Eric Olson

I know Eric through Rudra.  In the 200-plus tinyboatsession artists, I'd never had more variety of instruments than in the Bay Area.  Out of those folks Eric came with not one instrument that had never been played in CLARABELLE, but three.  Eric not only plays instruments but collects and fixes them.  We met in Oakland outside of Jack London Square and for his performances, we floated around between a massive Expeditionary Transfer Dock, the USS JOHN GLENN, and the decommissioned lightship RELIEF.  

His first song was by a friend of his called ‘Breath’ and he sang this with a small guitar called a Chirango, that he brought because he felt a tiny instrument was fitting for a tinyboat.  It seemed just as fitting to have a song with that name in front of a ship named RELIEF. His second instrument was a Borden Lyre built in Germany by a company that taught and employed developmentally disabled people how to make instruments.  It had been sitting unused in a closet for 30 years when he found it, fixed it, and made it sing after all those years of silence.  Today he made it speak as he sang the Gaietry Mantra with it.  

The last instrument was a lyre he found at a used guitar store.  This one was in bad shape.  He replaced most of the 36 strings and devised a way to tune it and has been experimenting since he bought it.  With this one, he sang the Mahamrityunjaya Mantra.

The water was calm and the temperature was just right for a t-shirt.  He played and the only disturbance was the occasional train howl in the background, but this just seemed to fold into this moment of peace. Instagram: @eric.olson.music