One of the most striking voices on the American roots music scene, Tim
Eriksen “connects the present and the ancient with an immediacy that will
make your bones tremble.” A songwriter of rare intensity and an inventive
multi-instrumentalist, Eriksen is redefining American tradition with a
“northern roots” sound that encompasses old Massachusetts murder ballads,
chilling shape-note harmonies and originals, all alongside southern
Appalachian and Irish songs.
Eriksen is founding member of the groundbreaking underground bands
Cordelia’s Dad (“folk-noise”), Northampton Harmony (shape-note quartet) and
Zabe i Babe (Bosnian folk and pop). The only musician to have shared the
stage with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson (not to mention Jack White
and Ralph Stanley), he is known to many for his extensive contributions to
films including the Billy Bob Thornton vehicle Chrystal and Anthony
Minghella’s Oscar-winning Cold Mountain.
His work for Cold Mountain included teaching Nicole Kidman, Elvis
Costello and Sting to sing 19th-century American “shape-note” music and
leading a group of 40 people in an Academy Awards performance of his own
arrangement of Costello’s Oscar-nominated song “The Scarlet Tide.” In 2004
Eriksen was featured on the six-week “Great High Mountain Tour” with Alison
Krauss, Ralph Stanley and a cast of Americana luminaries.
Eriksen cut his teeth playing hardcore punk at New York’s notorious CBGB and
earning a degree in South Indian classical music (veena and voice), all the
while honing his “northern roots” Americana style and mining local library
archives, junk sales and obscure field recordings for gems of old New
England and American song.
Having graduated from the dank punk clubs of the ‘80s and ‘90s, he recently
made his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Evan Chambers’ new symphonic
work “The Old Burying Ground” and returned to New York for a six-night stint
at The Blue Note as the special guest of world-jazz innovator Omar Sosa. A
recording of the Sosa shows, Across the Across the Divide: A Tale of
Rhythm and Ancestry, is now out on the Half Note label. :::
Tim Eriksen is opening for BeauSoleil
Fri Nov 6
| 8 pm CSPS | 1103 Third St SE | Cedar Rapids $25 + fee in advance | $31 at the door
