I recorded a new CD for Acoustic Music Records this past March at the beautiful studios in Osnabruck Germany. It’s a collection of twelve new compositions and two beautiful jazz standards for solo guitar.
Here’s a look at the cover and the fabulous liner notes from my friend and fan Allen St John.
Wire. Wood. And Soul. Not necessarily in that order. Those are the raw ingredients of Eric Lugosch's latest record, Migration.
In an age where music has become both ubiquitous and cheap, and too often heavily processed, this solo guitar record feels as organic as Grandpa's vegetable garden.
Over the course of a storied career, Eric Lugosch has built up a catalog of enduring fingerstyle guitar versions of classics and shoulda-been classics. But this time out there's less of that (though his takes on "Georgia" and Horace Silver's "Summer in Central Park" are sweet and delicious.) You could say that Migration showcases Eric's skills as a composer, but that feels a bit stuffy for music this joyful. How 'bout "master tunesmith" instead?
While these tunes are largely new, they're also old school in the very best sense of that word. The melodies are proudly on display. It's easy to embrace the lilt of "Summer in Central Park," the strut of "Duck Bread" (which pays homage to pioneering fingerstylist Duck Baker) and the lope of "Cat Noir",(which owes a debt to the classic cartoon Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse.) Sure, the harmony evolves, and sometimes Lugosch invites us along on a full-blown tangent, but the melody always remains well within reach and the groove never breaks stride.
Or to put it another way, tunes like H.S.A. (which stands for High Seas Adventure, not Healthcare Spending Account) enter your ear, bypass the part of your mind that keeps a to-do list, and head straight for an older, simpler section of your brain, where AI fears to tread. The tunes on Migration will set your feet to tappin'. And don't be surprised if you find yourself humming these not-yet-familiar melodies while you're washing the dishes or walking the dog. Yes, this record is easy to like.
Like so much of my favorite music, Migration was recorded in a hurry. In three 12-hour days, according to the artist. This time out, Lugosch works with legendary producer/engineer/player Peter Finger who may know better than anyone on earth what an acoustic guitar sounds like. The recordings may seem rudimentary, but Finger pulls off the difficult task of capturing both the steel strings and the rosewood and spruce body of Eric's Kevin Ryan guitar. And on tracks like "Cat Noir," you can hear Eric channeling Glenn Gould, um, vocalizing as he plays. It reminded me of my old colleague Lew Lipnick who wrote about audio gear for Stereophile and played contrabassoon for the National Symphony,: he argued that the very best recordings remind you that there's a human being playing that instrument. Migration does that and more.
I could ruminate about whether MIgration is destined to be a classic. And I think that would be largely beside the point. With its elegant melodies, persistent grooves, and sound quality that puts you in the room where it was recorded, this album is quietly sensual. And the sensual is all about what feels good right now. Does it matter how these tunes stand up to the winds of musical fashion? I'll leave that for you to decide. Me? I'll be listening to Migration, one more time.
Allen St. John has written about music for Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, Men's Journal, Stereophile and Fretboard Journal among other national publications. He is the author of Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument.
