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Cuttin' Loose & Gettin' Closer
Released: 1986 (CS and LP)
Petoskey, MI
Produced by: Steve Gamble and Eric Cherry
Personnel:
Song List:
Eric is about fifteen years my senior, and I’ve known him since I was a little kid. He was a regular performer at various church functions all over Michigan where I grew up. I got to know him personally when I worked as a camp counselor during Summers after high school. Of course, like most everyone else I knew, I haven’t talked to him since I moved to California in 1989.
The songs on this tape are some he’d been writing and playing for years, the oldest (Truckin’) dating back to 1972, which the title gives away. They have a pop-rock edge with a vague country feel, along the lines of John Cougar Mellancamp. The production on this is detailed, with extra percussion, female back-up singers and saxophone solos, and has a very live feel to it.
Just A Container
Released: 1988 (CS)
Traverse City, MI
Recorded at: Full Circle Studios
Engineered by: Dan Kelshak and John Knight
Produced by: Eric Cherry
Personnel:
Song List:
With a fresher set of songs, this is a more contemporary 80’s pop-rock feel to it, but with the same obvious influence of country and early rock. The production is slicker, but without a live drummer. The guitar riff to Today’s Son is phenomanal, and the saxophone solo in Just A Container is so beautiful, Eric would leave it on tape, as is, when performing solo live shows (he would play guitar and sing to a tape of basic backing tracks, but usually performed all solos live on guitar) because he felt he couldn’t do it justice if he’d transcribed it. Pharoah, Pharoah is a hilarious re-write of Louie, Louie