Eric Andersen

Biography

Eric Andersen (born February 14, 1943) is an American folk music singer-songwriter, who has written songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, Rick Nelson, 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 formed Danko/Fjeld/Andersen with Rick Danko and Jonas Fjeld, which released two albums in the early 1990s.

Personal history

Eric Andersen's grandfather emigrated from Norway. Eric Andersen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Snyder, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. Elvis Presley made an impression on him when 15-year-old Andersen saw him perform. He moved to Boston and then San Francisco, where he met Tom Paxton, finally settling in New York City at the height of the Greenwich Village folk movement.
Andersen was at one point married to former Cambridge folksinger Debbie Green, who contributed guitar, piano, and backing vocal performances to various records Andersen released between 1965 and 1975. He was a resident of Woodstock, New York, between 1975 and 1983. He then moved to Oslo, Norway, and maintained a residence in New York City. He was cohabiting and has four children with the Norwegian visual artist Unni Askeland. He currently lives in the Netherlands.
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 his Memory of the Future album.
In 2022, Andersen was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

1964–1969: Folk breakthrough

In the early 1960s, Andersen was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York City. His best-known songs from the 1960s folk era are "Violets of Dawn", "Come to My Bedside", and "Thirsty Boots" (the latter recorded by Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and John Denver amongst others).
In 1964, Andersen made his debut at Gerdes Folk City in a live audition for Vanguard Records. In 1965 he released his first Vanguard album Today Is the Highway×Today Is the Highway1965 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Today Is the Highway2:22A2Dusty Box Car Wall2:22A3Time for My Returning3:19A4Plains of Nebrasky-O3:29A5Looking Glass5:05A6Never Coming Home3:09B1Come to My Bedside3:56B2Baby Please Don't Go3:22B3Everything Ain't Been Said4:39B4Bay of Mexico3:09B5Song to J. C. B.4:55B6Bumblebee3:20. In 1966 he made his Newport Folk Festival debut. The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was in the process of becoming his manager when he died. Joni Mitchell cites Andersen as the source of her open tunings.

1970s: Singer-songwriter era

Andersen took part in the Festival Express tour across Canada in 1970 with the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Delaney Bramlett and others.
Andersen signed with Columbia in 1972 and issued his most commercially successful album, Blue River×Blue River1972 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Is It Really Love at All5:25A2Pearl's Goodtime Blues2:25A3Wind and Sand4:31A4Faithful3:18A5Blue River4:51B1Florentine3:34B2Sheila4:42B3More Often Than Not4:55B4Round the Bend5:40, on that label. From that album, the song "Is It Really Love At All?" is the most popular. The master tapes of his follow-up album Stages were lost (until 1989) before the album could be released, resulting in the loss of much of the momentum he had gained with Blue River.
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 with Arlen Roth at the opening show of Bob Dylan's Rolling 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 featured Artie Traum, Happy Traum and John Sebastian.

1980s: Europe

Andersen fell into obscurity for a number of years for audiences in United States. After moving to Europe, he recorded three albums, including Midnight Son, Tight in the Night×Tight In The Night1985 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracksA1Walking in My Sleep3:32A2Lovin' You, Lovin' Me3:01A3Jonah4:04A4Girls of Denmark4:59A5Someone in My Life4:00B1What Will You Do With My Heart5:23B2She Can Dance3:28B3Straight Life3:52B4Count on You5:43B5Tight in the Night3:30 and Istanbul. Andersen established his own company, Wind and Sand Records, to sell his music through mail order.
Andersen reemerged in 1989 with a new album, Ghosts Upon the Road×Ghosts Upon the Road1989 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Belgian Bar4:262Spanish Steps3:363It starts with a Lie4:064Trouble in Paris5:285Listen to the Rain4:186Ghosts Upon the Road10:437Too Many Times (I will try)4:158Carry Me Away4:569Six Senses of Darkness4:1110Irish Lace4:58. Though the album did only modestly well, it was widely praised and placed on a number of critics' year-end "best of" lists. 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.

