At Long Last

AT LONG LAST, AN ALBUM

"It's not entirely accurate to refer to this as my début album," Eric Erickson hastens to point out. "Some time ago, I recorded an album but I accidentally taped an installment of "Car Talk" over it. A tragic mistake, to be sure, but at least I found out why my car was making a strange noise. Then a few years later, I put together a CD which included a revolutionary web browser as a bonus. Of course, Bill Gates bought all 500 copies for $350,000,000."

SIMPLE SONGS, SIMPLY PLAYED

Eric's intention was to take an informal approach in recording "At Long Last". He says, "I wanted it to sound as if I had invited some friends over to hang out and play on a few tunes, without elaborate arrangements or terribly slick production. The result, I hope, is a collection of songs with an over-all comfortable feel to it.

"As it turned out, the people I asked to play gave me just what I was seeking for the individual songs," according to Eric. Acoustic guitarist Artie Traum, who has just released his own masterpiece, Meetings With Remarkable Friends, appears on three cuts. The crying, sighing wail he plays on "Back to the Well" contrasts with the the loping romp through a cover of the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (the only song that Eric did not write) and his bluesy lead on "In the Hole". Also on that track, a comment on the uneven effects of the recent economic boom, former Lovin' Spoonful leader John Sebastian adds his harmonica in a back-and-forth dialogue with Traum.

Fiddler Jay Ungar, whose "Ashokan Farewell" has become a bonfide piece of Americana, adds his inimitable touch to the light-hearted love song, "Always Love You". On that piece, Eric's multi-tracked voice sings dual melodies with Ungar's fiddle weaving among them.

For several decades, Dick Kniss has anchored the recordings of Peter, Paul and Mary and John Denver with his upright acoustic bass. He does so here on the wistful unrequited love song, "My Broken Heart". Subtley grounding the cut, he also provides a couple of brief, tasty leads. The song also benefits from the ethereal harmony vocals of Ellen Reitemeyer and Miriam Berg who, with Eric, comprise half of the a capella vocal ensemble Woodstock Renaissance.

Cellist Abby Newton is heard on two songs: the yearning "A Light on the Road to Woodstock" on which she provides a sweet, aching counterpoint to the melody, and the final piece on the record, "Farther and Deeper" where her cello is complemented by the angelic synthesized keyboard of Karen Beth.

Percussion is provided on "Back to the Well" and the cynical "Nothing Changes" by Karen Levine. Her tambourine on the former gives voice to the metaphor of the healing waters mentioned in the song and her conga on the latter accents the message which is further delivered by the agressive lead acoustic guitar of Kurt Henry.

On the bitter unrequited love song, "Some Kinda Guy", Joe Veillette adds the distinctive voice of his 12-string baritone guitar. Says Eric, "The sound is something of a cross between a harpsichord and 'Secret Agent Man'." Veillette, a founding member of the Phantoms, is about to release a CD with his new trio, Blind Mice.

Eric performs alone on two tracks. The multi-tracked a capella number, "Late Tonight" harkens back to Eric's days as an overnight rock 'n' roll DJ, and the instrumental, "Ellen Marie" features Eric's fingerstyle acoustic guitar playing. Well, there is one more selection on which just Eric plays. You can learn only here that the CD version of "At Long Last" contains a "hidden" twelfth track: "Roam the Red Planet" pays homage to the Mars Pathfinder Rover "Sojourner Truth". This selection does not appear on the cassette.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE A HOME STUDIO

Serving as both producer and engineer, Eric recorded his album at his own studio. "There couldn't be a more informal environment than recording in a bedroom in my house," he says. "It's a much more relaxed feeling when there's no meter running and I never have to feel that I must stick with a take I don't like because there's no time left. It does have its drawbacks, though. The fact that I live right next to a parking lot sometimes determined when I could and could not record. I was thinking of running a contest and giving a prize to the person who could identify all the trucks that go by on the record, but I lost count myself!"