'Bout Changes & Things

Biography

Eric Andersen (born 14 February 1943 in Pittsburgh) is an American folk music singer-songwriter, who has written songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead and many others. Early in his career, in the 1960s, he was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene. After two decades and sixteen albums of solo performance he became a member of the group Danko/Fjeld/Andersen. Andersen belonged, in the early sixties, together with Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan, to t...

Eric Andersen (born 14 February 1943 in Pittsburgh) is an American folk music singer-songwriter, who has written songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead and many others. Early in his career, in the 1960s, he was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene. After two decades and sixteen albums of solo performance he became a member of the group Danko/Fjeld/Andersen.

Andersen belonged, in the early sixties, together with Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan, to the Greenwich Village folkscene in New York. His best-known songs from that time are “Violets of Dawn,” “Come to My Bedside” and “Thirsty Boots” (the latter was recorded by Judy Collins and several others). In 1966, he made his debut at the Newport Folk Festival and that same year he starred in the Andy Warhol movie Space. In 1970 he took part in the Festival Express tour across Canada with the Grateful Dead , Janis Joplin, The Band and others. In 1972 he issued his most successful (and sold) album Blue River. The tapes of his follow-up album Stages got lost, but were found back more than a decade later and issued in 1991 as Stages: The Lost Album. In 1975 he performed at the opening show of the Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, at Gerde's Folk City in New York, and again in Niagara Falls. After several albums (country/rock/folk), he issued Ghosts Upon the Road a highly recognized album in 1988. In the early 1990s, Andersen teamed with Rick Danko (The Band) and Jonas Fjeld to form the trio Danko/Fjeld/Andersen and three albums were released, Danko/Fjeld/Andersen (1991), Ridin' on the Blinds (1994), and One More Shot (2001). It lasted nine years before his next solo album Memory Of The Future (1998) was issued. This "dreamy and introspective music" album was followed by You Can't Relive The Past (2000), which contains some blues songs and a selection of songs co-written with Townes van Zandt . A double album Beat Avenue followed in 2003, which contains a series rock dominated ballads and includes a 26-minute title track (a jazzy beat poem), which represents his experiences among San Francisco’s beat community of artists (see 'Beat Generation') on the day of president John Kennedy’s assassination. On his last two albums The Street Was Always There (2004) and Waves (2005), both produced by the multi-instrumentalist Robert Aaron, he presents (amongst own songs) new versions of classics and of his sixties contemporaries and friends David Blue, Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, Peter La Farge, Fred Neil, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Paul Siebel, Patrick Sky, Tom Paxton, Richard Farina, John Sebastian, Happy Traum, Tom Rush and Lou Reed . 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 2009, Andersen contributed an essay entitled The Danger Zone to the Naked Lunch @ 50: Anniversary Essays, a book volume edited by Oliver Harris and Ian MacFadyen devoted to William Burroughs’ masterpiece the Naked Lunch, considered one of the landmark publications in the history of American literature.
In 2011, a second live album The Cologne Concert was released featuring Michele Gazich (Italy) on violin and Eric's wife Inge Andersen on backing vocals.
In 2012 the filmmaker Paul Lamont (Toward Castle Films) started the production of The Eric Andersen Story, a documentary film, which is expected to be ready for global distribution in 2014.
Andersen has completed the recording of his new album Dance of Love and Death. The album is mixed by Steve Addabbo (Suzanne Vega ), other musicians are Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Larry Campbell (musician) (Bob Dylan band; Phil Lesh and Friends, Levon Helm Band), Michele Gazich (Mary Gauthier , Mark Olson (musician), Michelle Shocked ) and Inge Andersen. The record is expected to be released early 2013. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.