Stages: The Lost Album

The Stages 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 after Blue River×Blue River1972 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracksA1Is It Really Love at All5:25A2Pearl's Goodtime Blues2:25A3Wind and Sand4:31A4Faithful3:18A5Blue River4:51B1Florentine3:34B2Sheila4:42B3More Often Than Not4:55B4Round the Bend5:40 and featured guest artists Leon Russell, Joan Baez and Dan Fogelberg, among others. It was issued in 1991 as Stages: The Lost Album.

1990s: Danko/Fjeld/Andersen

At this point in his career, Andersen was living in Oslo, Norway, and, in the early 1990s, he joined the trio Danko/Fjeld/Andersen, with Rick Danko (the Band) and the Norwegian singer-songwriter Jonas Fjeld. The trio recorded three albums and performed together for nine years.

1998–present: Late solo work

In 1998, Andersen released his first solo album in a decade, Memory of the Future×Memory of the Future1999 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Sudden Love4:472Foghorn5:053Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam6:164Blue Heart4:145Goin’ Home4:366Memory of the Future7:147Sex With You3:548Chinatown5:369No Mans Land6:0910When I’m Gone5:4711Hills of Tuscany6:44. Praised as "dreamy and introspective", the album was followed two years later by You Can't Relive The Past×You Can't Relive the PastStudio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Eyes of the Immigrant6:432You Can't Relive the Past4:073Gonna Go Crazy5:054Meadowlark4:525Every Once in a Pale Blue Moon5:066Stand Me Up Easy5:377Dear Mama5:238The Road5:209Cold Country5:0210Night Train5:3311Magdalena7:3112The Blue March (The Iris)5:0613Possum Reprise1:20, which included original blues numbers as well as a selection of songs co-written with Townes Van Zandt.
A double album, Beat Avenue×Beat Avenue2003 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks · 2 discsDisc 11Ain't No Time to Bleed3:532Before Everything Changed4:553Salt on Your Skin4:454Song of You and Me6:185Shape of a Broken Heart3:526Great Pyramid4:477Under the Shadows3:438Rains Are Gonna Come3:219Runaway4:3410Stupid Love3:3411Still Looking for You4:4212Feel Like Comin' Home3:25Disc 21Beat Avenue26:122Blue Rockin' Chair10:34, 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's beat community of artists on the day of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Andersen's next albums, The Street Was Always There×The Street Was Always There2004 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 14 tracks1Little Bit of Rain5:162These 23 Days in September6:063Universal Soldier2:404Johnny Half-Breed5:445Waves of Freedom4:416I Ain't Marching Anymore5:257Louise3:468Misty Roses3:539White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land5:2110A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall9:4211Many a Mile2:5512The Other Side of This Life3:4913The Street Was Always There3:2414Phil Ochs Speaks0:47 (2004) and Waves×Waves18 October 2005 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Once I Was3:542Ramblin' Boy4:053I've Got a Secret4:134Pale Blue Eyes5:555Golden Bird2:486John Brown4:107Changes5:588Today Is the Highway3:099On the Road Again3:4610Coconut Grove3:0611Bold Marauder4:2512Hymn of Waves4:2913Thirsty Boots5:19 (2005), were both produced by multi-instrumentalist Robert Aaron. In addition to covers of his own songs, the albums featured new versions of classics by his sixties contemporaries and friends, including David 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, and Tom 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×The Cologne Concert18 March 2011 · Album · LiveSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 7 tracks1Dance Of Love And Death4:392Time Run Like a Freight Train8:533Sinking Deeper Into You6:184Woman She Was Gentle4:235Salt On Your Skin5:586Blue River5:377Last Thing On My Mind4:23, with it:Michele Gazich (Mary Gauthier, Mark Olson) on violin and Inge Andersen (his wife) on backing vocals.
In 2013, Andersen performed in Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation, a feature-length documentary about the Greenwich 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 of Albert Camus", featuring it:Michele Gazich on violin and piano, with cover design paintings of de:Oliver Jordan.
In April 2017, Andersen phoned Joni 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.
In May 2017, Andersen released his album Mingle 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 (aka nl:Simon Keats, piano) with cover design paintings of de:Oliver Jordan. In December 2017, the album Silent Angel: The Fire and Ashes of Heinrich Böll was released celebrating the centenary of the writer Heinrich Böll's birth.
In March 2018, Sony/Legacy Recordings issued The Essential Eric Andersen, a 42-track double CD release covering fifty years of his recorded history from Today is the Highway on to The Cologne Concert album and unreleased New York recordings.
A documentary about Eric Andersen, entitled The 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 2021 The Songpoet was made available for TV broadcast in the United States by American Public Television, and a free stream of the full documentary became available at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) website.
In June 2020, Y&T Music issued Woodstock 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 guests Rick 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 and Robert Aaron) with cover design paintings of de:Oliver Jordan.
In October 2022, Y&T Music issued Tribute To A Songpoet: Songs of Eric Andersen, a collection of 42 songs on a triple CD with a cover design painting of de: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 include Bob 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 issued Foolish Like the Flowers, a live album recorded in Spaziomusica, Italy featuring Scarlet Rivera on violin, Paolo Ercoli on dobro, Cheryl Prashker on percussion and Inge Andersen on backing vocals.
In November 2024, EARecords issued Eric Andersen In (Spoken) Pieces. The album is a collection and assemblage of his past and present longer-spoken (song) narratives.
In February 2025, EARecords issued Blue River (Live in Tokyo) an album with it:Michele Gazich (violin) and Inge Andersen (backing vocals) recorded at Billboard Live, Tokyo, Japan in 2012.
In April 2025, Andersen released a new studio album Dance of Love and Death, containing 17 recordings of new songs and featuring special guest musicians including Lenny 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 and Wyatt Offit. The album was produced by Steve Addabbo and the liner notes were written by Anthony DeCurtis and Lenny Kaye.

