Eric Von Schmidt
1931-2007

ASCAP member Eric von Schmidt died on February 2 in Connecticut while recovering from a stroke and complications from Lyme Disease. The folk/blues performer and songwriter was 75. Von Schmidt was best known as an early inspiration of Bob Dylan (on Dylan's 1962 self-titled debut album, he introduced the track, "Baby, Let Me Follow You Down," by saying: "I first heard this from Ric von Schmidt. He lives in Cambridge.") The rest of the quote was: "Ric is a blues guitar player. I met him one day in the green pastures of Harvard University." Any Dylan fan worth his salt knows those words. But who was Ric von Schmidt?

Eric von Schmidt was a "blues guitar player" and much more. As important as music was in his life – his great inspiration was Leadbelly — von Schmidt made his living as a graphic artist; his forte was painting meticulously detailed historic battle scenes like Little Big Horn and the Alamo, as well as illustrating children's books and designing album covers for blues and folk musicians. At the end of his life, von Schmidt had completed a series of paintings he called "Giants of the Blues."

Drafted into the Army in the early Fifties and stationed in Washington, DC, Eric began visiting the Library of Congress to study forgotten blues and gospel songs on recordings stored there. Two that he'd later help to popularize were "He Was a Friend of Mine" and "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm." After the army and art studies in Europe, von Schmidt settled in Cambridge in 1957. Over several years, von Schmidt became a musical and life guru to many of the younger budding folkies around Cambridge, including Joan Baez, Jim Kweskin, Bob Neuwirth, Tom Rush, Jim Rooney and Geoff Muldaur. Rooney (producer of albums by John Prine, Townes Van Zandt and Nanci Griffith) would go on to co-write with von Schmidt a brilliant account of the Cambridge folk years titled, Baby, Let Me Follow You Down. Tom Rush would make "Wasn't That a Mighty Storm" and the von Schmidt-penned "Joshua Gone Barbados" two of his signature songs. And a generation or three of folk and blues musicians would be inspired by Eric von Schmidt, whether they knew it or not.

Geoff Muldaur wrote the following upon learning of Eric's passing: "We all agree that Eric was our early mentor... the Dean of the College of Do It All. Whether we were playing bocce or hunting for mushrooms or drinking Dark Bacardi or taking peyote or visiting art museums or refurbishing apartments or tagging sharks or listening to Son House or playing poker or discussing books or making omelets or smiling at women or dancing or fighting or playing music.... Eric gave it all he had. It was Eric - more than anyone - who understood the freedom and inner satisfaction of digging in for the feeling of American Folk Music instead of simply copying the notes. The feeling... the feeling... Thanks, Eric."

— Jim Steinblatt




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