Eric Von Schmidt

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Eric Von Schmidt on the cover of Tomato CD 2053

Eric Von Schmidt was born May 28, 1931. He was a folk and blues singer-songwriter of the folk/blues revival of the 1960s, a key part of the East Coast folk scene [1] and crowd that included Bob Dylan [2] and Joan Baez. His music continues to live through the decades through the interpretations of Travis MacRae and the late Jeff Buckley. He is a sometimes overlooked musician of the era, as his albums are almost entirely out of print at this time, but his name remains famous, even legendary, within the folk music circuit [3] and the music world generally. He was honored in 2000 with the ASCAP Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award [4], at an event [5] which featured a reunion of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band including Fritz Richmond.

Von Schmidt is probably most well known by non-musicians for the song Baby, Let Me Follow You Down, which was for years a staple of Dylan's musical catalogue, and for which Dylan's label, Columbia Records, listed Von schmidt as author; however, Von Schmidt says he didn't actually write it [6]. Within the wider musical community, Von Schmidt is well-known, both in the U.S. and abroad, for his contributions to dozens and dozens of albums; see the extensive discography by Stefan Wirz of Germany [7]. He is widely credited[8], along with Tom Rush, for reviving and arranging the most-widely-performed version of the traditional song Wasn't That A Mighty Storm about the 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas.

Von Schmidt is also a painter and prolific illustrator, and has done the cover art not only for many books, but for a large number of other musicians' albums [9], including for Baez. He co-authored a book also entitled Baby, Let Me Follow You Down[10] and made at least one short film. Although no longer working as a musician, Von Schmidt still paints, and recently completed an epic mural of the battle of The Alamo.

Eric Von Schmidt's father was Harold Von Schmidt, a former painter for the Saturday Evening Post. His father is known for his western landscapes. Eric is currently living in Westport, Connecticut where he is recovering from cancer surgery on his throat.