News
Writing Music for, and Performing in, The Taming of the Shrew
Cliff has been selected to compose original songs for, and perform in, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Folger Elizabethan Theatre production of The Taming of the Shrew, in Washington, D.C. The show, directed by Aaron Posner, runs from May 1 – June 10, 2012. For tickets, please click here.
Helen Hayes Award-winning director Aaron Posner leads real life husband and wife Cody Nickell and Kate Eastwood Norris in a sparring match enlivened by original music composed and performed by singer-songwriter Cliff Eberhardt.
December 5, 2011Teaching at Summer Music Camps
This summer, Cliff returns to teach at two summer music camps.
July 15 – 21, 2012, you can attend his classes at WUMB’s 17th Annual Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW) in New Hampshire on beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee.
July 29 – August 4, 2012, he’ll be teaching at The Swannanoa Gathering on the campus of Warren Wilson College, just east of Asheville in the heart of North Carolina's beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.
December 5, 2011Review of All Wood and Doors
James Lee Stanley & Cliff Eberhardt -All Wood and Doors“Pulling the plug!” :The Doors hits in new acoustic settings. A great idea, beautifully executed
* FIVE Stars *
The Doors were a classic rock band and their songs are rarely “covered” well – the exception being Jose Feliciano’s take on “Light My Fire” which may have actually sold more singles than the Doors’ original.
Singer-songwriters James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt put their pens (or is it their PC keyboards these days?) aside for this project in which they strip down all the classic Doors hits to an acoustic production. And it works beautifully! There’s not an electric instrument in sight and none are missed. Not only do the words shine through but there are new settings as well. Listen to “Touch Me”. Its pace is showed down so the words take on a new meaning. All the songs are slowed down. The lead off track – “Break on Through” may be the fastest one here. And the twelve songs all average about 3 ½ minutes in length – even the mega-hit “Light My Fire”.
This is a follow-up to the CD “All Wood and Stones”, which Stanley recorded with John Batdorf (and I have not heard). Original Doors drummer John Densmore heard it and suggested this project to Stanley, who – after hooking up with Eberhardt at the International Folk Alliance in Memphis – convinced Densmore to play percussion on a few tracks on the album. Densmore brought along Doors guitarist Robby Kreiger to the project as well. The all too brief liner notes list SIX different lead guitar players (including the Monkees’ Peter Tork, Kreiger, Eagles’ Timothy B. Schmidt and Little Feat’s Paul Barrere, but do not identify which “lead” is on which track. Stanley and Scott Breadman are listed along with Densmore on “Percussion”. You can probably spend all day guessing who is playing on each track but that’s just a “celebrity guessing game”. It’s the music you are hearing that counts and all the tracks sound great to me. If I had to pick favorites it would be “Break on Through”, “Love Me Two Times”, “Strange Days” and “Moonlight Drive” (one of the Doors’ lesser-known recordings. Eberhardt’s raspy voice blends nicely with Stanley’s smoother vocal tone, when needed, but usually they take turns on lead vocal.
Real ROCK fans may find this too toned-down but those into acoustic and Americana music will find this an album worth seeking out. And the style fits in perfectly for “folk radio” where you’d rarely (if ever) hear a track by Jim Morrison and the Doors.
Steve Ramm
“Anything Phonographic”
All Wood and Doors
All Wood and Doors, is an acoustic guitar album like no other -- 12 Classic Doors songs sung and played by Cliff Eberhardt and James Lee Stanley; accompanied by: Peter Tork (monkees), Timothy B Schmit (eagles), Laurence Juber (paul mccartney & wings), Paul Barrere (little feat), Scott Breadman (rippingtons, lindsay buckingham), Chad Watson (david arkenstone, janis ian), and very special guests John Densmore and Robby Krieger.
Fans of The Doors, acoustic guitar aficionados, as well as Crosby Stills & Nash, Buffalo Springfield, Rubber Soul, the Eagles, or classic Beach Boys harmonies are in for a real treat.
Can you imagine what The Doors songs would have sounded like if they had been created with acoustic guitars? Would Light My Fire, Riders On the Storm or Touch Me been as powerful played on acoustic guitars and filled with vocal harmonies?
Curious?
So were James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt, purveyors of acoustic rock music for decades. They took 12 Doors classics and turned them into something totally unthought of.
You don't have to play acoustic guitar to be enchanted by All Wood and Doors ... An amazing collection of Doors tunes played on acoustic guitars and laden with soulful vocals and joyous harmonies.
All Wood and Doors — a unique sounding album of classic Doors songs.
You haven't heard the too many of The Doors songs covered as they seem to hold such a unique place in our musical history and the originals have so much mystique. Fun music to listen to, and great records, aren't they?
Well, All Wood and Doors takes an acoustic closer look at all of these classic Doors songs in a way that has never been done before. The angle is so different that you'd better prepare yourself for a big surprise, a positively shocking one.
All Wood and Doors takes you on a trip. It acts like a time machine. In a single moment you will find yourself hearing these Doors songs from a different world. Familiar and completely brand new.
Click here for more
