Waves

Does forgotten art die? Not if Eric Andersen can help it. A masterful and groundbreaking singer-songwriter himself ('Blue River,' 'Violets of Dawn,' 'Thirsty Boots'), Andersen recognizes that a great song unremembered can be washed away forever in the flood of new and mostly disposable music that drenches us each day. His desire to keep 'fresh and new' the songs of his early Sixties Greenwich Village compatriots Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Fred Neil and others in the transition from traditional folk music to a more poetic and personal style of songwriting led Eric to record last year's 'The Street Was Always There' and now 'Waves,' the second volume in his 'Great American Song Series.' Like it's predecessor, 'Waves' gathers timeless songs by many of Eric's 'friends and acquaintances' and presents them in contemporary but intimate arrangements to a new audience that may never have heard them and to a previous generation that has yearned to hear them again. The range of writers and material that Andersen has chosen to cover reflects the creative explosion of the Sixties: Tim Buckley's shimmering, ethereal 'Once I Was' is followed by the folkish elegy 'Ramblin' Boy' by Andersen mentor Tom Paxton; Happy Traum's metaphorical trad-folk, 'Golden Bird,' is preceded by an understated reading of Lou Reed's bittersweet Velvet Underground ballad, 'Pale Blue Eyes.' Other songs remembered and revived by Eric: Phil Ochs' wise overview, 'Changes'; Fred Neil's bluesy 'I've Got a Secret'; a jauntily rocking rendition of Tom Rush's 'On the Road Again'; and the dreamy 'Coconut Grove,' written about Fred Neil's Florida hideaway by the Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky. There are also two forceful, snarling anti-war/anti-imperialism songs - Dylan's 'John Brown' and the late Richard Faria's 'Bold Marauder' - and a pair of Andersen's own early signature songs, 'Today is the Highway' and 'Thirsty Boots,' the latter a live bonus track featuring Eric and Judy Collins trading verses, with harmonies by Tom Rush and Arlo Guthrie, that previously appeared on the 'Judy Collins Wildflower Festival' CD. As on 'The Street,' 'Waves' includes a newly written Andersen title track ('Hymn of Waves') summarizing the spirit of these two volumes: 'Light the fire and take it to the people/The word will spread like flames.' Again joining Andersen (vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, harmonica) in his invocation of eternal songs and songwriters are his longtime producer and arranger Robert Aaron (bass, keyboards, woodwinds, percussion), leader of international hip-hop star Wyclef Jean's band; fellow Appleseed artists The Kennedys (Pete plays typically incisive and illuminating guitar throughout, Maura sings backing vocals on 'Bold Marauder'); Greenwich Village alumni Happy Traum (banjo, on his own 'Golden Bird') and Jim Glover, friend and sometime singing partner of Phil Ochs and half of the '60s Jim & Jean duo (backing vocals on 'Changes'), daughter Signe Askeland-Andersen (backing vocals on 'Ramblin' Boy') and an attuned core of funk/jazz/rock session players. In it's review of 'The Street,' the knowledgeable British music magazine Mojo wrote, 'The power of these interpretations comes from Andersen's knowledge that he and his comrades on the storied '60s folk scene crafted songs beyond time or classification . . . Each piece is illuminated by Andersen's intimate understanding of it's strengths.' Without repetition of material or arrangements, 'Waves' should earn the same reaction. About ERIC ANDERSEN: In the four decades since Eric Andersen was discovered by Tom Paxton in a San Francisco coffeehouse and dispatched to New York's Greenwich Village to join the blossoming singer-songwriter scene of the early Sixties, he has gone from new kid in town to international Grand Master status at the art of meaningful, personalized contemporary songwriting Although Eric temporarily diverted his own steady flow of original compositions while recording his two recent 'Great American Song Series' volumes of songs by other seminal Sixties singer-songwriter