Eric Tingstad – featuring Suzie Bradford & Terry Lauber
Grammy Award winning fingerstyle guitarist Eric Tingstad is well known for his impressionistic style and an uncanny ability to unearth the soul of musical landscapes creating a distinctive sense of place. It’s been said by more than a few, that upon hearing just five to six notes, one can categorically determine sight unseen, it is Eric Tingstad playing guitar.
The eldest of three brothers, Eric grew up in Seattle and attended Western Washington University where he was trained in the Segovian classic guitar tradition. But he’s also a product of influences like Led Zeplin, King Crimson and time spent pounding out rock and roll. Not to mention the family “Hi-fi” with Hawaiian slack key guitar, Ravi Shanker, The Kingston Trio and Martin Denny. As a soloist he developed a devoted following with a warm, personal style that became known as “Northwest Impressionism.”
In 1985, Eric began a collaboration with Nancy Rumbel and their road to success has been paved with critical acclaim. Their debut album, The Gift, an acoustic Christmas collection, quickly became a holiday classic selling ten thousand copies in the first ten weeks and has gone on to sell over 400,000 copies. It remains a best-selling Christmas album rated fifth on the Top Ten Holiday Classics List compiled for NAV. In 1990 Billboard dubbed their sound a “sonic landscape” and In the Garden raked in national reviews from The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as Billboard in the fall of 1991. Both Pastorale and Paradise debuted at number one on the Adult Contemporary charts. In 1998 their double album, American Acoustic was honored as “Acoustic Instrumental Album of the Year” by NAV. It debuted at number one on Adult Contemporary charts and spent 10 weeks on the Billboard radio charts. A Carnegie Hall appearance in 2000. And in 2003 they received a Grammy Award for Acoustic Garden.
By a vote of his peers, Tingstad was honored in October 2006 with the Coyote Award from Arts Northwest commemorating his leadership, visibility and contributions to the constant change in the arena of live performance.
His inimitable style stands out in his latest musical offering titled, SOUTHWEST (Cheshire Records) slated for release in late 2006. A longstanding and highly visible steward of the land, Tingstad conceived this project eight years ago under the working title, “The Desert Project.” Earthy and evocative, the music evokes the landscape and ancestral spirit of the great American Southwest.