''The High Above and the Down Below'' is the seventh studio album by

contemporary folk Contemporary folk music refers to a wide variety of genres that emerged in the mid 20th century and afterwards which were associated with traditional folk music. Starting in the mid-20th century a new form of popular folk music evolved from tradit ...

singer–songwriter A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition, although this role has transmuted th ...

Cliff Eberhardt Cliff Eberhardt (born January 7, 1954, in Berwyn, Pennsylvania) is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is a founding member of the Fast Folk Music Cooperative in New York City. Eberhardt joined Red House Records in 1997 and has recorded fiv ...

. It was released on

Red House Records Red House Records is an independent folk and Americana record label in St. Paul, Minnesota. The label was founded in 1983 by Bob Feldman after seeing a performance by Iowa folk singer Greg Brown. Origin The label is named for a farmhouse in ...

on April 10, 2007. It is Eberhardt's first album in five years and follows a lengthy recovery from serious injuries Eberhardt suffered in a 2002 auto accident.

Recording

The album was recorded live-in-studio and produced by Eric Peltoniemi. Only a few overdubs were added (mostly doubling Eberhardt's own

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

work to his own

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

playing). Eberhardt says, "This is the recording that I always wanted to make."Cliff Eberhardt, liner notes for ''The High Above and the Down Below'' (RHR CD 199), Red House Records, Inc., 2007 The musicians featured include Eberhardt (vocals & guitars),

Richard Dworsky ''A Prairie Home Companion'' is a weekly radio variety show created and hosted by Garrison Keillor that aired live from 1974 to 2016. In 2016, musician Chris Thile took over as host, and the successor show was eventually renamed ''Live from Her ...

(

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, B3,

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

Gordy Johnson Gordon "Gordy" Johnson, (born 1952) is an American double bassist and bass guitarist who has toured and/or recorded with Roy Buchanan, Bill Carrothers, Lorie Line, Chuck Mangione, Dewey Redman, Greg Brown, Peter Ostroushko, Paul Winter Consort ...

(

basses Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass ...

), and J. T. Bates (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Reception

The album received favorable reviews, and made at least one critic's list of best albums of the year.Ken Barnes,

Edna Gundersen Edna Gundersen is an American journalist who was a longtime music writer and critic for ''USA Today''. Gundersen grew up in El Paso, Texas. She attained a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and then wrote features and en ...

, Steve Jones, Elysa Gardner and Brian Mansfield
"The Best, the Worst, the Weirdest"
''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'', December 23, 2007 The album debuted at #12, on the Folk Radio Airplay chart for April 2007.Richard Gillmann
"Top Albums of April 2007"
, as determined by FolkDJ-L playlists, folkradio.org

Track listing

All songs written by Cliff Eberhardt # "The High Above and the Down Below" - 3:14 # "Missing You" - 2:43 # "It's Home Everywhere I Go" - 3:28 # "The Next Big Thing" - 3:15 # "The Right Words" - 4:52 # "After the Rain Falls" - 2:14 # "Assembly Line" - 3:55 # "Dug Your Own Grave" - 2:57 # "Let This Whole Thing Burn" - 3:18 # "New Is What's Come Over You" - 4:04 # "I'm All Right" - 2:34 # "Goodbye Again" - 3:09

Credits

Musicians

* Cliff Eberhardt -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

& acoustic &

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

s *

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...

* J. T. Bates -

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* Matt Zimmermann -

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

s on "After the Rain Falls"

Production

* Produced by Eric Peltoniemi * recorded, mixed, and

mastered Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

by Mathew Zimmerman at Wild Sound,

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

**Assisted by Gerard Boissy **Additional input from Chris Frymire

Artwork

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

- Jim Herrington *Layout and design - Eric Peltoniemi *Cover concept - Cliff Eberhardt

Other

*Bookings - Steve Lindquist *Management - Stephen Garvan/Garvan Management

Charts

Releases

External links

''The High Above and the Down Below''
page at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:High Above And The Down Below, The 2007 albums Cliff Eberhardt albums Red House Records albums