Musical legacy

In his lengthy career, Andersen has issued more than 30 albums to which many artists have contributed, including Joan 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 the Blues 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 Jewell Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Françoise Hardy, Rick Danko, Linda Thompson, The Kingston Trio, and Pete Seeger.
Richard Harrington, music critic for The 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."

Writings

In 1999 Andersen wrote an essay entitled "My Beat Journal" for the Rolling Stone Book of the Beats. That same year he published an article in National Geographic Traveler entitled "Coastal Norway" .
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 S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch, considered one of the landmark publications in the history of American literature.
Andersen wrote the lyric texts, composed music, and recorded songs for the painter Oliver Jordan's Albert 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 the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Germany, during mid-2014.
In 2013, Andersen wrote the liner notes for The Essential Pete Seeger for Sony/Legacy Records.

Covers

Is It Really Love At All - Jericho Harp (United Artists, 1977)

Filmography and DVD appearances

In 1965, Eric Andersen starred in the Andy Warhol movie Space, in which he sang.
In 1974, Andersen appeared in the Les Blank documentary A Poem is a Naked Person, which covered three years in the life of rock star Leon 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 called Chords of Fame and sang the Ochs' song, "When I'm Gone".
In 1985, Andersen wrote original music for the movie Istanbul, starring Brad Dourif.
In 2011, filmmakers Paul Lamont and Scott Sackett began production on The 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.

Judy Collins Wildflower Festival – Judy Collins, Eric Andersen, Tom Rush & Arlo Guthrie (2003) (2 DVDs)
Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind (2003) (DVD)
Festival Express – Various Artists (2004) (2 DVDs)
Festival Express – Various Artists (2014) (Blu-ray, reissue)
Buffy Sainte-Marie: A Multimedia Life (2006) (DVD)
Judy Collins & Friends, Live in San Diego, 2002 – Judy Collins, Eric Andersen, Tom Rush & Arlo Guthrie (2012) (2 DVDs, reissue)
Greenwich Village: Music that defined a generation (2013) (DVD)
Bob Dylan: Roads Rapidly Changing – In & Out of the Folk Revival 1961–1965 (2015) (DVD)
A Poem is a Naked Person – Leon Russell & Various Artists (2016) (DVD, Blu-ray)