Eric Falstrom

from Cincinnati CityBeat
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Labor of 'Love'
By Mike Breen

Singer/songwriter Eric Falstrom has been performing locally for several years, including with the rockin’ Mystery Wagon in the early ’90s. Since then, Falstrom has been working the solo route, releasing his own records off and on since the end of the Wagon.

But Falstrom’s latest disc, LOVE WILL COME THROUGH, feels much like a reintroduction, featuring some of the best writing and performing of his career so far. The album is rich and focused, bringing Falstrom’s strengths — poetic lyrics, a heartfelt singing voice and beautiful arrangements — to the forefront.

Helping the cause are the local artists he chose to work with on the project. Singer/songwriter/keyboardist Sharon Udoh (who also works with The Newbees, Lines and Spaces and several other local acts) offers some elegant, sweeping keys, which add depth and vibrancy to the songs’ gorgeous, romantic sway. David Prues, responsible for the album’s crisp production, also lends some rock-solid drumming to the tracks.

Falstrom, of course, is the album’s heart and soul. There is a passion to his writing and delivery that drips from the speakers. With a voice that’s part Morrissey-sincerity, part Nick Drake-wispiness, Falstrom paints his songs with broad, folksy strokes while retaining a Pop-like hookiness throughout the record.

On tracks like “Remembering Your Love,” Falstrom’s Folk leanings come through strong. While remembering lost loved ones, Falstrom sings earnestly on a bed of acoustic guitar and harmonica. Opener “Angels Will Sing” is more in the Pop vein, but it still possesses a lush romanticism, reflecting some of today’s “New” Folk practitioners, as well as some of the Twee British Pop of the ’90s. Fans of Belle and Sebastian, Andrew Bird, Daniel Martin Moore and Damien Jurado will find a kindred soul on LOVE WILL COME THROUGH.
- Cincinnati CityBeat

from CIN Weekly
January 13, 2009
Local Watch: Eric Falstrom
By Rich Shivener

It's time to smile. We're dominated by negative energy these days, says Eric Falstrom, who recently penned the folk record Love Will Come Through.

"I've written a lot of down-and-out, negative songs," the songwriter says. "This was a conscious effort to focus on positive things. There were 15 tracks recorded, and I couldn't decide which tracks would be on it. I didn't know which to leave off."

He ended up with 10 - and here he explains each one.

1. Angels Will Sing: "That's about marriage ... about dreaming of a healthy marriage."

2. (My Love is Like a) Rainy Day Fund: "Love is worth more than money."

3. Changing the World: "It's about wanting to do something good in the world."

4. Love to Someone: "Needing forgiveness, confessing weaknesses and fear."

5. Follow That Thought: "This is a world that tends to bring people down. A lot of people are in need of encouragement."

6. Remembering Your Love: "My dad loved Bob Dylan. He and my stepmom are entering their retirement period. And it's a remembering of all the things they've done."

7. Good Sister: "It's asking for permission to start over."

8. Love Will Come Through: "The strength of love and that it's stronger than death. We get so caught up in negativity."

9. Cincinnati: "It's kind of a celebration of some of the things that I love about Cincinnati."

10. Returning: "That's a vision of the end and being received from the place you came from. You get to see anybody that you ever lost (again)." - CIN Weekly