Cliff Eberhardt plumbs life's hidden dramas

By Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 5, 2000)
– You can measure the strength of a songwriter – or any writer for that matter -- by his ability to portray the hard or forgotten cases with narrative sympathy; to do, for example what Randy Newman did for racists in “Rednecks,” or what Warren Zevon did for rapists in “Excitable Boy.” Not necessarily to approve of their behavior or characters, but to imagine the world from their point of view, and thus to render them with the sort of depth and complexity one would expect from a work of literature.

It's easy to condemn such distasteful characters; it's harder to inhabit them.

While the narrator of Cliff Eberhardt's “The Wrong Side of the Line,” found on his most recent album, “Borders” (Red House), isn't as despicable as Newman's or Zevon's anti-heroes, he is the equally unlikely subject of a song. Sort of an answer song to The Band's “The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down,” Eberhardt's “The Wrong Side of the Line” is a first-person account of a Civil War-era Southerner whose only fault is one of geography.

“Some ships went to New England, some ships went to Virginia/That's where we landed, that's where we stayed,” he sings. And as a result, he finds himself burned out of his family's home in Savannah, “walking with strangers because I was born on the wrong side of the line.”

It's a slice of history on the ground that avoids the more obvious cliches and finds drama in the hidden crevices of territory that's been been worked over thousands of times. It's also the sort of well-crafted, sophisticated songwriting that has garnered Eberhardt a reputation as one of the top new-folk songwriters of the last decade, one who owes as much to Cole Porter as to Bob Dylan.

Eberhardt will inaugurate the new folk series at the Guthrie Center in Housatonic tomorrow night at 8. Call 528-1955 for information or reservations for “Musical Folks at the Church.”

The Mason-Dixon line of “The Wrong Side of the Line” is just one example of arbitrary lines separating people throughout the songs on Eberhadt's aptly-titled “Borders.” In the bluesy “Lines,” the boundaries are emotional ones, while in “The Land of the Free,” the boundaries are political.

“Borders” is a worthy follow-up to Eberhardt's excellent 1997 album, “12 Songs of Good and Evil,” which itself contained a rogues gallery of petty thieves, sadists and criminals -- characters who, for the most part, were morally and emotionally challenged, yet who were portrayed with an artful sympathy.

“Nothing is black and white, nothing is good or evil,” Eberhardt told the Eagle in an interview in 1998. “All my characters have good and all have evil. What I set out to do is question morally what is right and what is wrong.”

Eberhardt, who lives in Northampton, grew up outside Philadelphia and began performing with his brother when he was 15. By 1978, he had moved to New York, where the folk-club scene was thriving and where he first shared stages with the likes of Gorka, Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, Lucy Kaplansky, Steve Forbert and the Roches.

Throughout the '80s, Eberhardt gigged steadily, playing his own shows and backing Richie Havens and Melanie on guitar. If his voice is instantly familiar, it could well be because you heard it during those years when Eberhardt sang advertising jingles for Coke, Miller Beer and Chevrolet's “Heartbeat of America” series. Eberhardt released his first album, “The Long Road,” in 1990, and followed it up with “Now You Are My Home” in 1993 and “Mona Lisa Café” in 1995.

Critic's picks
Club Helsinki keeps the funk flowing in the coming week, beginning tomorrow night with Boston's Superhoney, fronted by vocalist Joan Pimentel-Flynn, who sounds like a cross between Chaka Khan and Janis Joplin on the group's eponymous CD. Next Thursday, Ithaca, N.Y.-based Nozmo Kings brings its soulful, horn-drenched, Tower of Power-style funk to Helsinki (528-3394). Both shows are at 9.

Williams College student musicians will be showcasing the results of their year-long efforts this weekend in three performances, beginning with the Jazz Ensemble tonight at 8, followed by the student symphony on Saturday night at 8, and concluding with the percussion ensemble on Sunday night at 7. All shows are free and in Chapin Hall.

Brooks Williams's recent all-instrumental recording, “Little Lion” (Signature Sounds), was a long time coming, and was worth the wait. As fans of the singer-songwriter have known for years, Williams is as eloquent a player as he is a writer, and it's great that he allows himself to focus on that aspect of his art on the baker's dozen tracks on “Little Lion,” a mix of original compositions and renditions of melodies by the likes of Caetano Veloso, Jorma Kaukonen, and a Brazilianized bit of Beethoven, among others. Catch the acoustic guitarist at the Iron Horse in Northampton (413-586-8686) tonight at 7.

Also at the Iron Horse, local favorites Catfish Blue make their debut at the Northampton venue tomorrow night at 10.

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