Eric Folkerth

Nowadays it's not too difficult or expensive for someoneto record and release an album. The bad thing about this is thattoo many wannabes who shouldn't be making music are, and are glutting themarket, keeping many good artists from being heard.

The good thing about this is that others who might notnormally get a change to record and release and album are getting to. Once in a while one of these DIY rookies will use their record releasingopportunity to astound and amaze us. Eric Folkerth is one of there.
Dallas singer/guitarist Eric Folkerth's new CD, Songsfor the Time Being, is a labor of love at least two years in the making. At first glimpse his CD looks like any other folk/roots CD you've everseen. But give it some time and you'll find yourself in a secludedlog cabin drinking hot chocolate, stoking the fireplace, and listeningto a new friend tell you his life story and play songs on his guitar thatmove you to tears.

The song writing on this record is just amazing. "Mom Went Bungee Jumping" sounds like a novelty title, but it's actuallya sad song about a middle-aged woman who once had dreams and ideas thatwere laid to rest in favor of raising a family that has now estranged her. "The Birches of Moscow" is a miniature epic that praises the reunitingof two countries that have been enemies for years. "Deep Blue Grey"finds the writer pondering a lost love while driving northbound througha cold front. ("The hills and the clouds, lost in Deep Blue Grey;the love I thought I'd found, lost in Deep Blue Grey...")

Eric has done something very special with this recordin connecting the songs on the album to song commentary on his website. So once you've heard "The Brontosaurus Threw a Potluck" and wondered whatthe heck that song was about, you can go to Eric's website and he'll tellyou what he had in mind while writing the song. In addition, he'llinform you that the creature we know as the Brontosaurus actually doesn'texist! These song notes are absolutely fascinating-you feel as thoughyou are sitting down talking to Eric personally
about his life and songs.
This album is a very "produced" one, complete withpiano, bass, drums, mandolin, male and female backing vocals, MIDI strings-thewhole works. Eric has anticipated complaints of the album being overproducedalready and consequently included this wonderful bit of commentary in theonline production notes:

"Some purists in acoustic/folk music may be disappointedby the "over" production of this album. The way I look at it is likethis: these songs. . .have two lives...

...the life where I wrote them. . .which is also how Iplay them live...

...and the life that I "hear" for them in my head. That's what we've tried to capture on the CD. When I hear these songs,I hear the strings, or the mandolin, or the background vocals, etc. . .."
Actually, the extra production does wonders forthe songs, making them more enjoyable an intensifying their impact. One song in particular that benefits from the production is "The Road GoesOn". I love the synthetic but powerful guitar distortion that opensthe song and segues it together in places. The song has such an oddfeel-it's as if Elton John wrote the song on guitar and then took it tothe piano. Sometimes I think the production could benefit from alittle more subtlety though, as the current production is sometimes toorough and blunt for the songs (I'm thinking of the slower songs in particularhere).
Even though I know Eric was trying to be careful withthe length of the songs, all of the songs over six minutes long would havebenefited from some cutting, not in lyrical content but in musical passagesthat are repeated too many times. Best example is the eight-minute"The Birches of Moscow', which goes back to the "Birches of Moscow, EastTexas pines" chorus so many times you're ready to kill something by theend of the song. The drummer-boy snares at the end of the song onlyreinforce that we've heard that chorus too much-they seem a desperate attemptat sustaining interest, just like adding a children's choir at the end
of a song often is.

Regardless of a few problems, Eric has proven with thisCD that he's not just another coffeehouse guitar strummer. He isa legitimate singer/songwriter that is waiting to be discovered, and Ihope it won't be long until be is. Oh, one more thing: look for aguest appearance by Rocky Athas, guitarist from the legendary Southernrock band Black Oak Arkansas.

- DavidGasten
dallasmusic.com - DallasMusic.com

There is something about folk music that makes you feel so much like daydreaming. Maybe it's the smooth sound and tone of the acoustic guitar, or the way the lyrics are presented in such a passionate way. That is how I felt while listening to this CD. Eric has an excellent voice that surrounds his music. The lyrics are very intelligent and contain the ingredients of beauty and truth that is a quality of only the best singer/songwriters. This music is very inspirational and extremely infectious. Another thing that I liked about this CD was the feeling of looseness with the music. The stereotypical folk attitude is a serious and poised feeling, but Eric has mixed things up a little with great songs like "My Brontosaurus Threw a Potluck" and "Mom Went Bungie Jumping." Both songs have a serious side to them, but the light in which they are presented is beautiful. Simply put, this is a great album.

- Michael Allison - THEGLOBALMUSE.COM - theglobalmuse.com