A three-disc set by veteran singer-songwriter Eric Andersen, Woodstock Under the Stars, will be released June 19 by Y&T Music. The collection features 36 tracks (including an introduction track) drawn from concerts and a webcast (live stream), as well as two from studio sessions. Recorded between 1991 and 2011, the performances feature special guests Rick Danko, John Sebastian, Garth Hudson, Eric Bazilian, Happy and Artie Traum, Inge Andersen (singer/songwriter, Eric Andersen’s wife and harmony singer), Joe Flood, Jonas Fjeld, Gary Burke and Robert Aaron. With the exception of three previously released songs and the briefly available (by subscription only) stream, the performances on this compilation were never released to the public.
Related: Our review of a 2018 tribute to the music of Greenwich Village in the ’60s
Woodstock Under the Stars includes two live versions of six of the same titles recorded at different venues with different musicians accompanying Andersen. It features more recent songs as well as some of his early classics, including “Thirsty Boots” (which has been recorded by Bob Dylan and Judy Collins), two versions of “Violets of Dawn” and “Close the Door Lightly” (which Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash recorded). Discs two and three come from a 2011 live stream performance; all were recorded in Woodstock, N.Y., except for two Danko/Fjeld/Andersen tracks from the Molde International Jazz Festival in Norway.
Woodstock Under the Stars is Andersen’s first release since 2018’s The Essential Eric Andersen compilation on SONY Legacy/Real Gone.
In addition, The Songpoet, the full-length documentary film on Andersen’s life and music, premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January.
Watch a live video of “Dusty Boxcar”
Andersen’s songs have been covered by many other artists, including Linda Ronstadt, John Denver, Rick Nelson, Gillian Welch, Pete Seeger, Fairport Convention, the Blues Project and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Watch the trailer from The Songpoet
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