Eric Heywood
Eric Heywood grew up in Mount Vernon, Iowa, a little college town of AbOUT 3,500. His parents both taught at a small liberal-arts college, and artistic ambitions were encouraged and pursued. His older brother Phil Heywood provided the main early MusicAL influence by way of his obsession with the country blues -- first Mississippi John Hurt and Leadbelly, then Willie McTell and Gary Davis and many more. These records and Phil’s intensely hammered out renditions of them played constantly around the house and no doubt had a huge part in the development of Eric’s musical pallet and aesthetic.
After attempting to play ragtime piano he finally gave in to the guitar while a senior in high school. Phil taught him a John Hurt song and the guitar became an important procrastination tool during his years at Macalester college in St. Paul, MN, where he graduated with honors in studio art.
Art degree in hand, he quickly landed a job driving cab in St. Paul. Musically, Eric and a couple of friends formed a country blues outfit called Hometown Skiffle and tentatively ventured into performing. Eventually this led to a country band called the Ranchtones in the late 80’s. The bulk of their song list was made up of George Jones, Gram Parsons, and Buck Owens. During this time Eric quit the cabby gig, retreated to the woods of western Wisconsin, became a carpenter, and bought his first pedal steel guitar, securing lessons Leo Kottke's guitarist and guest musician on the first album by The Jayhawks, Cal Hand.
After a few years of a weekly Minneapolis bar gig Eric started to become a musician. As Joe Henry's backing band, The Jayhawks, began to see their own career take off Henry assembled a new band consisting of Tim O'Reagan, Jim Boquist, and Eric, hitting the road in 1993 and a year or so later spending five weeks opening for Uncle Tupelo on their final tour. After the breakup of Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar asked him to be a part of his new band, Son Volt, in 1994. For the next four years he toured and made records with them.
Richard Buckner did many shows with Son Volt in that period. Richard and Eric ended up playing together on those shows, and ate their way back and forth across the country as a duo through the late nineties. Alejandro Escovedo also opened for Son Volt during that era and hired Eric in 1999 -- the beginnging of a two year stint with Alejandro’s band. There were other tours sprinkled in there with Freakwater and Calexico before Eric changed things up by moving to L.A. in 2001. He took a year off from music to fix up a house and get settled in L.A., then re-entered by playing with his wife, Kristin Mooney, Jeffrey Foucault, and touring with Ray Lamontagne.
Equipment
Heywood currently plays a custom eleven-string single-neck guitar valued between $3,000 to $5,000. This is run through one of two custom-made amps: A Savage Audio Rohr 15, designed and built by Jeff Krumm and Andy Wolf in Minnesota, and a Richtone 30-watt 2-12 combo, designed and built by Rich Lovato in Los Angeles. For pedals he uses a Goodrich LDR volume pedal, a Goodrich matchbox, delay and reverb.
Discussing his personal feelings towards equipment he noted to No Depression magazine: "I'm not a real super gearhead. The search for tone is a lifelong thing, but to me it has more to do with pickups and amps and the way you play. The differences between pedal steel guitars are a little more subtle, more for the players themselves. It's hard to experiment too much because they're so expensive and they take up a lot of room. I'm pretty happy with my sound on the Williams, so I don't go searching around too much."
Discography
- John Doe And The Sadies, Country Club (2009)
- Jeffrey Foucault, Shoot The Moon Right Between The Eyes (2009)
- Ray LaMontagne, Gossip In The Grain (2008)
- The Pretenders, Break Up The Concrete (2008)
- Kristin Mooney, Hydroplane (2008)
- Anders Parker, Anders Parker (2006)
- Fulano, Individual (2006)
- Jeffrey Foucault, Ghost Repeater (2006)
- John Gorka, Writing in the Margins (2006))
- Nadine Zahr, Underneath The Everyday (2006)
- Peter Bruntnell, Ghost In A Spitfire (2006)
- Various Artists, Down By The Riverside (2006)
- Glen Phillips, Winter Pays for Summer (2005)
- Kathleen Edwards, Back To Me (2005)
- Koufax, Hard Times are in Fashion (2005)
- ''Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Return in Kind Exploration (2005)
- Shooter Jennings, Put the "O" Back in Country (2005)
- Son Volt, A Retrospective, 1995-2000 (2005)
- Son Volt, Okemah and the Melody of Riot (2005)
- Ted Russel Kamp, Northsouth (2005)
- Yerba Buena, Island Life (2005)
- Various Artists, This Is Americana 2 (2005)
- Heather Waters, Shadow of You (2004)
- Jim White, Drill a Hole in that Substrate and Tell Me What You See (2004)
- Kristin Mooney, Kristin Mooney (2004)
- Meow Meow, Snow Gas Bones (2004)
- Neal Casal, Return In Kind (2004)
- Ralston Bowles, Carwreck Conversations (2004)
- Simon Joyner, Lost With The Lights On (2004)
- Cathy Rivers, Bleached (2003)
- Horse Stories, One Hundred Waves (2003)
- Jay Farrar, Terroir Blues (2003
- Jay Farrar, Live In Seattle (2003)
- Mandy Moore, Coverage (2003)
- Patrick Park, Loneliness Knows My Name (2003)
- Peter Bruntnell, Ends Of The Earth (2003)
- Teddy Morgan, Freight (2003)
- Bellwether, Home Late (2002)
- Marlee MacLeod, Like Hollywood (2002)
- John Doe, Dim Stars, Bright Sky (2002)
- Valet, The Glamour is Contagious (2002)
- ''Alejandro Escovedo, A Man Under The Influence (2001)
- Greg Brown, Covenant (2000)
- June Star, Telegraph (2001)
- Madruga, Nightly Disease (2001)
- Ol' Yeller, Ol' Yeller (2001)
- Randy Casey, Say No More (2001)
- The Jayhawks, Smile (2000)
- Peter Bruntnell, Normal For Bridgewater (2000)
- Various Artists, NPR Studio Cuts, Vol. One (2000)
- Freakwater, End Time (1999)
- The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers, Zola and the Tulip Tree (1999)
- Son Volt, Wide Swing Tremolo (1998)
- Richard Buckner, Since (1998)
- Richard Buckner, Live at Schubas Tavern (1998)
- Thea Ennen and the Algorhythms, Maintenance Angels (1998)
- Varnaline, Sweet Life (1998)
- Son Volt, Straightaways (1997)
- Joe Henry, Trampoline (1996)
- Judd Herman, Homeless in the Heart (1996)
- Tommy Keane, Ten Years After (1996)
- Son Volt, Trace (1995)
- Thea Ennen and the Algorhythms, Hold Back The Sun (1995)
- Joe Henry, Fireman's Wedding (1994)
- Thea Ennen and the Algorhythms, All Aboard (1994)
Discography provided courtesy of the official Eric Heywood homepage.
Videography
- Son Volt, Live From Austin TX Austin City Limits (2005)