Blue River (album)

Last updated
Blue River
Blue River 1972.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedFebruary 1972
Recorded1971
Genre Folk rock
Length46:43
Label Columbia [1]
Producer Norbert Putnam [2]
Eric Andersen chronology
Eric Andersen
(1969)
Blue River
(1972)
Stages: The Lost Album
(1972)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [3]
Christgau's Record Guide C [4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]

Blue River is an album by folk rock musician Eric Andersen, released in 1972. [7] [8] The album was reissued in 1999 by Columbia Legacy with two extra tracks. [9]

Contents

Production

The album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee. [10] Joni Mitchell contributes vocals on the title track, "Blue River". [3]

Critical reception

No Depression called the album's sound "subtle and incandescent," writing that producer Norbert Putnam "crafted a sound that was both sensual and spacious — at times reminiscent of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks — and always attentive to the languid melodies and sometimes frightening intimacy of Andersen’s lyrics." [10] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide wrote that the album "stands alongside anything that the singer-songwriter produced during the '70s." [5] The Los Angeles Times deemed it "a delicately melodic, bittersweetly introspective song cycle that found its place within the Carole King-James Taylor-Joni Mitchell-Jackson Browne school of sensitive pop." [11]

Track listing

  1. "Is It Really Love at All" (Andersen) – 5:21
  2. "Pearl's Goodtime Blues" (Andersen) – 2:21
  3. "Wind and Sand" (Andersen) – 4:30
  4. "Faithful" (Andersen) – 3:15
  5. "Blue River" (Andersen) – 4:46
  6. "Florentine" (Andersen) – 3:31
  7. "Sheila" (Andersen) – 4:37
  8. "More Often Than Not" (David Wiffen) – 4:52
  9. "Round the Bend" (Andersen) – 5:38
  10. "Come To My Bedside, My Darlin'" (Andersen) - 4:58 ~*
  11. "Why Don't You Love Me" (Hank Williams) - 2:54 ~*

~* = Bonus Track on CD Release (recorded during album sessions)

Charts

Chart (1972)Peak
position
US Top LPs [12] 169
Canada RPM 100 [13] 61

Personnel

Production

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References

  1. 1 2 Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 1. MUZE. p. 173.
  2. Duffy, Thom (21 January 1995). "Djanko, Field, Andersen Link Sounds of Norway, America". Billboard . Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Blue River - Eric Andersen | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic" via www.allmusic.com.
  4. "Robert Christgau: CG Book '70s: A". www.robertchristgau.com.
  5. 1 2 MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1999. p. 28.
  6. The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. p. 14.
  7. "Eric Andersen | Biography & History". AllMusic.
  8. "Looking back, Eric Andersen savors the hits, shrugs off the misses - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com.
  9. Jacks, Kelso (2 August 1999). "Record News". CMJ New Music Report . CMJ . Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Eric Andersen – Blue River". No Depression. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  11. "Wanderings of Eric Andersen Lead Him Back Into Musical Mainstream". Los Angeles Times. September 21, 1989.
  12. "Blue River - Eric Andersen: Awards". allmusic.com. AllMusic . Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  13. "RPM Top 100 Albums - August 19, 1972" (PDF).