Eric Andersen will perform in support of his latest album, “Dance of Love and Death,” with this producer and longtime collaborator Steve Addabbo on Oct. 3 at Avenel Performing Arts Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township. PHOTO BY PAOLO BRILLO
Greenwich Village folk legend Eric Andersen’s new 17-song album, “Dance of Love and Death,” is his first new original songs since 2003. Featuring Lenny Kaye, Larry Campbell and others, the release of “Dance of Love and Death” as a digital album, two-CD set and a double LP will be celebrated on Oct. 3 at The Avenel Performing Arts Center in the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township. Accompanied by producer Steve Addabbo, Eric will perform songs from the new album, as well as career-spanning signatures, such as “Thirsty Boots,” “Blue River,” “Violets of Dawn” and “Close the Door Lightly.”
Aside from his own classics, Eric has co-written songs with Lou Reed, Townes Van Zandt, Rick Danko, and Bob Weir. His songs have been covered by Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Fairport Convention, Peter, Paul & Mary and many other artists.
A full-length documentary about Eric, The Songpoet, was released in 2019 and is available for streaming on PBS.
In 2022, a three-CD tribute to Eric was released featuring Bob Dylan, Janis Ian, Richard Shindell, Linda Ronstadt, Happy Traum, Dom Flemons and many others.
When Eric isn’t busy with his own music, he produces other artists, including his talented wife, Inge Andersen, who frequently sings on his material.
Enjoy the following interview with this master of verse and song:
Besides folk music, something you and Bob Dylan have in common is Robert Shelton’s impact on your career. What is your most fond memory of Robert Shelton and why?
Robert Shelton, the music critic from the New York Times, was my first real supporter. I was very fond of him. He was friendly and almost transcendently insightful and wise. He introduced me to the people at Broadside magazine, where singer-songwriters the likes of Ochs, Paxton, La Farge, Dylan and me could see our songs in print. ‘Woody’s Children’ they called us. Very exciting for people starting out who were inventing a new musical genre. He championed the artistic causes of me and Bob Dylan especially, and it helped us both get our first record contracts.
Was Phil Ochs a good friend and why?
When I hit the Village scene in ’64, Phil met me through Robert Shelton and basically adopted me. He was a friend, a songwriting mentor and guide who showed me the ropes and introduced me to everybody on the streets -- Fred Neil, Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk, Tim Hardin, Bob Dylan, and Peter La Farge. It turned out, we all were the first handful of singer songwriters who invented an entirely new musical genre following along the lines of Woody Guthrie.
Whether business wise or creatively, who had the biggest influence and impact on your career, how and why?
Lots of people. Phil Ochs, Robert Shelton. Brian Epstein, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Kingston Trio, Elvis Presley, Woody Guthrie, Lightnin' Hopkins, Hank Williams, Otis Redding, Rick Nelson. List goes on.
How and why has your Norwegian heritage influenced your work?
Nothing in a direct way. Maybe gave me a cool perspective.
Given the work you did in the 1960s with civil rights, how does the current political climate make you feel?
I live in the Netherlands. So I can only report. Several countries adjoining and near us in Europe are bordering authoritarian states who have destroyed press and wage endless war with Ukraine -- a country and border also close in Europe. Many see the situation happening in the U.S. to those other authoritarian countries near them -- the U.S. as an evolving police state. From my recent travels here, people seem to go on living as if everything is normal. But underneath, some confess they feel afraid and have a feeling of hopelessness with the situation.
In light of that political climate, what is your hope for the future?
We hope and pray the U.S. and Europe or the world do not become fascist dictatorships. We prefer our freedom.
What is your most fond memory of the Festival Express Tour and why?
It was like riding a ‘Drunken Boat’ by train through beautiful Canada playing shows for some great enthusiastic audiences, hearing some great music -- The Band, The Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, Janis Joplin Band, Ian & Sylvia and others -- and making some amazing new friends. I was the only acoustic act on the stage of rock bands. Rick Danko was there whom I later worked and toured with in our trio Danko, Fjeld, Andersen. Janis Joplin was on the train and became one of my best friends. The world collapsed the day she died.
How and when did you work with Bob Dylan throughout your career, what did you enjoy most about working with him and why?
Bob was -- and remains -- a serious, word adventuring, exploring, no-bullshit, high-wire poetical artist. Happy to have been his friend. When we meet, we somehow always talk about writing. He liked ‘Violets of Dawn’ a lot and recorded ‘Thirsty Boots.’ When he covered my song, he didn't mess with it or change music or lyrics like so many other cover artists have done to my songs.
Did you ever have a conversation with Dylan about poetry? If so, who was the poet you both had most in common as an influence and why?
Yes, all the time. I recited ‘Violets of Dawn’ to him at the Kettle of Fish Bar. Later, he recited ‘Visions of Johanna’ at a table by the wall. We both connected through Rimbaud, other French poets, Kerouac and Beat writers and Beat poets. We were the only ones who read this stuff.
It’s interesting that you wrote four songs with Townes Van Zandt, who Dylan requested to write songs with, but Townes turned him down. How did you come to write with Townes, which songs did you write together, and what became of those songs?
