Inda Eaton
East Hampton, NY 11937, USA | Established. Jan 01, 2000 | INDIE
Music
Press
Continental Drift
By Larry Flick
November 17, 2001
Billboard Magazine
ACOUSTIC GROOVES: It's not easy for an acoustic-minded singer/songwriter to rise above the seemingly endless mass of troubadours out there, plying their wares. After all, how many ways are there to tell tales of love-gone-wrong and other various life quandaries? Somehow, though, Inda Eaton has developed a few intriguing twists on the self-made disc Why the Desert.
What she does mostly is shoot straight from the hip; writing and performing in a manner that leaves listeners feeling like they encountered a real person with a tangible point of view.
It also doesn't hurt that Eaton has an apparent talent for crafting sticky hooks and melodies that help bring her words to vivid life. Working with a band that includes Jeffrey Smith (drums), Chris Kringel (bass), and Brad Brown (guitar), she offers songs that are equally accessible to triple-A and rock radio airwaves as they are to coffeehouse crowds. Such cuts as "Ready" and "Walkin' on Air" fondly recall Melissa Etheridge and Jewel, without the histrionics or poetic affectations. Wisely, Eaton keeps things lean, injecting personality into her material without overpowering it with unnecessary bravado. In short, you can relate to the artist, but you can embrace the songs as your own, too.
Eaton, a native of Southern California and Arizona, discovered music at an early age. She picked up the guitar at the age of 9 and never put it down. By the time she was a young adult, she was playing everywhere she could: town squares, coffeehouses, and on college campus staircases.
After college, the artist moved to Germany to bartend for the armed forces and backpack through various parts of the world for four years, writing songs with every passing customer and adventure. During the the mid-'90s, Eaton's adventure turned into a near-fatal experience after she contracted a deadly strain of malaria while trekking through Africa. She accepted the tender loving care of family in Casper, Wyo., where she met several people with vested interests in local music.
They were a godsend to me, Eaton recalls. They took incredibly good care of me.
From her work hours at a bike shop and a trip to the pawn shop with her few worldly possessions, Eaton was able to bankroll her first demo recording, Songs About Butter (1995). At the advice of friends, she sought out local bluesman Spencer Bohren. There began a relationship that produced Eaton's debut, Thin Fine Line (1995), and the follow-up disc, Never Too Late to Fly (1998), which features the Subdudes and the Radiators. During this time, Eaton created Skin to the Wind Productions and also produced a self-composed piano CD, Seasons (1997). She managed to put together several tours of the U.S. and Europe in support of the sets.
Never Too Late to Fly prompted an international health product company to sponsor two full European tours, benefiting the U.S. military communities and their hosts. The set also found a home on college radio with the songs Hey Lie and Stuck in Zanzibar.
The momentum has given Eaton high hopes for Why the Desert, which has been getting college radio play for the tracks Tugboat Hustler and Cool Is My Head. The set also features a solid rendition of John Prine's All the Best.
Currently, Eaton is playing showcases around the country, tweaking the deserved interest of major labels. We're expecting big things of this appealing artist.
- Larry Flick
Phoenix, Az: INDA EATON is a singer/songwriter in a contemporary folk-rock vein. Her songs have spiritual and socially conscious undertones, while her band offers sterling backing that lifts the songs a notch or two beyond the usual "folkie" genre. Although vocally disimilar, Eaton recalls the feel of Mary Chapin Carpenter. She's an articulate writer with a keen sense of melody as her latest album, Why the Desert, amply demonstates. To date, she has released four albums, but Why the Desert is the first that has crossed this set of ears. She has been touring recently, including an appearance in New York. www.indaeaton.com - Mick Skidmore
Inda Eaton
'EP
With her fourth independent release "EP," singer /songwriter Inda Eaton is in peak form as she navigates the acoustic guitar-driven material represented here. Eaton's voice is a strong instrument, able to effortlessly range from soft folk to raspy blues to twangy country with equal aplomb. The opening cut, "Be So Lucky," is a beautiful slice of Byrd-sy folk-pop with delicate piano accompaniment and lush harmonies that recall the best of the Indigo Girls, replete with a catchy guitar hook and an ear-candy chorus that stays with the listener long after the CD is back in its case. The only problem with "EP" is its brevity. At only five songs the listener is left wanting more when the disc runs out.
