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Blue River is an album by folk rock musician Eric Andersen, released in 1972.[7][8] The album was reissued in 1999 by Columbia Legacy with two extra tracks.[9]

Blue River
Studio album by Eric Andersen
Released	February 1972
Recorded	1971
Genre	Folk rock
Length	46:43
Label	Columbia[1]
Producer	Norbert Putnam[2]
Eric Andersen chronology
Eric Andersen (1969) Blue River (1972) Stages: The Lost Album (1972)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Christgau's Record Guide	C[4]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[1]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[6]

Production

The album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee.[10] Joni Mitchell contributes vocals on the title track, "Blue River".[3]

Critical reception

No Depression called the album's sound "subtle and incandescent," writing that producer Norbert Putnam "crafted a sound that was both sensual and spacious — at times reminiscent of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks — and always attentive to the languid melodies and sometimes frightening intimacy of Andersen’s lyrics."[10] MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide wrote that the album "stands alongside anything that the singer-songwriter produced during the '70s."[5] The Los Angeles Times deemed it "a delicately melodic, bittersweetly introspective song cycle that found its place within the Carole King-James Taylor-Joni Mitchell-Jackson Browne school of sensitive pop."[11]

Track listing

1. "Is It Really Love at All" (Andersen) – 5:21
2. "Pearl's Goodtime Blues" (Andersen) – 2:21
3. "Wind and Sand" (Andersen) – 4:30
4. "Faithful" (Andersen) – 3:15
5. "Blue River" (Andersen) – 4:46
6. "Florentine" (Andersen) – 3:31
7. "Sheila" (Andersen) – 4:37
8. "More Often Than Not" (David Wiffen) – 4:52
9. "Round the Bend" (Andersen) – 5:38
10. "Come To My Bedside, My Darlin'" (Andersen) - 4:58 ~*
11. "Why Don't You Love Me" (Hank Williams) - 2:54 ~*

~* = Bonus Track on CD Release (recorded during album sessions)

Charts

Chart (1972)	Peak position
US Top LPs[12]	169
Canada RPM 100[13]	61

Personnel

• Eric Andersen - acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, harmonica, vocals
• David Bromberg - dobro, acoustic guitar
• Andy Johnson - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vibraphone, background vocals
• David Briggs - organ, keyboards, celeste
• Weldon Myrick - steel guitar
• Norbert Putnam - bass
• Glen Spreen - organ, harpsichord, keyboards, woodwinds
• Eddie Hinton - acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Grady Martin - gut string guitar, acoustic guitar
• Kevin Kelly - accordion
• Mark Sporer - bass
• Kenneth Buttrey - drums, percussion, tambourine
• Jim McKevitt - drums
• Rick Shlosser - drums
• Deborah Andersen - piano, background vocals
• Joni Mitchell - vocals, background vocals
• Farrell Morris - vibraphone, background vocals
• Jerry Carrigan - percussion
• Millie Kirkham - background vocals
• Sonja Montgomery - background vocals
• Laverna Moore - background vocals
• Florence Warner - background vocals
• Temple Riser - background vocals
• The Jordanaires - background vocals
• The Holidays - background vocals

Production

• Producer: Norbert Putnam
• Recording Engineer: Stan Hutto/Glen Kolotkin/Stan Tonkel
• Production Manager: Jessica Sowin
• Art Direction: John Berg
• Liner Notes: Anthony DeCurtis
• Photography: Urve Kuusik/Sandy Speiser/Don Nelson

References

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