Eric Sommer Comes to Memphis and Little Rock In Support of New CD

Eric Sommer has touring for years and years in small rooms and shoe-box clubs, making little money and receiving little recognition, driven only by the power of the music and the belief that you are making a difference.

Years of relentless touring, lugging amps, moving gear, packing and unpacking 7-8 guitars twice a night across the US and Europe have produced a collection of songs, stories and soundscape compositions by a guitar player who's time, who's moment, it seems, has arrived.

Eric Sommer started out in Boston and was a founding member of the cult power-pop punk band The Atomics who paired with The Dead Kennedys, Gang of Four and Bugsy Low Low on numerous tours. European tours and a residence in Aarhus, Denmark placed Eric in the German and Holland northern Europe rock circuit five days a week.

Relentless tour schedules keep Eric Sommer in front of many shows and tours with important artists: Nick Lowe bands Wreckless Eric and Bram Tschikovsky as well as David Bromberg, Jon Dee Graham, John Mayall, Dr. John, Jerry Douglas, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, Little Feat, Andy McKee, John Hammond and many, many others. Eric currently tours 270-280 days of the year and has been living on the road for the past 7 years. His full bio can be viewed online on the Eric Sommer website

Rainy Day Karma was recorded in Pittsburgh at 20 Cedar Studios and features Eric Sommer on guitars, harmonicas and vocals, Dave the K on all things bass and percussion by Matt Vaughan; vocals were mastered in Nashville by Jeff Silverman of Pallette Productions. Eric Sommer is represented by Clyde is Thinking, and PR programs are managed thru MTGNY.

The record is upbeat and catchy, masking it’s darker content:

Europe, Europe - is an anthem that laments the coming collapse of the EU, and how Europe has so fully adopted and integrated into American Culture with little foundation.

Red Queen – is a stark look at copycat suicides, especially high among teenagers who see no jobs, few educational opportunities and no path to a legitimate life as reasons to gamble and work the drug trade.

Cover My Soul in Gasoline – is a brave look at the grey urban landscape where hoplessness and despair are the shared experience… written in the beer cooler of the Bowery Poetry Club on 10th and 3rd Avenue, now closed and abandoned.

Eric will be performing these songs and many others in a 3-4hr show, filled with open tuning soundscapes, slide guitar swamp rock, sparse acoustic ballads and power-pop with audio overdrive and feedback manipulations. Three shows in the area are: