Eric Heywood grew up in Mount Vernon, Iowa, a little college town of about 3,500. His parents both taught at a small liberal-arts college, and artistic ambitions were encouraged and pursued. His older brother Phil Heywood provided the main early musical influence by way of his obsession with the country blues -- first Mississippi John Hurt and Leadbelly, then Willie McTell and Gary Davis and many more.

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  • Eric Heywood grew up in Mount Vernon, Iowa, a little college town of about 3,500. His parents both taught at a small liberal-arts college, and artistic ambitions were encouraged and pursued. His older brother Phil Heywood provided the main early musical influence by way of his obsession with the country blues -- first Mississippi John Hurt and Leadbelly, then Willie McTell and Gary Davis and many more. These records and Phil’s intensely hammered out renditions of them played constantly around the house and no doubt had a huge part in the development of Eric’s musical pallet and aesthetic. After attempting to play ragtime piano he finally gave in to the guitar while a senior in high school. Phil taught him a John Hurt song and the guitar became an important procrastination tool during his years at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, where he graduated with honors in studio art. Art degree in hand, he quickly landed a job driving cab in St. Paul. Musically, Eric and a couple of friends formed a country blues outfit called Hometown Skiffle and tentatively ventured into performing. Eventually this led to a country band called the Ranchtones in the late 80’s. The bulk of their song list was made up of George Jones, Gram Parsons, and Buck Owens. During this time Eric quit the cabby gig, retreated to the woods of western Wisconsin, became a carpenter, and bought his first pedal steel guitar, securing lessons Leo Kottke's guitarist and guest musician on the first album by The Jayhawks, Cal Hand. After a few years of a weekly Minneapolis bar gig Eric started to become a musician. As Joe Henry's backing band, The Jayhawks, began to see their own career take off Henry assembled a new band consisting of Tim O'Reagan, Jim Boquist, and Eric, hitting the road in 1993 and a year or so later spending five weeks opening for Uncle Tupelo on their final tour. After the breakup of Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar asked him to be a part of his new band, Son Volt, in 1994. For the next four years he toured and made records with them. Richard Buckner did many shows with Son Volt in that period. Richard and Eric ended up playing together on those shows, and ate their way back and forth across the country as a duo through the late nineties. Alejandro Escovedo also opened for Son Volt during that era and hired Eric in 1999 -- the beginnging of a two year stint with Alejandro’s band. There were other tours sprinkled in there with Freakwater and Calexico before Eric changed things up by moving to L.A. in 2001. He took a year off from music to fix up a house and get settled in L.A. , then re-entered by playing with his wife, Kristin Mooney, Jeffrey Foucault, and touring with Ray Lamontagne.
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  • April 2009
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  • Eric Heywood grew up in Mount Vernon, Iowa, a little college town of about 3,500. His parents both taught at a small liberal-arts college, and artistic ambitions were encouraged and pursued. His older brother Phil Heywood provided the main early musical influence by way of his obsession with the country blues -- first Mississippi John Hurt and Leadbelly, then Willie McTell and Gary Davis and many more.
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  • Eric Heywood
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