“Welcome to my sixth and best full length album!” declares New Jersey-based Americana songwriter Eric Harrison in the liner notes accompanying “No Defenses,” a 14-song collection released across all platforms on March 3.
Exploring the musical terrain of Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello, Harrison lays credit for a midlife artistic surge at the feet of producer Kevin Salem, whose long track record includes work with Yo La Tengo, Freedy Johnston, Emmylou Harris, Chris Harford, Rachael Yamagata, Tracey Bonham and Mercury Rev, among others. Salem and Harrison soon will have two EPs, a nationally lauded single and two critically acclaimed albums under their belts.
“I think it’s obvious from listening to these records how Kevin upped my game in the studio,” Harrison comments. “His skills and the huge overlap in our musical tastes make him my ideal producer.”
The 14 tracks on “No Defenses” were written in New Jersey and recorded at Salem’s Woodstock studio between 2020 and 2022. The thoughtfully-sequenced collection (released as a double CD, Harrison says, for the benefit of “old people like me who still listen to full albums”) features a sturdy blend of Laurel Canyon jangle and tuneful singer-songwriter confessions delivered via well-deployed metaphors and guitars.
“Undertow” – the album’s upbeat opener which Harrison describes as a riposte to Suzanne Vega’s song of the same name – sets the tone: We came and we conquered / Planted a flag on the beach / And we laughed at the poet / Who wrote about eating a peach / Will you hold onto my hand? / Buckle up for the retreat / There’s a long line to Heaven / And victory awaits in defeat
Career highlights abound, from the plaintive acoustic “Gloria, Glory-Bound” – as faithful a Dylan homage as Harrison has ever written – to “Astor Place,” an orchestral reflection on the drama of young love – to “Relay Road,” a Replacements-style rocker that defiantly flips the bird to Death – to the album’s closing title track, a rambling, chaotic “Blonde on Blonde” style rave-up that closes the set with a proudly vulnerable declaration:
I’ve seen the Rapture coming, Lord / Then I cleaned my lenses / Don’t pray for me / Just stay for me / ‘Cause I need your consensus / In the wisdom She dispenses / And I got no defenses
Harrison likens the protagonist of “No Defenses” to a weary voyager who accidentally discovers that “midlife catharsis can deliver some clarity and joy. That’s about where I am these days, and I hope you’ll remain with me for the duration.”
