Eric McFadden (born December 1, 1965) is an American guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter from San Francisco.
He spent his formative years in Albuquerque, New Mexico, receiving lessons from Stanton Hirsch. During his mid-teens, he moved to Syracuse, New York, where he studied jazz guitar. He spent time in Spain studying flamenco and in interviews has expressed interest in Gypsy music.
McFadden played in a number of bands in Albuquerque, most notably the Angry Babies, a punk rock/heavy metal three-piece band that toured along the West coast and released three albums in limited runs. After moving to San Francisco, he gained notoriety as lead singer and guitarist for the band Liar, which originated in 1994. Liar's debut album ''Devil Dog Road'' and follow-up album ''Gone Too Far'' received acclaim with both fans and critics. Liar won the
SF Weekly Music Award (Wammie) in 1997 and ''BAM'' magazine's California Music Awards in 1998. Paulo Baldi, who was the drummer for Liar, also joined McFadden in the band Alien Lovestock, which was self-described as "chili-powered, hard rockin', avant-funk, Latin, surreal-desert groove."
McFadden toured extensively between 2002-2010 with his trio, EMT, which features bassist, James Whiton and a revolving cast of drummers such as Jeff Cohen, Paulo Baldi, and Kevin Carnes.
Other credits include three years as guitarist and mandolinist for
George Clinton and the
P-Funk All-Stars
Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament and Funkadelic, both active since the 1960s. Their distinctive ...
. In 2004, McFadden joined
Stockholm Syndrome
Stockholm syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors. It is supposed to result from a rather specific set of circumstances, namely the power imbalances contained in hostage-taking, kidnapping, an ...
with Widespread Panic bassist
Dave Schools
David Allen Schools (born December 11, 1964) is a bass player and founding member of American rock band Widespread Panic. He is also a record producer, songwriter and journalist with articles published in a wide variety of music magazines. Scho ...
, singer-guitarist Jerry Joseph and drummer
Wally Ingram
Wally Ingram is an American drummer and musician. He is most famous as a member of the band, Timbuk 3.
In recent years, he has toured with the multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, and released several records with him:
* 2000 : ''Twango Bango D ...
. In 2005–2007, with Wally Ingram he joined
Eric Burdon
Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer. He was previously the lead vocalist of R&B and rock band the Animals and funk band War. He is regarded as one of the British Invasion's most distinctive singers with his deep, powe ...
and the Animals and toured Europe, Canada, the U.S., and Australia. In January 2013, he was again on tour with Eric Burdon through the summer of 2014. Since 2015, McFadden has been primary guitarist for New Orlean's artist,
Anders Osborne
Anders Osborne (born May 4, 1966 in Uddevalla, Sweden) is an American singer-songwriter. He tours solo and with a band, and often plays in North Mississippi Osborne (N.M.O), a group formed by Osborne and North Mississippi Allstars.
Early life
...
. McFadden is also touring and recording with his new supergroup, T.E.N. (Thomas Pridgen, Eric McFadden, Norwood Fisher), and Tasty Face (with Fishbone frontman, Angelo Moore).
McFadden has worked with
Les Claypool
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,
Joe Strummer
John Graham Mellor (21 August 1952 – 22 December 2002), known professionally as Joe Strummer, was a British singer, musician and songwriter. He was the co-founder, lyricist, rhythm guitarist and co-lead vocalist of punk rock band the Clash, ...
,
The Reverend Horton Heat
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,
The Coup
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,
Galactic
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Origins and background
Formed in 1994 as an octet (under the name Galactic Prophylactic) and including singer Chris Lane and guitarist Rob Gowen, the group was soon pared down to a ...
,
Keb' Mo
Kevin Roosevelt Moore (born October 3, 1951), known as Keb' Mo', is an American blues musician and five-time Grammy Award winner. He is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, living in Nashville, Tennessee. He has been described as "a living link ...
,
Bernie Worrell
George Bernard Worrell, Jr. (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016) was an American keyboardist and record producer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Roll ...
