Singled Out: Eric Sommer's Red Dress

Keavin Wiggins | 04-06-2023

Promo photo

Eric Sommer and the Fabulous Piedmonts are currently on the road and to celebrate we asked Eric to tell us about the song "Red Dress" from his "Brooklyn Bolero" album. Here is the story:

I was sitting in the kitchen one afternoon and staring at the wall: I needed another good stage song for the set that was up-tempo, had a catchy groove and was easy to understand yet could be read many ways - as many as each listener could see it in any context their hearts desired: it needed to be flexible, elastic and super catchy.

While thinking about this, I was playing a little black parlor guitar in a "D" tuning, but it was a special tuning I got from Charlie Parr in Winona, MN a long time ago; Drop "D" and then octaves by 4ths. I had my fav solid brass balltop slide from Corner Music in Nashville, and I started hitting the opening 8 bars. After a few hours I had it all worked out and I have been playing it ever since.

The cut "Red Dress" on Brooklyn Bolero was recorded in Room 17, Williamsburg/Brooklyn, NY, studio engineered by the great Ted Young (Allman Brothers, Béyonce, Joe Jackson) with Zach Smith on bass and Jimmy Oakley on drums.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about Eric here