Eric Park at Freight and Salvage on June 11, 2005

Eric Park CD cover: folk, blues, and slide guitar

ERIC PARK BIOGRAPHY:
MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY: Eric Park has been playing guitar since 1964, teaching since 1965, and playing professionally, mostly solo, since 1969. His music covers a wide range of styles, from Elvis to Antonio Carlos Jobim (the composer of "Girl from Ipanema" and generally regarded as the father of bossa-nova), but always centers around melodic fingerstyle guitar arrangements in the style of John Hurt, carrying that bass-chord-melody style well beyond its Delta roots. His original tunes have been covered by numerous artists. Among the most covered tunes have been "Life Ain't Like a Country Song", a tongue-in-cheek country ballad; and "Avocado", a parody of the Eagles' song "Desperado."

Eric's personal appearances have included the Blue Parrot in Cambridge, Massachusetts; "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor in St. Paul, Minnesota; The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco with Elizabeth Cotten; and Berkeley's fabled Freight and Salvage. In Summer 2004, Eric completed a summer festival circuit including the Humboldt Folklife Festival, the Buddy Brown Blues Festival, and the 3-day Trinity County Fair.

Eric Park is accepting guitar students! Beginner-friendly, can teach note-reading and tab, but also teaching advanced Melodic Fingerstyle a la Hurt, Kottke, Kaukonen, and in Slide Guitar. All musical styles taught: blues, folk, standards, some jazz and classical, in a sunny Victorian living room. Call Eric at 415-665-1941 or contact Eric by email for more info or to set an app't.

Eric Park's latest CD, "Shakespeare and the Sonettes: The Bard's Blues" has sold all 200 copies of the first edition, and is now into its second edition and pressing. He also has a 1995 CD and 1993 and 1987 cassette tapes. He is featured on a 1976 LP anthology of guitar players from Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. Read complete descriptions and listen to songs on Recordings Page.

REVIEWS for SHAKESPEARE AND THE SONETTES: THE BARD'S BLUES:
A phone call from a Mt. Shasta fan named Joel Dunsany, was relayed to Eric Park by Suttertown Press publisher, Tim Holt. Joel said: "Tim just played me the new CD and I want to tell you, good work deserves to be praised! It was clever, it was funny, your singing is strong, the guitar playing is tasty as you please, the two women's voices harmonize just beautifully. I guarantee you, the audience would love this......... Good work, man, just excellent stuff."

From Eric's friend of 20 years, Cathy Rohm, who now has a position as a DJ on little radio KFOK out of Greenwood, CA said: "Listened to it. LOVED it!"

A review written by Nick Holbrook, a 30-year member of the SF Folk Music Club, for the May 2006 issue of their internationally distributed newsletter, Folknik: "Do you like unusual, thoughtful songs? Do you like humor? Do you like erudition? Do you like Shakespeare? Do you like good solid melodies played by an award-winning fingerpicker? Look no further: run, don't walk, to your nearest CD source and get Eric Park's latest album "Shakespeare and the Sonettes: The Bard's Blues." With the help of his friends Neil Young (the Canyon studio meister) and Donna Hyatt and Suzanne Fox (backup vocals - playfully named the Sonettes), Eric has put together an album that is historic in more than one way. Five of the songs are his own, in the unique style fans have known for decades, summarizing Shakespeare's tragedies (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Othello, and Richard III) - but they are tales told by a master satirist full of fun and humor. The other five songs are oldies that are so golden they're mostly from the Bard's own time - the newest is Edwardian (practically hip-hop!). And all of course are bound together by Eric's unmistakably smooth guitar phrasing. Buy it now or be lost to the lessons of hysterical musical history!" Note: It was Nick who also reviewed Pavarotti Dreams tape in the Folknik newsletter, some 20 years ago.

See the Gigs Page for upcoming appearances. For booking information: contact Eric by email, call him at 415-665-1941, or mail to: 1030 Shrader, San Francisco, CA  94117.

POETRY: September 2007: "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 415-665-1941, or mail him at: 1030 Shrader, San Francisco, CA  94117.

REVIEWS for THE SAD SONGS CONTEST:
A review of "The Sad Songs Contest" came from Eric's grad-school Milton teacher, a marvelously wry Harvard PhD named David Renaker: "The poems are very fine, and 'To An Athlete Dying Old' is magnificent - but get a new printer! The book is a Picasso in a packing crate."

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!!!"

Eric Park has three poems in the 2005 published anthology by the poet Christa Laririt, "Erotica, Dreams, and the Personal Political". Eric's poems are "When the Hills Are Like Breasts I and II", and "Masochism #1". You can order a copy of the anthology for $6 plus postage at Calliope Books or directly from Eric. Please contact him by email, call him at 415-665-1941, or mail him at: 1030 Shrader, San Francisco, CA  94117.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: After 25 years of life drawing study in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Europe, culminating in several exhibits of his drawings, Eric began painting in earnest in the mid 1990's. He made a breakthrough at the 2003 Trinity County Fair in Hayfork, where he took the two top places and "Best of Division" award with two European landscapes. This resulted in a series of exhibits, some sales, and an expanded body of work. At the 2004 Trinity County Fair in Hayfork, Eric took the top 3 places with some portraits and nature paintings. Eric's framed and ready-to-hang original paintings, all acrylics on canvas, are available for purchase. Eric recently sold another piece: "A Horse of a Different Color" (decorated envelope) for an East LA charity. To see Eric Park's works, go to Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture Page.

PAST EXHIBITIONS: Eric Park recently exhibited at Haight-Ashbury Library's "40 Summers of Love 'n Haight" Art Exhibit. Eric's painting, "Patriotic Toothbrushes" was displayed there, and has since been sold.

Eric Park was an exhibiting artist, along with his landlady and friend, Joan Von Briesen, in the 2006 Annual San Francisco Open Studios. Eric was also an exhibiting artist in the 2005 Annual San Francisco Open Studios, where he exhibited a half-dozen pieces of his, including a new painting, "Astoria West" at the home of Joan von Briesen.

Eric Park was part of SELF, an exhibition of self-portraits in the Claremont Forum Gallery in east Los Angeles in October 2005. They showed three of his pieces: "How To Draw Me", and "Self as Rembrandt", and "Self as Emilio Estevez". These works are in graphite or cartoon format. 

Eric has displayed his paintings, drawings and sculpture at Claremont Forum Gallery in east Los Angeles, CA; Trinity County Arts Council Main Street Gallery in  Weaverville, CA; Matrix Gallery in Sacramento, CA; Arts Benicia in Benicia, CA; and at Ink People Center for the Arts in Eureka, CA. He was an exhibiting artist in the 2005 San Francisco Open Studios. He has also displayed some of his works at the Trinity County Fair in beautiful Hayfork, CA.

If you are interested in purchasing any of Eric Park's paintings, drawings, or sculptures, please contact him by email, call him at 415-665-1941, or mail him at: 1030 Shrader, San Francisco, CA  94117.