love At All?" is the most popular.[10] The master tapes of his follow-up albumStages were lost (until 1989) before the album could be released, resulting in the loss of much of the momentum he had gained withBlue River.[1]
Andersen parted ways with Columbia and recorded sporadically for a number of labels throughout the remainder of the 1970s and into the early 1980s. In 1975 he performed withArlen Roth at the opening show of Bob Dylan'sRolling Thunder Revue at Gerde's Folk City and again in Niagara Falls.
In the late 1970s, Andersen was also a member of the Woodstock Mountains Revue, a folk group that also featuredArtie Traum,Happy Traum andJohn Sebastian.[11]
Andersen fell into obscurity for a number of years for audiences in United States. After moving to Europe, he recorded three albums, includingMidnight Son,Tight in the Night andIstanbul. Andersen established his own company, Wind and Sand Records, to sell his music through mail order.[2][12]
Andersen reemerged in 1989 with a new album,Ghosts Upon the Road. Though the album did only modestly well, it was widely praised and placed on a number of critics' year-end "best of" lists.[3] The title track was a 10 1/2-minute autobiographical song that Andersen wrote about when he lived in Beacon Hill, Boston, and moved to New York City in 1964.[6]
TheStages tapes were found nearly two decades after they had been lost. Forty boxes consisting of the original master tapes were found October 1989 in the vaults at Columbia Records in New York. The album was recorded afterBlue River and featured guest artistsLeon Russell,Joan Baez andDan Fogelberg, among others.[13] It was issued in 1991 asStages: The Lost Album.[14]
At this point in his career, Andersen was living inOslo,Norway, and, in the early 1990s, he joined the trioDanko/Fjeld/Andersen, withRick Danko (theBand) and the Norwegian singer-songwriterJonas Fjeld. The trio recorded three albums and performed together for nine years.[15][16]
In 1998, Andersen released his first solo album in a decade,Memory of the Future. Praised as "dreamy and introspective", the album was followed two years later byYou Can't Relive The Past, which included original blues numbers as well as a selection of songs co-written withTownes Van Zandt.
Adouble album,Beat Avenue, followed in 2003. Besides mostly rock-dominated ballads, the album's 26-minute title track is a jazzy beat poem relating his experiences among San Francisco'sbeat community of artists on the day of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's assassination.
Andersen's next albums,The Street Was Always There (2004) andWaves (2005), were both produced by multi-instrumentalistRobert Aaron. In addition to covers of his own songs, the albums featured new versions of classics by his sixties contemporaries and friends, includingDavid Blue,Bob Dylan,Richard Fariña,Tim Hardin,Peter La Farge,Fred Neil,Phil Ochs,Buffy Sainte-Marie,Paul Siebel,Patrick Sky,Tom Paxton,John Sebastian,Happy Traum,Lou Reed, andTom Rush. His next album,Blue Rain, released in 2007, was his first live album. It was recorded in Norway and contains a blend of blues, jazz and folk.
In 2011, Andersen released his second live album,The Cologne Concert, withit:Michele Gazich (Mary Gauthier,Mark Olson) on violin and Inge Andersen (his wife) on backing vocals.
In 2013, Andersen performed inGreenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation,[17] a feature-length documentary about theGreenwich Village music scene, which was issued on DVD in November.
In August 2014, Andersen released a limited-edition double 10" vinyl record, "Shadow and Light ofAlbert Camus", featuringit:Michele Gazich on violin and piano, with cover design paintings ofde:Oliver Jordan.
In April 2017, Andersen phonedJoni Mitchell, who was at home recovering from a serious long-term illness, and suggested bringing his band to her house for some music-making. (Andersen was the guitarist who had taught Mitchell open-G tuning.) Mitchell was greatly cheered by having music in her home and in her life again, and as a result of Andersen's visit was inspired to start hosting regular music sessions, which became known as "Joni Jams". The music sessions assisted her recovery, and she was able to return to live performance in 2022.[18]
In May 2017, Andersen released his albumMingle with the Universe: The Worlds of Lord Byron, featuring Inge Andersen (backing vocals),it:Michele Gazich (violin),Giorgio Curcettie (oud, bass, guitar),Cheryl Prashker (percussion) and Paul Zoontjes (akanl:Simon Keats, piano) with cover design paintings ofde:Oliver Jordan. In December 2017, the albumSilent Angel: The Fire and Ashes of Heinrich Böll was released celebrating the centenary of the writerHeinrich Böll's birth.
In March 2018, Sony/Legacy Recordings issuedThe Essential Eric Andersen, a 42-track double CD release covering fifty years of his recorded history fromToday is the Highway on toThe Cologne Concert album and unreleased New York recordings.
A documentary about Eric Andersen, entitledThe Songpoet, premiered at The Copenhagen Music Film Festival on September 13, 2019. Set against the cultural landscapes of his 50-year artistic journey, the film depicts an intimate portrait of Andersen—writing, recording, and performing today and reflecting on his life's work. The film was produced by Toward Castle Films and Skipping Stone Pictures. Beginning in April 2021The Songpoet was made available for TV broadcast in the United States byAmerican Public Television,[19] and a free stream of the full documentary became available at thePublic Broadcasting Service (PBS) website.[20]
In June 2020, Y&T Music issuedWoodstock under the Stars, a collection featuring a 36-track triple CD drawn from concerts, a webcast and studio sessions recorded between 1991 and 2011. The performances feature special guestsRick Danko,John Sebastian,Garth Hudson,Eric Bazilian,Happy Traum,Artie Traum, Inge Andersen (singer-songwriter, Eric Andersen's wife and harmony singer),Joe Flood,Jonas Fjeld,Gary Burke andRobert Aaron) with cover design paintings ofde:Oliver Jordan.
