Eric Carlson
Eric Carlson and the Mystery Ship of Santa Fe, NM play original and traditional folk-music with old-time roots and some bluegrass seasoning. However, their music spans beyond the usual boundaries those words suggest. Santa Fe is home to a rich diversity of first-class international musicians, as well as a surprisingly lively bluegrass and old-time music scene, offering a great deal of knowledge and inspiration that Eric the crew draw from. The Mystery Ship features Hilary Schacht of fiddle, Michael Lawless on mandolin, and Richard Hardy on upright bass.
Eric's latest CD "The Ship in the Sky" contains original and traditional songs and instrumentals that explore a recurrent oceanic theme amid the desert southwest. Though seafaring music in the desert may seem ironic to some, the grand vistas and broad horizons of the ocean and the southwest landscape have a lot in common. They both share a vast, humbling, and moody spirit. Perhaps the new CD speaks to a deep memory of the ocean that we all share regardless of where we live. All life began in the sea after all, and
some would say that it still runs through our veins, our blood having a salinity remarkably similar to that of the sea. The land itself in the high desert retains the memory of the ocean that once lay above it long ago. One can find ancient marine fossils from the desert of Southern New Mexico to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Indeed, bluegrass legend Peter Rowan once wrote "In the high desert mountains, I dream of the sea, dream of the sea."
Phone: (505) 984-3297
E-mail: carlson@cybermesa.com
Website: http://www.myspace.com/theshipinthesky