A1 Artist Spotlight.Com did a phone interview with Craig Erickson
about new CD Big Highway. Excerpts of the interview are also in the podcast along with songs from Big Highway.
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Craig Erickson grew up in a very musical family. His mother taught piano and his father gave music lessons while running his own music store. Craig managed the record department when he was in his early teens. His father would let Craig borrow a guitar and amp to practice on from the store. Craig started playing guitar when he was around 12 years old. Throughout high school Craig was in a lot of different cover bands. After high school he moved to Iowa City. When Craig was not doing his own gigs he was going out to hear a lot of Chicago bands as they came through the college town. Hearing what a lot of different bands sounded like inspired him.
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Every summer he’d go to the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) This was a real eye opener for him. Getting to speak to professional musicians like Steve Vai, record producer, publisher Mike Varney as well as Guitar Magazine editor John Stix. All these people had an influence on Craig by giving him encouragement, asking to hear demos, then giving feedback on what they heard along with suggestions on other things to try. Finally, Craig started going out to California to work on different projects. On one of the projects Craig worked on was with Glenn Hughes who had been in Trapeze as well as replacing Roger Glover in Deep Purple from1974 to 1976. Glenn Hughes was putting Trapeze back together for a tour and asked Craig to join as second guitarist. So from 1991 to 1994 Craig got to play on the stages of the world as a Trapeze artist so to speak. Craig was chosen to be on a tribute to Albert King’s CD called “Fit For A King”. In 1996 Craig got to play on a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan CD called “Hats Off To Stevie Ray”. Then in 1998 he was in a Tommy Bolin tribute concert with Glenn Hughes.
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Big Highway is the newest CD by Craig Erickson. This CD gave Craig a chance to go back to his roots. While the songs are pretty hard rock there is a very nice dreamy element to some of the songs. The best example is the song “Midnight Light”. Starting off with a rhythm similar to something Jimi Hendrix would use. A lot of little guitar riffs are shooting around in the background. The chorus Craig sings with a little higher voice is also similar to what Jimi would do. Every time this song plays I feel like floating through the sky at midnight looking at all the stars in kind of a dreamy state. “Miracle” sounds like it’s right off of an early Robin Trower record. If you want to hear the proper use of a wah-wah pedal this is it. Craig Erickson makes you long for the days of heartfelt music, not just how fast can you play but you do really have something worth playing. The title track “Big Highway” is about having to go back on the road for another tour, this time a tour in Europe. The sound of the song is big and open just like you are on a big highway with a large landscape around you. The guitar solo of the week is from the song “River Keep A Rollin’”. Craig said he sometimes likes to take a little trip, get a hotel room, meet the local folks, and fish for songs. This song was caught on the banks of the Mississippi River. As you might have guessed it was a keeper. When I was reading about Craig a lot of people talked about how he is this hard rock guitar shredder. What got me was not hard rock shredding but the slower songs. This was like when everyone talked about how fast of a guitar player Alvin Lee of Ten Years After was. Unfortunately they really missed out on his brilliance with the heart felt slower song. Craig may not agree with me on this but when he does things like “Miracle”, “In the Sky”, and “Midnight Light” he is creating something more inspiring. If you like the harder side of Craig it’s heard in songs like “For Your Love” or the nod to Tommy Bolin in the all out guitar ripping “Stratus”. Big Highway has a wide selection of styles to check out so just sit back and enjoy Craig Erickson on his Big Highway.
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The songs played in the podcast are:
Big Highway
For Your Love
Miracle
Midnight Light
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Guitar solo of the week is River Keeps On Rollin’
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Craig also has a new CD out called Castle Blues that is a full on electric CD like Gary Moore.
However, it is only available in France & maybe Europe. You may be able to find it on the internet.
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The Members of the band are:
Craig Erickson – guitar & vocals
Fred “Fingers” Benson – bass
Jeremy Ackley - drums
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Craig Erickson Website
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Craig Erickson MySpace
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To buy Craig Erickson CD from CD Baby Website
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Check out what artists are on Grooveyard Records
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Thanks to Craig Erickson for taking the time out of his very busy week to do this interview.
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 042 - Craig Erickson – Gives A Nod To Tommy Bolin, Robin Trower & Jimi Hendrix [34:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download