He said it’s not something that he sought out doing, but bluesy music would always be the thing that came out of his guitar. Since those early days of making his fingers bleed on an acoustic, Jerardi has released several albums, solo and under the name the Eric Jerardi Band.
Blues prodigy Noah Wotherspoon and Eric Jerardi will be bringing their bands to play the blues on Nov. 21 at the Brightside.
Last month, Jerardi rereleased the song “Working Double for Half,” first heard on the 2013 album, “Everybody’s Waiting.” The original recording consisted of a lone acoustic guitar, a tambourine and Jerardi’s vocals. Conceptually, the stripped-down nature was an idea that pervaded the entire album: to record to two-inch tape live in the studio and print the board mix, right then and there.
Jerardi recorded the album at Cyberteknics, Dayton’s vintage recording studio, with famed producer/engineer David Z at the helm. But despite the muscle behind it, Jerardi didn’t like how it sounded. So last year he decided to rerecord one of the more relevant tracks at Refraze in Kettering.
“We’re in the most contentious political atmosphere that I can remember in my 55 years,” Jerardi said. “I thought to myself that the last song, ‘Working Double for Half,’ was too fitting for today’s environment.”
Staying faithful to the simplified artifice of “Everybody’s Waiting,” the reimagined track is still just Jerardi and his guitar, merely adding tasty piano licks from Eric Colvin.
The 2024 version of “Working Double for Half” — released through Alternator Records — is a slight sonic pivot from Jerardi’s 2019 soul-blues album, “Occupied,” which had a more produced sheen. But even the music videos visually contrast between then and now — all directed by Jerardi’s longtime creative partner Allen Farst from Niche Productions.
“Do Right by Him,” a single from the 2019 album, has a lavish and cinematic narrative video with a performance element. The throughline in the more modest video for “Working Double for Half” is Jerardi and pianist Da’Rosa Richardson playing to the track in a dive bar, alongside the recurring imagery of a frustrated, ostensibly underpaid employee.
The complexity of the tracks and the complexity of the videos seem to directly correlate. But in the case of the latest video, the small-scale production actually emphasizes the message that the song purports: one that’s honest and raw, just like the blues.
And Jerardi doesn’t see that sentiment going anywhere, anytime soon.
This upcoming Brightside show will be the third Blues Fest with Wotherspoon and Jerardi in the lineup.
When Wotherspoon was younger, his parents would bring him to see local music — including Jerardi.
“He’d sit right there and just study what I was doing. But it wasn’t just me. He would do that with a lot of musicians,” Jerardi said. “He’s a hellacious player and it’s fun to play with him. Last year, we did the Pink Floyd song ‘Wish You Were Here’ together. So now I’ve got to think about what crazy thing we’re going to do for this one.”
Contact this contributing writer at branberry100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: Blues with Noah Wotherspoon & Eric Jerardi
When: 7:30 p.m., Nov. 21
Where: The Brightside, 905 E. 3rd St., Dayton
Cost: $25, general admission
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