In October 2022, Y&T Music issuedTribute To A Songpoet: Songs of Eric Andersen, a collection of 42 songs on a triple CD with a cover design painting ofde:Oliver Jordan featuring new (and some vintage) recordings and interpretations of his songs by an eclectic group of artists with musical and personal connections to him. The artists includeBob Dylan,Lucy Kaplansky,Albert Lee,Scarlet Rivera,Willie Nile,Elliott Murphy,Eric Bazilian,Larry Campbell,Mary Chapin Carpenter,Janis Ian,Robert Aaron,Steve Addabbo,John Gorka,Happy Traum,Amy Helm,Linda Ronstadt,Lenny Kaye,Rick Danko and many others.
In February 2023, Appaloosa Records issuedFoolish Like the Flowers, a live album recorded in Spaziomusica, Italy featuringScarlet Rivera on violin,Paolo Ercoli on dobro,Cheryl Prashker on percussion and Inge Andersen on backing vocals.
In November 2024, EARecords issuedEric Andersen In (Spoken) Pieces. The album is a collection and assemblage of his past and present longer-spoken (song) narratives.
In February 2025, EARecords issuedBlue River (Live in Tokyo) an album withit:Michele Gazich (violin) and Inge Andersen (backing vocals) recorded at Billboard Live, Tokyo, Japan in 2012.
In April 2025, Andersen released a new studio albumDance of Love and Death, containing 17 recordings of new songs and featuring special guest musicians includingLenny Kaye,Larry Campbell, Eric Lee,Joyce Andersen,Tony Garnier,it:Michele Gazich, Inge Andersen,Robin Batteau,Mark Dann,Abby Newton,Mike Visceglia, Jagoda,Cheryl Prashker andWyatt Offit. The album was produced bySteve Addabbo and the liner notes were written byAnthony DeCurtis andLenny Kaye.
In his lengthy career, Andersen has issued more than 30 albums to which many artists have contributed, includingJoan Baez,Dan Fogelberg,Al Kooper,Willie Nile,Joni Mitchell,Lou Reed,Leon Russell,Richard Thompson,Rick Danko,Garth Hudson,Eric Bazilian,Arlen Roth,Tony Garnier,Howie Epstein, and many others. His songs have been recorded by artists all over the world, including theBlues Project,Johnny Cash,Judy Collins,Peter, Paul & Mary,the Mitchell Trio, John Denver,The Dillards,Ricky Nelson,Fairport Convention,Grateful Dead,Ratdog (Bob Weir),Bob Dylan,Linda Ronstadt,Gillian Welch,Eilen JewellMary-Chapin Carpenter,Françoise Hardy,Rick Danko,Linda Thompson,The Kingston Trio, andPete Seeger.
Richard Harrington, music critic forThe Washington Post, wrote, "No other songwriter born in the generation between World War II and Korea has better explored the insistence of love, whether it be sensible or hopeless, beseeched or betrayed."[21]
In 2003, Andersen won thePremio Tenco award withPatti Smith in San Remo, Italy, the country’s most prestigious songwriting award.[22]
In 1999 Andersen wrote an essay entitled "My Beat Journal" for theRolling Stone Book of the Beats. That same year he published an article inNational Geographic Traveler entitled "Coastal Norway" .
In 2009, Andersen contributed an essay entitled "The Danger Zone" to theNaked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays, a book volume edited byOliver Harris and Ian MacFadyen devoted toWilliam S. Burroughs’Naked Lunch, considered one of the landmark publications in the history ofAmerican literature.
Andersen wrote the lyric texts, composed music, and recorded songs for the painter Oliver Jordan'sAlbert Camus exhibition called "Paintings out of Revolt". This exhibition first took place for the Camus centenary in Aix-en-Provence in 2013, and was at theRheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Germany, during mid-2014.
In 2013, Andersen wrote the liner notes forThe Essential Pete Seeger for Sony/Legacy Records.
In 1965, Eric Andersen starred in theAndy Warhol movieSpace, in which he sang.[3]
In 1974, Andersen appeared in theLes Blank documentaryA Poem is a Naked Person, which covered three years in the life of rock starLeon Russell. The film remained unreleased for forty years but was finally released in 2015.
In 1984, Andersen appeared as a guest in a film documentary about Phil Ochs calledChords of Fame and sang the Ochs' song, "When I'm Gone".[24]
In 1985, Andersen wrote original music for the movieIstanbul, starringBrad Dourif.
In 2011, filmmakers Paul Lamont and Scott Sackett began production onThe Songpoet, a documentary exploring Eric Andersen's uncompromising 50-year artistic journey. The film has been finished in February 2019 and had its premiere at The Copenhagen Music Film Festival, September 13, 2019.
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