Meet my friend Eric Paridine

Some weeks ago at Peaburry Cafés' Wednesday night 'Open Mike,' I sat down with Eric Paridine to do an interview for www.PappyYates.com. What Eric had to say about his music and music in general was enlightening. In order to do justice to that interview I will be posting parts of it as blog entries here and soon there will be a page on www.PappyYates.com dedicated to Eric's music. For now, read the following and start getting to know my friend Eric Paridine just a little.

"Eric," how long have you been performing?"

"My first 'show' was around 1965... high school senior year. I had a crush on Fran... and I had been playing without really learning much for a year or so. Therefore, let's say I've been playing since 1964, most of which time I had no idea what I was doing. For example, I played whatever guitar I had 'as is.' I had no notion of how to set up a guitar or even that mine needed to be set up – which it surely did! That first 'show" was in high school. With the 'British invasion' somebody had the idea to put on a talent show. Most of the acts lip synced to the hits of the day. My band decided to play Jimmy Reed's "You Got Me Running." Straight up twelve bar blues... though I didn't know that at the time. How did I ever come up with Jimmy Reed? Somehow, browsing (pre-computer browsing meant going through the racks at the local record shop until I found something that caught my attention) at my local record shop I found both Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker. The Jimmy Reed record was amazing. The recording session transposed to record everything intact. The chatter between musicians, the recording engineer and Jimmy directing the whole affair. I still can't figure out how anyone understood what he was saying, but these guys all started and stopped on a dime.

I did some basement parties. And then I got hooked up with a band that was much older than me. Playing bars etc... though I never did enjoy alcohol or smoking. We played Ventures, Beetles, Beach Boys, everything without any real context, just disconnected tunes... one after another. I starved in New York's Greenwich VIllage… I played the Cafe Wha, Night Owl, Cock and Bull, Purple Onion. They were 'heady' days, but still very disconnected from any self directed purpose. I played through college with a couple of bands... met people I still know, got passed up for Viet Nam, started working for an airline and stopped playing.

Anyway, I started playing a long time ago, but I stopped playing in the seventies. I ran out of inspiration. Still, I hadn't found the acoustic guitar. Everything was basically electric… all about Hendrix et al… all about trying to write pop music hit tunes. It just sort of spent itself out after a very short time. And there were no community players to keep me going, to keep me psyched. That would change in the late 90's.

About 1997, a friend from work (nothing to do with music) dared me to go to an 'open mike.' I hadn't played out in nearly 20 years. Hadn't really played much at all. But I took the dare. I totally destroyed "Beyond the Sea" on a twelve string Martin set up with six strings. But I was drawn to these singer- songwriters... folk pickers, Travis slickers.

Then I found alternate tunings. Alternate tunings have been the door to this phase of my playing guitar. A whole new world of music was opening before me. DADGAD became my tuning of choice. I didn't know chords or scales in standard and I certainly didn't know them in DADGAD. I had to relearn playing the guitar. I started writing songs, lots of songs. Eventually after a couple of years, I started playing only acoustic guitar. The strats and tele's were left sitting in their cases. Today, some thirty years after I started playing and performing I think I'm just beginning to get it. It's all about the song and playing the instrument and for getting the song out to the audience."

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