Violets of Dawn

Eric Andersen

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 7, 1999)
• Original Release Date: July 27, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B00000JKF8
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,974 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A whole lot of 1960s folksingers patterned themselves after Bob Dylan. Eric Andersen was better than most of them, but nowhere close to the real thing. Never a great singer (listen to his painful attempts to reach the high notes in songs like the civil rights anthem "Thirsty Boots" and the up-tempo "Hey Babe"), Andersen was at his best singing relaxed, melancholy love songs. And that's a good thing because he could write some truly beautiful love songs. The Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, covered "Close the Door Lightly" and Kris Kristofferson cited the evocative "Come to My Bedside" as an important source of inspiration (both are included in this 18-song collection). That being said, Andersen's career during the '60s took some fairly predictable, fairly Dylanesque turns. From acoustic folkie, to electric folkie, to Nashville cat (in that order), this collection captures a talented, if not always original, child of his time. --Percy Keegan

Product Description

An 18-track compilation of the best of Eric Andersen's recordings for the Vanguard label. Andersen has been performing as a folk-based singer-songwriter since the early 1960s. His songs have a more romantic bent than his socially conscious peers like Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton. It includes two rare tracks that never appeared on Andersen's album releases - 'Boots Of Blue' and 'Rambler's Lament' only appeared on the 1993 compilation The Original New Folks. The remaining 16 tracks are taken from his five Vanguard studio albums. Vanguard. 2005. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION FOR THE UNINITIATED, August 2, 1999

By A Customer

Vanguard continues to release excellent Best Of compilations of their Sixties folk stable. Recent reissues of material by Ian and Sylvia, Odetta and John Fahey (Richard & Mimi Farina, where are you?) are lovely packages indeed but this one has them all beat, mainly because Eric Andersen was one of the most talented singer-songwriters of the Sixties folk boom. Songs like "Violets of Dawn" and Andersen's signature tune, "Thirsty Boots" (interpreted passably by John Gorka on the recent BLEECKER AND McDOUGALL disc, and gorgeously by Judy Collins on her FIFTH ALBUM) established him as a writer in a class with contemporaries like Fred Neil, Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs, if not quite in the Bob Dylan stratosphere. Andersen wasn't nearly as political as Paxton or Ochs ("Thirsty Boots" was about as political as he got), but he was folk's Great Romantic. This disc is povides a beautiful intro to his enormous talents, but the listener is advised to pick up any of his Sixties albums on Vanguard, most of which are avaliable on CD.

Of course the most highly recommended Andersen is the magnificent BLUE RIVER, a 1972 masterpiece just re-issued in crystalline remastered form. This to me is one of the ten greatest albums of all time, and is a must have for any fan of the singer-songwriter genre. Melancholy, reflective, incandescent. . .

See you at the Tin Angel, Eric!