Townes and I played shows together and roomed together on tours or when I stayed with him with his family in Austin or Nashville. In New York in my basement apartment, we wrote four songs from some shared observations and experiences we had collected together on the road or simply out of our heads. We sat around, and the words and music poured forth. I scribbled lyrics, and we made a cassette. Then it disappeared. It turned up years later with some friends in Albuquerque, NM. I reissued it and recorded the songs ‘The Meadowlark,’ ‘The Road,’ ‘Night Train,’ and ‘The Blue March (The Iris)’ on an album called ‘You Can’t Relive the Past.’ The title was from a song I co-wrote with the late Lou Reed in Norway and soon afterwards recorded in New York.
Having contributed an essay to ‘The Rolling Stone Book of Beat,’ released the double CD, ‘Beat Avenue,’ and given your close association with Beat poets, as well as Patti Smith, have you ever published your own book of poetry? If not, do you plan to?
A good question, indeed. Thank you. No, I have no plans for such a book. Songwriting is not poetry writing. Poems don't have choruses. One form dances inside a cloak of music and sound and the other dances alone in silence. But great songs and writing employs poetical poise and grace and sense of lyrical economy. My other writing is in prose (prose poetry?) a la Baudelaire. But Homer was meant to be sung with a lyre.
Stream ‘The Songpoet,’ a documentary about Eric Andersen on demand through 2027. PHOTO BY PAOLO BRILLO
What do you enjoy most about PBS ‘The Songpoet’ documentary?
Seeing all the people I ran across on the early part of the journey. I had very little to do with the film other than read some voice overs, and am honored and graced it will continue running on PBS on-demand until 2027. Director Paul Lamont did an exemplary job.
‘Dance of Love and Death’ is your first album in five years and first collection of all new material since 2003. What do you like most about the album and why?
It's actually the first new album outside of my German-released European writer's albums of Albert Camus, Henrich, Böll and Lord Byron in 14 years. So in a sense, it is a rag-tag collection of time -- a sort of truth and love-song double-album of 17 new and recent songs. All recorded in New York. I like it because it is raw, direct, simply played and produced -- and soulful singing! With some of my best songs. Writers have said it's my best work since albums ‘Blue River’ (1972) and ‘Ghosts Upon the Road’ (1989).
Produced by longtime collaborator Steve Addabbo, Eric Anderson’s latest album features Larry Campbell on guitar, mandolin and fiddle, Tony Garnier on bass, and his wife wife, Inge Andersen, on harmony vocals. ARTWORK BY ROSE GARGIULO
What did you like most about Steve Addabbo’s production and why?
The production is simple and direct. But modern with an edge. No extras, frills or bells or whistles and includes some great players like Larry Campbell (guitar, mandolin, fiddle), Tony Garnier (bass), Steve Addabbo (electric guitar), the angelic harmonies of Inge Andersen, and four outstanding violinists.
Why did you want Steve to produce ‘Dance of Love and Death’ and collaborate with you on the subsequent tour?
We’re close musical collaborators and friends to boot. He produced my albums. He always knows where the songs are going so we tour live too.
Do you know yet how you’ll follow ‘Dance of Love and Death’ as either a singer-songwriter, producer or in some other role?
I’m working on a new album of originals called ‘Thief of Time’ and an album of gypsy poems by Spanish poet Garcia Lorca, ‘Under the blood-red moon: The Deep Songs of Garcia Lorca.’ I'm writing original songs out of his great verse and poems.
What is your signature and/or most requested song, and do you ever get tired of playing it?
“Thirsty Boots,” “Blue River,” “Violets of Dawn” and “Close the Door Lightly.” I sing them all. It's almost like singing Time itself if Time were a song.
Out of all the recordings by other artists of your songs, which is your favorite and why?
There are many nice ones, but as I mentioned, Bob Dylan’s ‘Thirsty Boots.’ Also, Rick Nelson’s ‘Violets of Dawn,’ The Dillards’ ‘Close the Door Lightly,’ Linda Ronstadt’s ‘I Ain’t Always Been Faithful.’ I am proud of and impressed with many great versions of my songs on ‘Tribute to a Songpoet: Songs of Eric Andersen.’
Out of everything you’ve done throughout an illustrious 60-year career, what is your greatest accomplishment and why?
To be blessed to be born an artist and to have written and recorded songs that have stood the test of time. Thirty-five albums. That I can still sing and perform songs I wrote over 60 years ago, like ‘Come to My Bedside,’ ‘Thirsty Boots,’ ‘Violets of Dawn,’ ‘Ghosts upon the Road’ -- songs that still seem as fresh and relevant now as they were when I first wrote them. It’s important to have them because writers and musicians must sing and write their creations and work and can never retire. You try and write quality material so your songs can live beyond you -- and last in the long run. For that, I am grateful that my work has always carried me forward.
It was also an honor to be recognized and managed by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein for that spell shortly before he died. Meeting The Beatles in London with Brian the week ‘Sgt. Pepper’ came out was an indelible memory. And so was the excellent hash John Lennon always thoughtfully provided us.
Is there anything I didn’t ask on which you would like to comment?
I wrote a brand new song called ‘Stand Up (and Resist)’ -- a song of resistance addressing the wrongs, inhumanities, intolerance, and injustice surrounding our scene and happening everywhere around us in these troubled nervous times and days.
Coming in January, I will be living in the City of Water, Venice, Italy, writing for a month and then touring Holland in February. Next April and May, I will return to tour the States. Summer '26, I plan to do music festivals in Italy. Always keeping busy writing, singing and performing.
Bob Makin has produced Makin Waves since 1988. Follow Makin Waves on Facebook and Instagram. Contact Bob at [email protected].
