Blue River is an album by folk rock musician Eric Andersen, released in 1972. The album was reissued in 1999 by Columbia Legacy with two extra tracks.
Production The album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee. Joni Mitchell contributes vocals on the title track, "Blue River". Chart performance It was his first charting album, it peaked at No. 169 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape during an eleven-week run on the chart. 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." MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide wrote that the album "stands alongside anything that the singer-songwriter produced during the '70s." 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."
Track listing "Is It Really Love at All" (Andersen) – 5:21 "Pearl's Goodtime Blues" (Andersen) – 2:21 "Wind and Sand" (Andersen) – 4:30 "Faithful" (Andersen) – 3:15 "Blue River" (Andersen) – 4:46 "Florentine" (Andersen) – 3:31 "Sheila" (Andersen) – 4:37 "More Often Than Not" (David Wiffen) – 4:52 "Round the Bend" (Andersen) – 5:38 "Come To My Bedside, My Darlin'" (Andersen) – 4:58 ~* "Why Don't You Love Me" (Hank Williams) – 2:54 ~*
~* = Bonus Track on CD Release (recorded during album sessions)
Charts Chart (1972)PeakpositionUS Top LPs & Tape169Canada RPM 10061
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