Eric Merrill: Engineer, Producer, Fiddle, Viola, Banjo, Harmony Vocals.
Musicians I often call...
Ted Davis, Matt Heaton, Austin Nevins, Corey DiMario, Zack Hickman,
Eric Platz, Aoife O'Donovan, Hanneke Cassel, Natalie Haas, Nat Barret, and
Cornelius Boots on Bass Clarinet.
Think Tank: The Center for American Progress
Influences
Paul Krugman, Erik Satie, Guillaume de Machaut, Olivier Messiaen, Willie Nelson, Marty Robbins, Justice John Paul Stevens, Lindsey Buckingham, Levon Helm, Pops Staples, Othar Turner, Dirk Powell, Tommy Jarrell, and Denis Murphy. The Borodin Quartet, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Pierre Boulez, and Janos Starker. Nigel Godrich and Paul McCartney (together!), Roy Thomas Baker, and Nic Jones. But mostly Dan Williams
I live in Boston where I make violins and records. I'm terribly lucky to be a part of a world in which people play music at once deeply rooted in tradition and startlingly creative. I've worked as a producer with many of my favorite musicians from this world, most recently with Crooked Still, Lissa Schneckenburger, and Rachael Davis. All three released CDs in the past few months.
I split my performing life between fiddle, banjo, and voice in Irish and Appalachian styles and a devotion to the textural possibilities of viola and harmony vocals. The first is evident. The second is a survival from a former life. I grew up in Seattle singing in boychoir and later playing in string quartets. I always sang and played the middle voices. Second soprano, viola, french horn, and oboe. Thus, I love tone. I studied viola at Indiana University which is an unusually complete and open minded school and left me uninterested in an orchestral career but more in love with music than I would have imagined beforehand.
Now, please remember that the Myspace player makes EVERYTHING sound like cottage cheese. And not in a good way.
Hi Eric! Sounds great on your space! I hope everything is good with you. I just came back from 3 weeks tour in Quebec with Svart Kaffe. Louise and me talked about you and your band you played with at the time. Say hello to them! All the best / Simon
As a result of your little convo with Maggie, she made me work super hard at my lesson today. So I hate you, but also thank you and I love you because that's what I need!
i am back from Ireland and it was incredible! loving the pubs, the green, the sheep, the stone, the castles everything about! i met some great fiddlers but they weren't taking things seriously enough for my kind of fiddler you know?
Get outa town! You're the only person I know other than David Greely who actually knows that tune. (notice that I don't include myself?) If I recorded it again I would have you play trombone on it.
OH! you just did something special and great! now when i go on beer runs, i buy a half rack plus eight. it works out quite nicely. also, that pic, totally your new cd cover (am i right) i'm sad i didn't get to say goodbye! miss you! xx kittie
hi compadres!!!
....
