ERIC ANDERSEN - BMHOF CLASS OF 1999

Eric Andersen grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Snyder, but left the Buffalo area in 1964. He moved through Boston and San Francisco, finally settling in NYC at the height of the Greenwich Village folk movement. There he established a reputation as one of that era's most compelling song writers and has been compared to Bob Dylan. 

One of Anderson's best albums was "Blue River", released in 1972. Critic Allan Orski wrote, "It was undoubtedly his greatest work and stands alongside anything that the folk-singer movement produced during the 70's". 

Andersen seemed to drift out of the music business for over a decade but in the late 1980's he returned with the comeback album "Ghosts Upon the Road".

According to Rolling Stone Magazine, it was "a masterwork and one of the best albums of the 1980's".

It took another 8 years for Andersen to release another CD, which was last year's "Memory of the Future". Currently he spends much of his time living in Norway and makes occasional live appearances in the U.S. His last appearance in WNY was last year at The Calumet Cafe. 

He was not able to make it to the 1999 Induction Ceremony but sent a thank you letter to The Buffalo News, which was published in Gusto.