Web site: www.indaeaton.com
— by Chris Holly, Get Out
- Chris Holly
Discography
INDA LIVE in Casper - 2007
Indeep - 2004 (EP)
Why The Desert - 2001
Never Too Late To Fly - 1998
Seasons - 1997 (Instrumental-Piano)
Thin Fine Line - 1995
'Desert' and 'Fly' both have 3 to 4 tracks that continue to get radio and internet radio airplay.
Photos
Bio
Inda. Like Linda without the L ...
Inda Eaton is an accomplished singer-songwriter with a knack for creating crafty hooks, meaningful lyrics and killer harmonies that have won her a loyal fan base worldwide. She is both a skilled soloist and band leader, whose performances of both original material and classic cover songs adapt to mellow acoustic, good ol’ country western, or hard core rock & roll audiences. Her live shows have made her a staple for four years running at Rock & Roll Marathons™ around the country and festivals like the Tempe Music Fest and Gateway's™ Saturday in the Park. Inda and her grassroots band have toured extensively over the years, opening for names like John Hiatt, Blues Traveler, Earl Scruggs, Hootie and the Blowfish, LeAnn Rimes, Shemekia Copeland, and Molly Hatchet.
This girl-with-a-guitar story began in Arizona as a Momma-wants-her-baby-to-be-a-classical-pianist story. But, like her notoriously untamed mane, Inda would not be relegated to refinement for long. The gritty relationship between her looks, her lungs, her lyrics and guitar licks was sealed the minute a six-string first fell into her hands. As a student at Boston University, playing the coffeehouses and college stairwells proved difficult with a piano so the broadcast journalism major permanently opted for her more portable guitar. The troubadour then traveled the globe, strumming everywhere from Latin America to the Australian outback, to the yodeling knolls of Germany where she served the U.S. military – drinks, that is. With four years’ worth of ballads from behind a Bavarian bar, Inda returned stateside to pour herself into a music career, but not before contracting cerebral malaria on a trek through Africa. Though friends joke that her near-death detour made her slightly narcoleptic, it fully awakened her to her path in music.
While recuperating in Wyoming, Inda met bluesman Spencer Bohren, producer of her debut CD, thin fine line (1995). The album and her first solo tour won a warm welcome from the folk world and consumers. Two years later, she took her earnings and headed to New Orleans to record her second vocal album, Never Too Late to Fly (1997), co-produced with Bohren. The LP, which features members of the Subdudes and the Radiators, found a home on CMJ and alternative charts. Hits like “Hey Lie” and “Woman in Me,” garnered critical acclaim in both the folk and rock world and earned an AFIM nomination for Best Independent Album of 1998. The album prompted 5 tours, including 2 with MWR for the US military communities and schools overseas. Stateside shows grew to support the CAPP Fund, Toys for Tots, Habitat for Humanity and Rosie’s House.
In
2000, Inda and her band landed in Phoenix, Arizona, to record her fourth
album, Why the Desert. Desert also received
critical industry acclaim in publications such as Billboard and Relix
and aligned her with tours in support of American Society of Young
Musicians and VH1’s Save the Music Program. In 2004, Inda released Indeep, a five-song EP and in 2005 she released Inda Live in Casper, both available on www.indaeaton.com.
Go West was recorded and independently produced in East Hampton and then toured across the US in 2012.
Shelter in Place, Inda Eaton’s latest independently produced album is a stunning mix of emotionally charged anthems, ballads, and boot-stompers, featuring B. Rehm-Gerdes, Michael Gugliemo, Jeff Marshall and Jeffrey Smith (with special appearances by Eve Nelson, Nancy Atlas, Lee Lawler and Rose Lawler). Even more stunning is that the album was recorded and produced in a 240-square-foot room at the rear of Eaton’s modest East Hampton, New York home—but as your senses surf the waves of crystal-clear harmonies, catchy guitar riffs, smart piano stylings and equally shrewd percussive accents, you might just believe she lives at Abbey Road. This 11-song collection of story-rich songs highlights the power of human connection and offers a dashboard-drumming, heart-healing journey through life, death, laughter and love.
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