ERIC ANDERSEN
''GREAT AMERICAN SONG SERIES VOL. 2: WAVES''
OCTOBER 18 2005
55:12
1 Once I Was
Larry Beckett 3:54
2 Ramblin' Boy
Tom Paxton 4:04
3 I've Got a Secret
Fred Neil 4:13
4 Pale Blue Eyes
Lou Reed 5:55
5 Golden Bird
Happy Traum 2:48
6 John Brown
Bob Dylan 4:09
7 Changes
Phil Ochs 5:58
8 Today Is the Highway
Eric Andersen 3:08
9 On the Road Again
Tom Rush 3:45
10 Coconut Grove
John Sebastian / Zal Yanovsky 3:06
11 Bold Marauder 4:24
12 Hymn of Waves
Eric Andersen 4:29
13 Thirsty Boots
Eric Andersen 5:19
Robert Aaron /Arranger, Bass, Congas, Fender Rhodes, Flute, Guitar (Acoustic), Melodica, Oboe, Organ, Organ (Hammond), Piano, Piccolo, Producer, Quatro, Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor)
Eric Andersen /Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitars, Harmonica, Main Personnel, Primary Artist, Vocals
Judy Collins /Guitar (Acoustic), Main Personnel, Vocals
Jim Glover /Vocal Harmony
Arlo Guthrie /Guitar (Acoustic), Main Personnel, Vocals (Background)
Maura Kennedy /Vocals (Background)
Pete Kennedy /Guitar (12 String Acoustic), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
Willie Martinez /Bongos, Congas, Drums, Percussion
Tom Rush /Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals (Background)
Happy Traum /Banjo, Composer
Russell Walden /Keyboards
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
The folk music movement centered in New York's Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, although it was steeped in traditional repertoire, it quickly focused on new, original songs written by the performers themselves, songs that explored mature personal concerns and commented on the social and political issues of the day. Eric Andersen was a part of that movement while it was happening, so his "Great American Song Series," the second volume of which is called Waves (following the first volume, 2004's The Street Was Always There) represents a participant interpreting the compositions of his peers. Unlike, say, Rod Stewart recording his Great American Songbook series of pre-rock standards with little sense of what those songs were about, this is more what you might get if, for example, Hoagy Carmichael had made an album of the songs of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin. In fact, that comparison is particularly apt because Carmichael, though of the same generation as those songwriters, was actually just a little younger, which is also true of Andersen, who was born after, but within a few years, of every songwriter he covers on this album except John Sebastian (and Sebastian is less than a year younger). Andersen may have been closest to Phil Ochs personally among these musical friends, but he did not share Ochs' focus on politics, which tended to make his interpretations of songs like "I Ain't Marching Anymore" on The Street Was Always There less than convincing. Here, he sticks to Ochs' sad, lovely, and apolitical "Changes," to which he is much more suited. But he shows the greatest affinity for moody, introspective singer/songwriters like Tim Buckley ("Once I Was") and Fred Neil ("I've Got a Secret"), recalling their phrasing while adding his own style as a gloss. (Similarly, the Neil and Tim Hardin songs provided the best moments on The Street Was Always There.) Andersen himself probably wouldn't claim to have improved upon the original artists' versions of these songs, but covering them provides a different perspective, brings them up to date, and may help rescue some of them from obscurity. "If Eric has done his job," writes annotator Robbie Woliver, "I hope you will trek down to your local record store ...." As the two albums appear to have been recorded at the same sessions, this is probably the end of Andersen's musical reminiscence, and he seems to have covered the obvious bases. Still, there's more where these came from, and there are still a few people (Richie Havens and Mark Spoelstra, to name two) so far unrepresented, so a third volume would not be amiss.
BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann
Eric Andersen has maintained a career as a folk-based singer/songwriter since the 1960s. In contrast to such peers as Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs, Andersen's writing has had a romantic/philosophical/poetic bent for the most part, rather than a socially conscious one, though one of his best-known songs, "Thirsty Boots," has as its background the Freedom Rides of the early '60s. (The song has been recorded by Judy Collins and others.)
After emerging from the Northeast folk-club circuit, Andersen began to record in 1965 with Today Is the Highway. His second album, 'Bout Changes & Things, contained some of his most accomplished writing, including the highly poetic "Violets of Dawn," "Thirsty Boots," and "I Shall Go Unbounded." All were sung in Andersen's flexible tenor (he shaded toward a baritone later), backed by rapid, intricate fingerpicking. In the late '60s and early '70s, Andersen experimented with country, pop, and rock music, settling on an amalgamation by the time of his masterpiece Blue River in 1972. This was also his most commercially successful album, but Andersen, like friends Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt, was always too serious-minded for the mainstream. In the '70s and '80s, he recorded sporadically while playing folk clubs around the U.S. and especially in Europe, where he took up residence. His later material, including 1989's Ghosts Upon the Road, recalls his work in the '60s as it ruefully reflects on that decade. The '90s saw Andersen collaborate with friends like Rick Danko and Jonas Fjeld on Danko/Fjeld/Andersen, as well as release a solo album, 1998's Memory of the Future; Andersen also oversaw the release of Stages: The Lost Album as well as a 1999 reissue of Blue River. You Can't Relive the Past followed early the next year. Beat Avenue from 2003 was an ambitious double CD while 2004's The Street Was Always There was a nostalgic look back at the music of the New York Greenwich Village scene of the early to mid-'60s. Waves from 2005 was another album of covers, but with broader material. Anderson released Blue Rain in May 2007.
