Eric Andersen (born February 14, 1943) is an American folk music singer-songwriter,[1] who has written songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, Rick Nelson, and many others.

[3] He moved to Boston and then San Francisco, where he met Tom Paxton, finally settling in New York City at the height of the Greenwich Village folk movement.

[1] His best-known songs from the 1960s folk era are "Violets of Dawn", "Come to My Bedside", and "Thirsty Boots" (the latter recorded by Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, and John Denver amongst others).

In 1975 he performed with Arlen Roth at the opening show of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue at Gerde's Folk City and again in Niagara Falls.

[14] At this point in his career, Andersen was living in Oslo, Norway, and, in the early 1990s, he joined the trio Danko/Fjeld/Andersen, with Rick Danko (the Band) and the Norwegian singer-songwriter Jonas Fjeld.

Praised as "dreamy and introspective", the album was followed two years later by You Can't Relive The Past, which included original blues numbers as well as a selection of songs co-written with Townes Van Zandt.

In addition to covers of his own songs, the albums featured new versions of classics by his sixties contemporaries and friends, including David Blue, Bob Dylan, Richard Fariña, Tim Hardin, Peter La Farge, Fred Neil, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Paul Siebel, Patrick Sky, Tom Paxton, John Sebastian, Happy Traum, Lou Reed, and Tom Rush.

In August 2014, Andersen released a limited-edition double 10" vinyl record, "Shadow and Light of Albert Camus", featuring it:Michele Gazich on violin and piano, with cover design paintings of de:Oliver Jordan.

[20] In June 2020, Y&T Music issued Woodstock under the Stars, a collection featuring a 36-track triple CD drawn from concerts, a webcast and studio sessions recorded between 1991 and 2011.

The performances feature special guests Rick Danko, John Sebastian, Garth Hudson, Eric Bazilian, Happy Traum, Artie Traum, Inge Andersen (singer-songwriter, Eric Andersen's wife and harmony singer), Joe Flood, Jonas Fjeld, Gary Burke and Robert Aaron) with cover design paintings of de:Oliver Jordan.

The artists include Bob Dylan, Lucy Kaplansky, Albert Lee, Scarlet Rivera, Willie Nile, Elliott Murphy, Eric Bazilian, Larry Campbell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Janis Ian, Robert Aaron, Steve Addabbo, John Gorka, Happy Traum, Amy Helm, Linda Ronstadt, Lenny Kaye, Rick Danko and many others.

Other musicians who performed on the album include Lenny Kaye, Larry Campbell, Steve Addabbo, Robert Aaron, it:Michele Gazich, Richard Barone, and Inge Andersen.

In his lengthy career, Andersen has issued more than 30 albums to which many artists have contributed, including Joan Baez, Dan Fogelberg, Al Kooper, Willie Nile, Joni Mitchell, Lou Reed, Leon Russell, Richard Thompson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Eric Bazilian, Arlen Roth, Tony Garnier, Howie Epstein, and many others.

His songs have been recorded by artists all over the world, including the Blues Project, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul & Mary, the Mitchell Trio, John Denver, The Dillards, Ricky Nelson, Fairport Convention, Grateful Dead, Ratdog (Bob Weir), Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Gillian Welch, Eilen Jewell Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Françoise Hardy, Rick Danko, Linda Thompson, The Kingston Trio, and Pete Seeger.

Richard Harrington, music critic for The Washington Post, wrote, "No other songwriter born in the generation between World War II and Korea has better explored the insistence of love, whether it be sensible or hopeless, beseeched or betrayed.

Andersen wrote the lyric texts, composed music, and recorded songs for the painter Oliver Jordan's Albert Camus exhibition called "Paintings out of Revolt".

[3] In 1974, Andersen appeared in the Les Blank documentary A Poem is a Naked Person, which covered three years in the life of rock star Leon Russell.

In 2011, filmmakers Paul Lamont and Scott Sackett began production on The Songpoet, a documentary exploring Eric Andersen's uncompromising 50-year artistic journey.