" -David A. Kulczyk, Maximum Ink

Singer/guitarist/songwriter Eric Blowtorch sings, plays, and writes reggae, ska, rocksteady, soul, rock 'n' roll, funk, hip-hop, Anglo-Afropop, and jazz songs with rhythm, melody, passion, and original comic timing. E.B. plays solo, in duos with selected stars, and sometimes more.

The new Eric Blowtorch album, on which E. B. plays drums, percussion, bass(electric and upright), piano, organ, guitar, and trumpet, in addition to singing, is entitled Eric Blowtorch Plays Himself. "Everybody has a gimmick," Blowtorch claims. "Mine's content" – emotional, communal, and political content delivered with intense guitar playing and singing.

Eric Blowtorch is an ambitious artist; some say lunatic. In fits of inspiration, E. B. put music to two tracks from Thomas Pynchon's landmark novel Gravity's Rainbow. One of the resulting songs appears as a ghost track at the end of the Milwaukee compilation CD Workman's Comp. Dr. Larry Daw of The Modern World, a Pynchon fan website, describes one of E. B.'s interpretations of a Pynchon lyric as "stylistically unique and almost impossible to peg to one musical style. It shows great compositional skill and a tremendous sensitivity to what Pynchon was trying to say. It amplifies his meaning to a far greater extent that what one gets from just reading some printed words on a page."

Eric Blowtorch has played to appreciative audiences in Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, College Station (Texas), New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto, London, and Kingston, Jamaica. Leading bands he's opened for Billy Bragg, Paul Cebar and the Milwaukeeans, del Amitri, Diblo Dibala and Matchatcha, Dr. Madd Vibe, the Mighty Blue Kings, the Itals, and the Skatalites. Solo he's opened for Alternative TV, Dan Hicks, the Jazz Butcher, Alfred Johnson, and the Yell Leaders, among others. He's also performed live with jazz saxophonist George Braith, jazz/reggae trumpeter Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton, and the Alpha Boys' Band of Alpha Boys' School, Kingston, Jamaica. The Alternative TV DVD Splitting in Two features performances of "Love Lies Limp" and "Communication Failure" by ATV with E.B. on melodica, live at London's 100 Club in December of 2001.

In his recordings E. B. has worked with Jamaican musicians Duckie Simpson(Black Uhuru), Bagga Walker (Sound Dimension, Black Uhuru), Keith Sterling(everybody), and the late, great Roland Alphonso (Skatalites). His Midwestern recording partners include Shahanna McKinney (Highball Holiday), the Blue Tips, Dan Hanrahan, Paul Cebar, Robyn Pluer, Paul Finger (Wild Kingdom), Danny Dan Fernández (International Jet Set, the Sophisticates), D. J. Brooks (Citizen King), and Jason Todd (Def Harmonic, Minus After, Leo Minor) – a formidable array of collaborators. For exciting, entertaining, and edifying music, dig Eric Blowtorch now.

Eric Blowtorch = Eric Beaumont

1505 N.Franklin Pl., #506,

Milwaukee, WI 53202-2238

(414) 220-1104

e_beaumont@yahoo.com