issue 35 working_Layout 1 9/10/2013 2:33 PM Page 19
Rockingham Meeting House Series concludes for the year with Cliff Eberhardt
The popular Rockingham Meeting House series comes to a close on Sunday, October 6, 2013 with one Bellows Falls favorite performers, Cliff Eberhardt making his first appearance in our treasured 225 yr old venue. Before he was even ten years old, singer/songwriter and guitarist Cliff Eberhardt knew the performing life was one he would embrace. Eberhardt grew up in a musical family, he and his brothers and parents all sang together and played instruments. In his youth, he listened far and wide to a diverse array of artists, including but not limited to James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Muddy Waters. He also listened, thanks to his parents, to Great American Songbook songwriters like Cole Porter, the Gershwins, and Rodgers & Hart. At 15, Cliff and his brother Geoff began touring as an acoustic duo. At 21, Eberhardt moved to Carbondale, IL and found a supportive music scene that included Shawn Colvin. Cliff moved to New York City in 1978, and in the early '80s he became part the Fast Folk Music Cooperative, playing clubs like Folk City, the Bitter End, Speakeasy, and Kenny's Castaways. Eberhardt was signed to Windham Hill which released The Long Road in 1990; the album featured a duet with Richie Havens and led Eberhardt to a national touring base In the early '90s, he released two albums on Shanachie Records, Now You Are My Home, (1993) and Mona Lisa Cafe (1995) before signing with Red House Records in 1997, when the label issued his 12 Songs of Good and Evil. Continuing with Red House Records, Eberhardt followed up with albums of original folk and blues songs – Borders (1999), School for Love (2002). A near-fatal auto accident sidelined Eberhardt's career for a time, but he was back on the scene in 2007 with The High Above and the Down Below. In 2009, he recorded 500 Miles: The Blue Rock Sessions for Red House. In the spring of 2012, Eberhardt was in residence in Washington, DC, performing his original music as the Blind Balladeer in the Folger Shakespeare Library Theatre’s production of The Taming of the Shrew. He recorded those, as well as his classics performed in the show, on his latest, all-acoustic album, Shrew Songs.
Eberhardt is a gifted songwriter of his contemporary folk, bluesy and romantic songs, delivering amazing live shows. His superb guitar playing, soulful singing, an