Eric von Schmidt 1931-2007

Eric von Schmidt
Singer and writer who inspired Bob Dylan
Michael Carlson
Monday February 5, 2007

The Guardian

Eric von Schmidt, who has died aged 75, was a captivating performer and songwriter, but his legacy remains firmly tied to Bob Dylan. A major figure in the Cambridge (Massachusetts) folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was a man of huge generosity to his fellow musicians.
When Dylan travelled to Cambridge, where he met Joan Baez, he crashed with von Schmidt, learned songs from him, and played his first game of croquet stoned. Dylan repaid the hospitality on his first album by crediting "Rick von Schmidt" in the spoken introduction to Baby Let Me Follow You Down, although, in fact, von Schmidt's own version was adapted from Blind Boy Fuller's original. Three years later, Dylan posed for the cover of Bringing It All Back Home next to a pile of records. On top was The Folk Blues of Eric von Schmidt.

Even that plug did not propel von Schmidt to stardom, but stardom was something he never sought. He had a parallel career as a painter, including album covers for Baez, Cisco Houston, John Renborn, Rev Gary Davis, Geoff and Maria Muldaur and even for James Baldwin's readings. His masterpiece was the gatefold Sweet Moments with the Blue Velvet Band, a short-lived bluegrass supergroup featuring Jim Rooney, Bill Keith, Eric Weissberg, and Richard Greene, which included a board game over both inside panels.

His artistic talent came from his father, Harold, a Western painter who did illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post. Born in Wesport, Connecticut, von Schmidt was selling his artwork while still a teenager. He had been captivated by country music after hearing the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, and at 17 he was listening to Leadbelly.

While in the army, he read Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, and discovered he could order peyote legally by post, which made his army experience more rewarding. After a spell in Florida, he won a Fulbright scholarship to study art in Florence. He moved to Cambridge in 1957, where he painted and became the centre of the coffeehouse scene. He recorded his first album, featuring the song Grizzly Bear in 1961 with folk historian Rolf Cahn. In 1963 he and Richard Farina recorded in London's Dobell's Jazz Record store, with one Blind Boy Grunt (Dylan) on harmonica. That was followed by Folk Blues, with Geoff Muldaur and Fritz Richmond from the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. His fourth, Eric Sings von Schmidt, again with Muldaur, included Joshua's Gone Barbados, one of the most covered of all folk songs, including the Basement Tapes epic version by Dylan and The Band.

He was at his peak, but despite a rapturous reception at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Farina and his wife Mimi Baez, Joan's sister, famously danced to his singing, Dylan's going electric overshadowed him. His next album did not appear until 1969. Who Knocked the Brains Out of the Sky is surprising psychedelic folk, with Dylan writing the liner notes. Von Schmidt then ventured to Woodstock to make two records. The first, 2nd Right 3rd Row, was released in 1972 on Poppy Records. Poppy folded before releasing its follow-up, Livin' on the Trail, also featuring the Band's Garth Hudson and Geoff and Maria Muldaur, with Rooney producing. The tapes were rediscovered and finally released in 2002. In the ensuing 30 years, von Schmidt made only two records.

His art career flourished and, with Rooney, he wrote a brilliant history of the Cambridge folk years called Baby Let Me Follow You Down (1979).

In 2000 he developed throat cancer. That year he received a lifetime achievement award from the society of music publishers, ASCAP, and was serenaded with his and Tom Rush's What a Mighty Storm. It was a tribute to a singer whom Dylan said "could sing the bird off the wire and rubber off the tire ...separate the men from the boys and the note from the noise".

Twice divorced, he is survived by two daughters.

· Eric von Schmidt, musician, born May 28 1931; died February 2 2007



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