Eric Andersen

“Eric Andersen is one of our finest singers and songwriters, in the most literal sense of that tradition… the most elegant of singers.” –David Fricke, Rolling Stone
“A singer and songwriter of the first rank.” —The New York Times
“An American master.” –Robert Palmer, Ghosts Upon the Road liner notes
“Eric Andersen is a great ballad singer.” –Bob Dylan, live onstage at the Oslo Spektrum

Eric Andersen first came to prominence as a performer in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s and immediately became part of the Village folk and songwriter scene along with Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, and was at the epicenter of the American Greenwich Village singer-songwriter explosion.

Aside from his own classics, he’s co-written songs with Bob Weir (The Grateful Dead), Townes Van Zandt, Rick Danko, and Lou Reed. His songs have been covered by many artists including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Judy Collins, Fairport Convention, Rick Nelson, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, The Grateful Dead, Peter, Paul & Mary, The Blues Project, Gillian Welch, Linda Thompson, and Rick Danko.

Bob Dylan’s version of Eric’s song “Thirsty Boots” was released as a single on Record Store Day and also appears on the Dylan CD Another Self Portrait.

Over the past 50 years, Eric has toured the world and released over 30 CDs of original music including Blue Rain (Appleseed Recordings) his first live concert recording in Oslo with the band Spoonful of Blues, released in 2007. In the early 1990s Andersen recorded 2 trio-harmony albums with The Band’s Rick Danko and Norwegian singer Jonas Fjeld (Danko/Fjeld/Andersen). He’s featured in the Joni Mitchell American Masters documentary, the Wildflower Festival DVD with Judy Collins, Tom Rush, and Arlo Guthrie, the rock film Festival Express and the documentary Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation.

In 1990 Eric won the New York Music Award for his album Ghosts Upon the Road, in 1992 the Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy) for “Danko/Fjeld/Andersen” and in 2003 The Premio Tenco award with Patti Smith in San Remo, Italy, which is an award given to outstanding songwriters. Previous Premio Tenco awards have gone to Randy Newman, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, and Lou Reed.

The Eric Andersen and Friends Webcast was launched in June 2011 by Nevessa Productions Woodstock with special guests Happy Traum, John Sebastian, Joe Flood and Inge Andersen. Featured songs performed in the webcast were from his album The Cologne Concert (Meyer Records) which was released on CD and Vinyl in April 2011. The live album features Eric’s wife Inge Andersen on back-up harmonies and he is accompanied on violin by Michele Gazich. Mingle With The Universe: The Worlds of Lord Byron (Meyer Records) was released in May 2017 on CD and Vinyl formats. “Byron was a born songwriter whose ceaseless waves of rhymes presented an endless sea for the ships of song.” All songs on the album featured the romantic poet’s stanzas with Eric’s music. Included are two original Andersen tracks: “The Curled Darling” and “Albion” which describe for the listener a taste of Lord Byron’s controversial and sometimes scandalous life, travels and writings.

Birth of a Stranger: The Life and Times of Albert Camus (an expanded long-play version of Shadow and Light of Albert Camus – Meyer Records) was released in 2018 with two new tracks. The four-song EP was originally released in 2014 on Vinyl and in 2015 on CD. Eric extrapolated new lyrics from Camus’ novels. Of the original EP version, he said in an interview, “From the rolling vineyards of Camus I tried to capture four bottles of good wine that tasted deep and true.” The most recent in his “writer’s projects” releases is Silent Angel: The Exploded World of Heinrich Böll.

In 2018 Sony/Legacy Recordings issued THE ESSENTIAL ERIC ANDERSEN (42-track digital release, 33 track 2 CD Set) retrospective release covering fifty years of his recorded history from Today is the Highway to Blue River, and Ghosts Upon the Road and Beat Avenue and on to The Cologne Concert album and unreleased New York recordings.

The Songpoet – a documentary about Eric Andersen will be released soon. The Songpoet follows Eric’s remarkable 50-year journey in America and Europe that continues today as he writes and records with a poetic passion. With unprecedented access to Andersen’s life and his personal archives the film will be a study on the culture of fame, the fragility of an artist’s career and the integrity of the artist as it reveals the indestructible energy that drives the artist and writer Eric Andersen in short — a glimmering mirror and portrait of his times.

Eric Andersen’s poetical songs have entertained and captivated audiences worldwide. He plays acoustic guitar, electric guitar, harmonica and piano/keyboards in concert and often performs with his great bands in America, Japan, and Europe. He performs songs which span across all his albums, including his early classics “Thirsty Boots” “Violets of Dawn” and “Close the Door Lightly,” as well as exciting new material from his recent projects like Camus and Lord Byron.