Eric Merrill

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #134 (February/March 2008).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Eric Merrill

A Musical Balancing Act

by Kerry Dexter

Eric Merrill's path in music has been a bit more direct than he had anticipated. "I went to my high school reunion a couple of years ago," the Boston-based artist said, "and had it pointed out to me that I'd written a college application essay in which I said I hoped to be a violin maker and an Irish fiddle player." Merrill is both those things, as well as a singer, banjo player, producer, and an active presence in the New England folk, country, and Celtic scenes who has toured with Irish musician John Whelan and bluegrass artist Adrienne Young.

His path into roots music was maybe not quite as direct as it would seem from that essay. Merrill grew up in Seattle, in a family who loved music. "My mom is a music teacher, and my grandmother also taught violin and grew up playing fiddle. I started playing violin when I was six and singing in boy choir when I was eight, so I had a lot, early on," Merrill said. "I was really lucky. Especially boy choir, because our director had this great philosophy of trying to create musicians instead of trying to trick a bunch of 11-year-olds into putting on a good concert for their parents." On the roots music side, Merrill's grandmother had grown up in eastern Idaho playing for all-night square dances as a young girl, and it was she who gave him his first fiddle. His uncle had a band in Idaho and played country and old-time music. Back home in Seattle, he was also interested in woodworking and had "just a general interest in how things work." In high school, Merrill went to a summer music camp at Indiana University in Bloomington. As part of that program, students had an introduction to the university's violin shop.

[cover #134]