Eric Paul (record producer)

Eric Paul, producer of two Grammy Award winning CD's for the Late Townes VanZandt including "Poet" a tribute to Townes VanZandt and "A Far Cry From Dead" is the man Willie Nelson praises "The Clear Channel," having engineered or produced Nelson for 17 years.

Career

A native New Yorker, Paul began what has become a diverse and well-rounded career by first gaining a Bachelor's degree in Music and Sound Recording from Fredonia State University. His first lucky break came fresh out of school when legendary producer, Phil Ramone took a chance and gave him an intern/assistant engineer position at A&R Recording inc. in New York City. What was to follow included a sort of "baptism by fire" as he honed his craft working with the likes of Paul Simon. Billy Joel, jazz great Dave Grusen, Steely Dan, Karen Carpenter, Steve Forbert, The Romantics and last, but very certainly not least. John Lennon's "Double Fantasy."

At Ramone's suggestion, Paul moved to Nashville in 1981 and was an engineer for Jimmy Bowen at Sound Stage Studios. Working with acts including Hank Williams, Jr. and Cajun/country crooner Eddy Raven. Again with Bowen's recommendation, from 1982 to 1986, he took over as Engineer for Glaser Brothers Studio. This was at the peak of the celebrated "Outlaw Movement" in Country music and they all recorded at Glaser Studios-The Glaser Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Billy Joe Shaver, Mel Tillis, and Willie Nelson.

In 1986 Norbert Putnum invited Paul to join him to engineer at his Franklin, Tennessee studio "The Bennet House" He worked with many including Emmylou Harris, Michael Card (the fires Dove Award Paul worked on), Lynn Anderson, Dan Fogelberg, K.D. Lang, Kenny Rogers, Alabama, and Randy Travis.

Fatefully, it was during this time that Paul met Fred Foster who was producing a Willie Nelson project and asked Eric to engineer the "Horse Called Music" cd. This project introduced Paul to Austin, Texas, home of Willie Nelsons Pedernales Recording Studio. Eric ended up moving to Austin to run Willie's studio. During this time Paul's production career flourished. He produced a CD called Honky Tonk Heroes with the roster of Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson. Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.

He also produced A Wonderful album on Willie Nelson called "The Hungry Years."

At Farm Aid 1990, Eric Recorded and mixed Elton John's live piano vocal version of "Candle in the Wind" which Elton had sung as a tribute to young AIDS victim Ryan White. This version became a hit and Eric moved back to Nashville. In 1991, amidst the Gulf War, he engineered Bill Gather's "Homecoming." garnering a second Dove award.

Several years followed with Eric dividing his time between Austin and Nashville. During this time he engineered projects for John Gorka and Tanya Tucker's "Cant Run From Yourself' featuring the hit song "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane". Eric also engineered a Project for David Gates for Discovery Records.

In the late 90's Eric produced a posthumous CD on the late Townes VanZandt called "A Far Cry From Dead." This project gained much recognition for Paul, as he created a masterpiece from Previously recorded work tapes on Townes.

Recent Years

Since 2000 Eric has resided in Austin and has worked with Nanci Griffith, The Cowboy Junkies, Ray Benson, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, The Flatlanders, Steve Earle , Delbert McClinton, and many others. Currently he is working on a special project with Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, Jerry Lee Lewis, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, James Taylor, and Tanya Tucker.