Real Gone Music has announced that, in conjunction with Sony's Legacy Recordings, the label is adding a new title to the long-running Essential series with a volume devoted to singer-songwriter Eric Andersen.  The 2-CD The Essential Eric Andersen, due March 30, features 33 songs chosen by Andersen himself which span his entire career and feature recordings from eighteen albums and ten different labels including Vanguard, Warner Bros., Columbia, Arista, Gold Castle, Appleseed, Meyer, Ryko, Smithsonian Folkways and CBS Holland.

Eric Andersen moved to New York in the early 1960s and soon became known in the Greenwich Village folk scene.  He was signed to Vanguard and released his first album, Today is the Highway, in 1965.  Two tracks from this effort kick off this new retrospective.  His songs, including "Violets of Dawn" and "Thirsty Boots," would come to be recorded by artists such as Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, among others.

The compilation continues tracing his career including four cuts from his 1972 Columbia debut, Blue River, which would become his most commercially successful album.  The title song features Joni Mitchell.  Andersen ran into problems with his sophomore album for Columbia when the tapes were lost for nearly two decades.  Luckily, they were eventually found and finally released as Stages in 1991.  Five tunes have been drawn from the album, including "Time Runs Like a Freight Train," which has Dan Fogelberg on background vocals.

Other tracks on the collection include live versions of "Violets of Dawn" and "Thirsty Boots" from Andersen's Arista period and collaborations with Lou Reed ("You Can't Relive the Past") and Richard Thompson ("Hills of Tuscany").  The Essential also has songs from Andersen's time with the Danko, Fjeld and Andersen bands in the 1990s.  The trio featured Andersen, Norwegian singer-songwriter Jonas Fjeld and Rick Danko of The Band.  The set then chronicles Andersen's return to solo work in the 2000s for Appleseed Recordings and Meyer. A previously unreleased cover of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" from the 1970s premieres here, and the collection comes full circle by ending with Andersen's earliest recording, a 1964 duet with Phil Ochs on "Plains of Nebrasky-O" for Smithsonian Folkways.

Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone has penned new liner notes for the booklet which includes photos from Andersen's private collection.  The set has been remastered by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios.  It's being released in time to coincide with Andersen's new tour which begins in April and the release of a new documentary about Andersen: Songpoet.  The Essential Eric Andersen is the most comprehensive overview of the singer-songwriter's career to date, and if you would like to give it a try, we've got the full tracklisting and preorder links below.

Eric Andersen, The Essential Eric Andersen (Real Gone Music, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

1. Everything Ain't Been Said
2. Dusty Box Car Wall
3. (We Were) Foolish Like the Flowers
4. Dream to Rimbaud
5. Secrets
6. I Will Wait
7. Waves of Freedom
8. Mama Tried
9. Is It Really Love At All
10. Florentine
11. Blue River
12. Pearl's Goodtime Blues
13. Woman, She Was Gentle
14. Moonchild River Song
15. Time Runs Like a Freight Train
16. Wild Crow Blues

CD 2

1. The Blues Keep Fallin' Like the Rain
2. Thirsty Boots
3. Close the Door Lightly When You Go
4. Violets of Dawn
5. Messiah
6. Belgian Bar
7. Trouble in Paris
8. Hills of Tuscany
9. You Can't Relive the Past
10. Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam
11. Keep This Love Alive
12. Driftin' Away
13. Foghorn
14. Salt on Our Skin
15. Don't It Make You Wanna Sing the Blues
16. Under the Shadows
17. Plains of Nebraska-O

Disc 1, Tracks 1-2 from Today is the Highway, Vanguard LP VRS-9157, 1965
Disc 1, Track 3 from Avalanche, Warner Bros. LP WS 1748, 1968
Disc 1, Tracks 4 and 13-16 from Stages: The Lost Album, Columbia Legacy CD CK 47120, 1991
Disc 1, Tracks 5-6 from Eric Andersen, Warner Bros. LP WS 1806, 1970
Disc 1, Track 7 from A Country Dream, Vanguard LP VSD 6540, 1969
Disc 1, Track 8 Previously Unreleased
Disc 1, Tracks 9-12 from Blue River, Columbia LP KC 31062, 1972
Disc 2, Track 1 from Be True to You, Arista LP AL 4033, 1975
Disc 2, Tracks 2-4 from The Best Songs, Arista LP AL 4128, 1977
Disc 2, Track 5 from Midnight Son, CBS Holland LP 86447, 1979
Disc 2, Tracks 6-7 from Ghosts Upon the Road, Gold Castle CD D2 71327, 1989
Disc 2, Tracks 8, 10, 13 from Memory of the Future, Appleseed Recordings CD APR 1028, 1999
Disc 2, Track 9 from You Can't Relive the Past, Appleseed Recordings CD APR 1032, 2000
Disc 2, Track 11 from Ridin' On the Blinds, Rykodisc CD RCD 10371, 1994
Disc 2, Track 12 from Rick Danko Jona Fjeld Eric Andersen, Rykodisc CD RCD 10271, 1991
Disc 2, Track 14 from The Cologne Concert, Meyer Records CD 173, 2010
Disc 2, Track 15 from Blue Rain Live, Appleseed Recordings CD APR 1101, 2007
Disc 2, Track 16 from Beat Avenue, Appleseed Recordings CD APR 1068, 2003
Disc 2, Track 17 from The Best of Broadside 1962-1988, Smithsonian Folkways CD SFW 40130, 2000