,
Pat MacDonald,
Fishbone
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,
Widespread Panic
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,
Jackson Browne
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and political activist who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States.
Emerging as a precocious teenage songwriter in mid-1960s Los Angeles, he h ...
,
Nels Cline
Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004.
In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex Cline, Alex, a percussionis ...
, and
Mike Watt
Michael David Watt (born December 20, 1957) is an American bassist, vocalist and songwriter.
Watt co-founded and played bass guitar for the rock bands Minutemen (1980–1985), Dos (1985–present), and Firehose (1986–1994). He began a solo ...
, among many others.
He has released several albums through the French label Bad Reputation, including ''Dementia'' and ''Pull a Rabbit Out Of His Hat, Tribute Vol 2'' on which McFadden pays homage to his favorite artists. In 2009, he released ''Delicate Thing'' and ''Train to Salvation'', also on Bad Reputation and on Terminus in the U.S. His album, ''Bluebird on Fire'', was released in 2011 by both Bad Reputation in Europe. This release features Norwood Fisher, Dave Catching, Dave Schools, Paulo Baldi, Victor DeLorenzo, Abby Travis, and Wally Ingram. McFadden's Faraway Brothers album, ''Hand Me That Cow'', was released in 2012. Eric Released the acoustic album, "The Light Ahead" in 2015. In 2018, McFadden also collaborated with
Omar Torrez with the album entitled, ''Cholula Sessions''. In 2018, McFadden signed to Tab Benoit's label, Whiskey Bayou records who released "Pain By Numbers" which features Doug Wimbish (Living Colour), Terence Higgins (Ani DiFranco, Warren Haynes) and Tab Benoit.
McFadden has been recently working with Junkyard Folk singer/songwriter, Kate Vargas, and will be featured on her upcoming release, "Rum Pum Po". McFadden and Vargas have been doing a Facebook livestream on Mondays called "Live From The Red Couch".
Selected discography
* ''Who's Laughing Now?'' (1996)
* ''Eric McFadden'' (2000)
* ''Devil Moon'' (2003)
* ''Diamonds to Coal'' (2003)
* ''Alektorophobia'' (with
Wally Ingram
Wally Ingram is an American drummer and musician. He is most famous as a member of the band, Timbuk 3.
In recent years, he has toured with the multi-instrumentalist David Lindley, and released several records with him:
* 2000 : ''Twango Bango D ...
, 2005)
* ''Joy of Suffering'' (2005)
* ''Dementia'' (compilation, 2006)
* ''
Let's Die Forever... Together'' (2007)
* ''Delicate Thing'' (2008)
* ''Train to Salvation'' (2009)
* ''Pull A Rabbit Out Of His Hat - Tribute Vol. 2'' (2010)
* ''Bluebird of Fire'' (2011)
* ''Inside Out'' (2012)
* ''The Light Ahead'' (2015)
* ''Pain by Numbers'' (2018)
* ''Hail to Hell (Acoustic Tribute to Alice Cooper)'' (2021)
References
Eric McFadden’s Multi-Colored Iconoclastic Gypsy SoulJimmy Leslie, ''GuitarPlayer.com'', May 2006 Retrieved July 26, 2007
*"INTERVIEW: Funky trio suffers the joy of music," Abel Horwitz, ''Daily Lobo'', Albuquerque, N.M., October 20, 2005
Eric McFadden Trio Joy of SufferingDave Pehling, ''SFWeekly.com'', January 18, 2006 July 26, 2007
Eric McFadden's got an ax to grind.Silke Tudor, ''SFWeekly.com'', August 11, 2004 Retrieved July 26, 2007
External links
Eric McFadden's Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:McFadden, Eric
Living people
American alternative rock musicians
American funk guitarists
American male guitarists
American rock guitarists
Songwriters from New York (state)
P-Funk members
Alternative rock guitarists
Guitarists from New York City
1965 births
20th-century American guitarists
Stockholm Syndrome (band) members