Eric Harrison — “Undertow”
Americana Highways presents this video premiere of Eric Harrison’s song “Undertow,” from his brand new album No Defenses, just released on March 3. No Defenses was produced by Kevin Salem (Freedy Johnston, Emmylou Harris) and recorded in Salem’s studio in Woodstock.
“Undertow” is Eric Harrison on vocals, and all instrumentation by Kevin Salem. The video was produced, created and recorded by Eric Harrison. He sings powerfully” “We came and we conquered, planted a flag on the beach, we laughed at the poet who wrote about eating a peach” with rather differently focused lyrics than Suzanne Vega’s song from the ’80s with the same title. Waves crashing on a breaker behind him, Harrison is going to fight the undertow rather than give in to it — some solid advice. A widely hopeful song about sidestepping difficulties as they come, and focusing on connection, delivered in a Jersey boy, heartland-meets-the shore, style.
Nothing cries out “SMASH HIT!” like a T.S. Eliot or D.H. Lawrence reference, so it was a no-brainer to kick off my new album with this response to Suzanne Vega’s 40 year old song of the same name. To me it’s about resisting, regrouping and returning to the scene of a defeat with a sense of possibility and joy intact. I could have called it “Even the Losers Get Lucky Sometimes” . . . but that phrase didn’t fit the rhyme scheme. — Eric Harrison
To purchase the song on bandcamp: https://ericharrison.bandcamp.com/album/no-defenses
To all Eric’s stuff online: https://linktr.ee/ericharrisonsongwriter