Bios
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The music of Eric Madis, rooted in blues, jazz and American folk styles, has appeared on film, television, radio and his six Luna Records CDs. Eric has worked and recorded with many artists, including blues greats Robben Ford and Big Walter Horton, Hawaii's iconic Farden Family, jazz ukulele virtuoso Bill Tapia, swing violinist Paul Anastasio and poet Nicki Grimes. He was a Kerrville Festival and Seattle Guitar Starz finalist and the recipient of 27 award nominations from Washington Blues Society and Northwest Area Music Association. Eric is also a renowned guitar instructor, having taught throughout the US and Canada, and online with over 300 videos.
LONG BIO
Eric Madis is a Pacific Northwest guitarist best known for blues, but whose compositions defy strict categorization and combine blues with diverse musical influences. His versatility on acoustic, electric and bottleneck slide guitar have made him a popular session guitarist and allowed him to work with a diverse array of artists, including blues greats Robben Ford and Big Walter Horton, jazz violinists Paul Anastasio and Julian Smedley, jazz ukulele great Bill Tapia, Hawaii’s iconic Farden Family and poet Nikki Grimes. He is also a world-class guitar instructor.
Eric was born in 1953 in Connecticut’s Naugatuck Valley, and raised in rural Colorado and Chicago, IL. His mother, an opera singer with Denver’s Capitol Opera Company, sent Eric for piano lessons at the age of nine, but less than a year later, he took up the guitar after hearing guitarist Grady Martin on a Marty Robbins record. Later that year, he performed for hundreds of youths at a Denver theater. When he was twelve, he and Steve Simmons formed the Phynx of Babylon, playing music of the Byrds and other sixties folk-rock.
Eric’s family moved to Chicago in 1969, where he began playing in coffeehouses as a soloist and in a duo with Nick Felice. In 1971, he formed a duo with Steve Marshall, igniting his interest in blues and jazz. In the early 1970s, he began going to blues clubs and meeting many artists, including Willie Dixon, Otis Rush, Lafayette Leake, Luther Allison, Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery, Memphis Slim and more. While at the University of Illinois, Eric became friends with Robert Ray, a piano virtuoso and professor of Afro-American Music. Noticing Eric’s knowledge of blues and jazz history and his guitar skills, Ray had Eric play in his gospel group and occasionally perform acoustic blues in his class. After graduation, Eric pursued a musical career as a solo artist and playing with Open Road, Madis-Johnson Band, Illinois senior fiddle champion Halbert Thornberry, Big Walter Horton and bluegrass musician Pat Burton.
Eric lived in Dallas 1979-1981, finding recording studio work as a guitarist and later a rhythm section arranger at Sound Productions, a studio in Longview dedicated to black gospel music. He also performed with organist Deacon Jones, Willie Willis, Craig Wallace and harmonica designer Kitt Gamble, and was a 1981 Kerrville Festival New Folk Finalist. He returned to Denver from 1981-1984, where he first led the band Ukiah and later Don’t Go No Further, did an extended solo acoustic engagement at Mercury Cafe and taught blues guitar at Denver Free University.
Relocating to Seattle in 1984, Eric continued to perform in groups and solo, do session work and teach. Seattle artists/bands with whom he has worked include Steve Bailey, Paul Green, Seattle Swing Trio, Pete Martin, Grant Dermody, Mark Dufresne, Ryan Burns, Steve Luceno, Orville Johnson, Little Bill Englehart, Runaway Train, John Hodgkin, Taylor Jay, Dr. Slide, Mike Lynch, Blue Madness and Bluescast. He has opened concerts for Robben Ford & the Blue Line, James Cotton, Little Charlie & the Nightcats, Mem Shannon, Hawkeye Herman and author Sherman Alexie. His teaching credits include National Guitar Workshop, Guitar Workshop Plus, Northwest Folklife, U of Washington Experimental College, Dusty Strings Music and Jamplay.com (Truefire), with whom he has three online courses comprised of over 300 instructional videos.
Eric’s music has appeared on three film soundtracks, television ads, radio and daily airplay at SeaTac International Airport. His six CDs have garnered excellent reviews and award nominations. He is the only Seattle blues artist in Northwest Folklife’s catalog. He was featured in KPLU-FM Newsletter's Best of the Blues, was a finalist in Guitar World’s Seattle Guitar Starz competition and has received 26 Best Blues nominations from WBS.