OFFICIAL SITE
''GREAT AMERICAN SONG SERIES VOL. 2: WAVES''
OCTOBER 18 2005
55:12
1 Once I Was
Larry Beckett 3:54
2 Ramblin' Boy
Tom Paxton 4:04
3 I've Got a Secret
Fred Neil 4:13
4 Pale Blue Eyes
Lou Reed 5:55
5 Golden Bird
Happy Traum 2:48
6 John Brown
Bob Dylan 4:09
7 Changes
Phil Ochs 5:58
8 Today Is the Highway
Eric Andersen 3:08
9 On the Road Again
Tom Rush 3:45
10 Coconut Grove
John Sebastian / Zal Yanovsky 3:06
11 Bold Marauder 4:24
12 Hymn of Waves
Eric Andersen 4:29
13 Thirsty Boots
Eric Andersen 5:19
Robert Aaron /Arranger, Bass, Congas, Fender Rhodes, Flute, Guitar (Acoustic), Melodica, Oboe, Organ, Organ (Hammond), Piano, Piccolo, Producer, Quatro, Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor)
Eric Andersen /Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitars, Harmonica, Main Personnel, Primary Artist, Vocals
Judy Collins /Guitar (Acoustic), Main Personnel, Vocals
Jim Glover /Vocal Harmony
Arlo Guthrie /Guitar (Acoustic), Main Personnel, Vocals (Background)
Maura Kennedy /Vocals (Background)
Pete Kennedy /Guitar (12 String Acoustic), Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric)
Willie Martinez /Bongos, Congas, Drums, Percussion
Tom Rush /Composer, Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals (Background)
Happy Traum /Banjo, Composer
Russell Walden /Keyboards
REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
The folk music movement centered in New York's Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, although it was steeped in traditional repertoire, it quickly focused on new, original songs written by the performers themselves, songs that explored mature personal concerns and commented on the social and political issues of the day. Eric Andersen was a part of that movement while it was happening, so his "Great American Song Series," the second volume of which is called Waves (following the first volume, 2004's The Street Was Always There) represents a participant interpreting the compositions of his peers. Unlike, say, Rod Stewart recording his Great American Songbook series of pre-rock standards with little sense of what those songs were about, this is more what you might get if, for example, Hoagy Carmichael had made an album of the songs of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin. In fact, that comparison is particularly apt because Carmichael, though of the same generation as those songwriters, was actually just a little younger, which is also true of Andersen, who was born after, but within a few years, of every songwriter he covers on this album except John Sebastian (and Sebastian is less than a year younger). Andersen may have been closest to Phil Ochs personally among these musical friends, but he did not share Ochs' focus on politics, which tended to make his interpretations of songs like "I Ain't Marching Anymore" on The Street Was Always There less than convincing. Here, he sticks to Ochs' sad, lovely, and apolitical "Changes," to which he is much more suited. But he shows the greatest affinity for moody, introspective singer/songwriters like Tim Buckley ("Once I Was") and Fred Neil ("I've Got a Secret"), recalling their phrasing while adding his own style as a gloss. (Similarly, the Neil and Tim Hardin songs provided the best moments on The Street Was Always There.) Andersen himself probably wouldn't claim to have improved upon the original artists' versions of these songs, but covering them provides a different perspective, brings them up to date, and may help rescue some of them from obscurity. "If Eric has done his job," writes annotator Robbie Woliver, "I hope you will trek down to your local record store ...." As the two albums appear to have been recorded at the same sessions, this is probably the end of Andersen's musical reminiscence, and he seems to have covered the obvious bases. Still, there's more where these came from, and there are still a few people (Richie Havens and Mark Spoelstra, to name two) so far unrepresented, so a third volume would not be amiss.
BIOGRAPHY
by William Ruhlmann
Eric Andersen has maintained a career as a folk-based singer/songwriter since the 1960s. In contrast to such peers as Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs, Andersen's writing has had a romantic/philosophical/poetic bent for the most part, rather than a socially conscious one, though one of his best-known songs, "Thirsty Boots," has as its background the Freedom Rides of the early '60s. (The song has been recorded by Judy Collins and others.)
After emerging from the Northeast folk-club circuit, Andersen began to record in 1965 with Today Is the Highway. His second album, 'Bout Changes & Things, contained some of his most accomplished writing, including the highly poetic "Violets of Dawn," "Thirsty Boots," and "I Shall Go Unbounded." All were sung in Andersen's flexible tenor (he shaded toward a baritone later), backed by rapid, intricate fingerpicking. In the late '60s and early '70s, Andersen experimented with country, pop, and rock music, settling on an amalgamation by the time of his masterpiece Blue River in 1972. This was also his most commercially successful album, but Andersen, like friends Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt, was always too serious-minded for the mainstream. In the '70s and '80s, he recorded sporadically while playing folk clubs around the U.S. and especially in Europe, where he took up residence. His later material, including 1989's Ghosts Upon the Road, recalls his work in the '60s as it ruefully reflects on that decade. The '90s saw Andersen collaborate with friends like Rick Danko and Jonas Fjeld on Danko/Fjeld/Andersen, as well as release a solo album, 1998's Memory of the Future; Andersen also oversaw the release of Stages: The Lost Album as well as a 1999 reissue of Blue River. You Can't Relive the Past followed early the next year. Beat Avenue from 2003 was an ambitious double CD while 2004's The Street Was Always There was a nostalgic look back at the music of the New York Greenwich Village scene of the early to mid-'60s. Waves from 2005 was another album of covers, but with broader material. Anderson released Blue Rain in May 2007.
OFFICIAL SITE
No comments :
Post a Comment