Memory of the Future
Well into his 30th year of recording, Eric Andersen picks up where his 1989 masterpieceGhosts upon the Roadleft off. His 15th album was eight years in the making, pieced together from collaborations withRick Danko,Richard Thompson, Benmont Tench, Howie Epstein, andBob Dylanbassist Tony Garnier. It demonstrates the virtues of patient songwriting in sensual love lyrics, sprawling wanderer's laments, and Beat-poetry-inspired litanies of sins and ecstasies. "He thought of his mother / He thought of the automat / The space shuttle / Jersey cows and poison lollipops / As the dry heaves rose in his chest," he intones over a smoky, funky groove. Of all the folksingers to find their way out of the '60s, only Dylan andJoni Mitchellhave remained as restless and provocative as Andersen. His imagination has grown ever more sure, his voice has become an unearthly, stately whisper, and his songs are still shapes by a singular, exceptional artistic will.--Roy Kasten