Eric Paul (record producer)
Eric Paul is an American producer. Paul has produced two Grammy-nominated albums for Townes Van Zandt including Van Zandt's posthumous A Far Cry From Dead and the Van Zandt tribute album Poet. He also served as engineer on Texas Rain: The Texas Hill Country Recordings, an album of duets between Townes Van Zandt and other artists.
Career
Eric Paul is an American Record Producer/Engineer. Paul has produced two Grammy nominated albums for Townes Van Zandt including Poet and A Far Cry From Dead. Paul earned a bachelor's degree in music and sound recording from Fredonia State University. His first break came in 1980 right out of college when legendary hit making producer Phil Ramone took a chance and gave him a staff position at A&R Recording inc., New York City. At A&R he worked with hit artists including, Dave Grusin, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, Karen Carpenter, Steve Forbert, The Romantics, and on John Lennon's seminal last project Double Fantasy.
Paul moved to Nashville in 1981 and continued as an engineer for Jimmy Bowen at Sound Stage Studio's working with acts including Hank Williams Jr., Merle Haggard and cajun/country crooner Eddy Raven. In 1982 he took over as engineer/manager for Glaser Brothers Studio. Tompall Glaser along with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter created the famous Wanted! The Outlaws record at Glaser. It was at this studio that Eric worked with Waylon Jennings recording his voice-over commentary on the TV show Dukes of Hazzard'. In 1986 Norbert Putnum (producer Dan Fogelberg, Jimmy Buffet) invited Eric to join him to engineer at his Tennessee studio; The Bennett House/Digital Recorders. He worked with artists including Emmylou Harris, Michael Card (resulting in Paul’s first Dove award win), Dan Fogelberg, k.d. lang, Alabama, and others. It was during this time that Paul met Fred Foster who was producing a Willie Nelson project. He asked Eric to engineer Nelson's Horse Called Music CD. This project introduced Paul to Austin, Texas, home of Willie Nelson's Pedernales Recording Studio. Paul ended up moving to Austin to operate Willie's studio. He produced a CD called Honky Tonk Heroes with the ensemble cast, Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. He also produced an album on Willie Nelson titled The Hungry Years, and recorded and produced many projects with Willie and his friends.
At Farm Aid in 1990, Paul recorded and mixed Elton John's live piano vocal version of "Candle in the Wind" which Elton had sung as a tribute to young aids victim/advocate Ryan White. This version became a hit. Eric moved back to Nashville in 1991, At that time producer Ken Mansfield asked Eric to engineer, Bill Gaither's CD, Homecoming, garnering a second Dove award. During this time he engineered and produced sessions at, Woodland Studio, Imagine Studio, Music Mill, and many other studios. He produced a posthumous CD of the late Townes Van Zandt called A Far Cry From Dead', garnering a Grammy nomination as producer. A second nomination resulted from Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt. In 2003, Eric moved to Austin, TX and began working with many artists in the independent record scene that was exploding there. He continues to work in both Austin and Nashville doing record production and mastering.