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ERIC
PARK, MUSICIAN &
ARTIST |
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| ERIC PARK: Solo folk, blues, and slide guitar music, recordings and live performances. Read the musical and artistic biography for Eric Park. Go to Eric Park's Paintings, Drawings, & Sculpture page. | These are some of the finest hand made guitar slides in the world, and are used by Bonnie Raitt, and National fingerpicking champion Chris Proctor. Learn more about Gen-U-Wine bottleneck guitar slides. |
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Rick's World: New Decade Blog Okay, so the new year/decade is already a few weeks old, but it's been a helluva season. Here's the latest: I'm one highly successful gig into 2010, a modest but highly nutritious appearance as featured musician to the Grange Breakfast here in Arcata. The tables were full of eaters, there were never less than half a dozen sub-5-year-olds charging the stage, and a tumultuous good time was had by all. It was organized, in one way or another, by the Same Old People. We were thrilled to find a John Tyler gold dollar piece in the tips jar (part of Presidential $1 Coin Program), and to receive photo-and-story coverage in both the Arcata Eye and the Eureka Times-Standard. This was my first solstice season in decades without a Peacemas concert and a bunch of road-travel. The spirit lives, but the Peacemas concert concept is retired after a 25-year run through at least 3 wars. We played to thousands of people during that run, up to 250 at a time in the Sacramento era, and even a partial list of those who worked with us would be formidable. Char Berta, flute extraordinaire; Justin Green, graphics and guitar; Ron B. of the old Fifth String, who got me nominated for a 1995 Sammie award (Best Folk Musician); "social secretary" Cathy Rohm, who herded in the listeners; harmonists Donna Hyatt (now Scarlett) and Suzanne Fox, the "Sonettes," not to mention Debbie Hines; Marsha Cornwell, who assisted me in my short-lived juggling act; Hali Hammer, who hosted at least a dozen Bay Area Peacemases, and Nick Holbrook, Bob K. of Benicia, and Joan von Briesen of SF, who hosted the rest; Hali's bandmates Randy Berge (her partner) and Paul Herzog et al, classical guitarist Gordon Rowland... The bottleneck/glass-grinding slavery of late November resulted in a seasonal record number of Gen-U-Wine slide sales. I've been able to move that cottage industry through a dozen residences or more. Justin Green has provided a new logo for the insert page, changing "Eric" to "Rick." I would be turning my energies to finishing my trailer repairs, and then to my musical and art projects, but winter is now hitting us with its best shot, the trailer park is a lake, and storms are lined up for a couple weeks to come. So far the trailer is holding, though the winds are battering us almost as strongly as the quake. And it's worth mentioning that the unimaginable tragedy of Haiti puts our little shaker in perspective; or, rather, makes us grateful that we live in a region so much better prepared for it. (Or for anything.) My big worry, slide-wise, is the cutting off of funds for the ACRC recycling depot, source of the great bulk of my wine-bottles for slide processing. I'll find a way, but in the meantime I'm trying to stockpile wine bottles... calling all winos! Save your bottles for me! Please peruse this website for the latest developments in music, painting, and poetry. My oil painting debut, a picture of the Old KHSU building, won some sort of as-yet-unnamed award, and was exhibited during Eureka Arts Alive! and a similar event in Crescent City. And send me your own news! Warmly, Rick (Eric) Park Music News: The CD is available on this website on the Order Page for $16.95, which includes shipping. It is also for sale in a number of stores: Music Millennium, the biggest music store in Portland, Oregon; Buffalo Brothers Guitars in Carlsbad, CA; Folk Music Center in Claremont (East LA), CA; Central Coast Music in Morro Bay, CA; Down Home Music in El Cerrito, CA; Bird & Beckett Books in San Francisco, CA; Bookpeople in Moscow, Idaho; and BWI Distributors, who specialize in marketing to libraries. Eric Park is accepting guitar
students in the Arcata, CA area! Eric is beginner-friendly, can teach note-reading and tab, but
can also teach advanced melodic fingerstyle a la Hurt, Kottke, Kaukonen,
and in slide guitar. All musical styles: blues, folk, standards, some
jazz and classical. Call Eric
at 707-826-0357 or contact
Eric by email for more info or to set up a lesson. Listen to Eric playing guitar. Art News: July
2009: Rick is working on his first-ever oil painting, a simple front
view of a local house, in which there are the offices of KHSU radio
which is having some sort of contest. He'll enter with the painting,
but the main thing is to learn how to use oils. Rick has also mounted
another "found" sculpture, part of the "Proof of Evolution" series. This one is a "disproof of human evolution," a "Petrified
War Ribbon," age 25,000 years...the idea being that while the rest of
the life-forms evolve, humans keep entering into the same stupid
anti-evolutionary war displays. It's a small metal ribbon, bent and
folded exactly like those bumper-decals, the yellow-ribbon type. Photos
coming soon. The April 2009 issue of The Idiom magazine published Eric's three-poem suite, "Cowboy Haiku Trilogy." The third
one had never been published before. The Idiom, out of New Jersey, is a
feisty and spiritedly independent little publication. You can check out
their website and access his poems online. Eric has
hard-copies of the magazine, which you can get from him for $5
(1000-7th St. #8, Arcata CA 95521). If you wish, he'll autograph it for
you. "The Sad Songs Contest, Collected Poems 1964-2006, a 60th Birthday Anthology". Eric Park has created a lifetime poetry collection of 59 poems with 14 original illustrations in a 32 page book. l8 of the poems have been published over the years in a number of literary magazines. The first sold-out edition was named "Coming of Age", for his 60th birthday. For the second edition, which sold out, it was renamed with its current name, "The Sad Songs Contest, Collected Poems 1964-2006, a 60th Birthday Anthology". The third edition sold out. Eric is now working on the fourth edition of his poetry book, which will probably be re-issued in October 2007. It will sell for $5.95 ($6.65 with postage & handling). It is now being carried at 2 bookstores: Bookpeople in Moscow, Idaho and Bird & Beckett Books in San Francisco, CA. Listen to a clip of Eric reading "Plastered in Stratford" at his CD Release Party at Bird & Beckett Books on February 20, 2006. To order, contact Eric by email, call him at 707-826-0357, or mail him at: 1000 7th Street #8, Arcata, CA 95521. Joel Dunsany emailed and wrote "I've been meaning to find a moment to e-mail you & tell you that your COLLECTED POEMS are simply A MARVEL. I couldn't have enjoyed them more! They are sparkling & shimmering. They are music. They are insightful & full of the stuff of life. Like they say about the astronauts, you've got the RIGHT STUFF!!!" If you would like to order anything on this
site, please go to Order Page.
When you are ready to order, there is a link to a shorter printer-friendly order form on that page.
For folks who do not have a printer, you can write down and mail the
essential information. Allow 7 - 10 days for delivery. |