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Eric in his backyard, early nineties; courtesy of John Kruth
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Eric in his backyard, early nineties; courtesy of John Kruth
Brief Biography:
Eric von Schmidt was an influential folk-blues guitarist on the Cambridge,
Massachusetts folk music scene in the late fifties and the sixties.
Eric was born May 28, 1931, the son of Harold von Schmidt,
who illustrated western stories for the Saturday Evening Post. Eric grew up in Westport,
Connecticut and planned to follow in his father's footsteps as an artist at an
early age. While he was
in high school he first heard Ledbelly on the radio and was transformed by the experience.
He bought a guitar, learned Ledbelly's songs, and also absorbed the
influence of Woody Guthrie, Burl Ives, Josh White, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Richard
Dyer-Bennet, and John Jacob Niles. Eric's travels in New York city, Mississippi,
the Caribbean, and the Library of Congress in Washington
contributed to his musical education. He spent time in the army
from 1952 to 1954, and in 1955 he won a Fulbright scholarship to spend a year
painting in Italy.
He taught at Sarasota School of Art in Florida for a while, then in the summer of 1957 he moved
to Cambridge and discovered the bubbling folk music scene. His first solo album
was The Folk Blues of Eric von Schmidt in 1963.
He painted dozens of album covers for Joan Baez, Odetta, John Renbourn,
and many other folk musicians. In June, 2000, he
was presented with the the ASCAP Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He died February 2,
2007, at the age of 75.
For more information on Eric von Schmidt, see the following sources:
Books & Magazines:
| Fariña/von Schmidt Collaborations: | |
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Dick Fariña & Eric von Schmidt 1963 Folklore F-LEUT/7 Dick and Eric with Ethan Signer and occasionally Bob Dylan. More Info |
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The Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe Corn Film 1963 Richard played dulcimer and recorder on the soundtrack of Eric's short film based on his book of the same title. |
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Eric Sings von Schmidt 1964 Prestige 7384 Liner notes by Richard Fariña. He wrote a short poem to accompany each of the songs on this album. More Info |
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Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me By Richard Fariña. New York: Random House, 1966 Eric provided the cover illustration for Fariña's novel. The original plan, as conceived by the inventive Fariña, was to create an illustrated novel wherein the illustrations would reveal scenes that were not narrated in the text. Random House rejected this plan because it would have been too expensive, but they did recruit Eric for the cover art. More Info |
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Long Time Coming and a Long Time Gone By Richard Fariña. New York: Random House, 1969 After Richard's death Eric also provided the cover art for the posthumous collection of Fariña's writings. More Info
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Who Knocked the Brains Out of the Sky? 1969 Smash/Mercury SRS 67124 Eric wrote a song about Richard called "Catch It," which appeared on this album. More Info |
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Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years By Eric von Schmidt and Jim Rooney. Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, 1979. (2nd edition Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1994.) This book recounts Eric's friendship with Richard and includes many other stories about Richard and Mimi told by people who knew them. More Info
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Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez
Fariña and Richard Fariña By David Hajdu. New York: Farrar, Giroux & Strauss, 2001. Once again Eric provided the jacket illustration, which depicts Richard and Mimi on the back cover, taking second billing to Joan and Bob. Eric also provided Hajdu with much information for the book. More Info |
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