|
Linda Rondstadt
The Supremes
Patsy Cline
Aretha Franklin
Rita Coolidge
Melissa Manchester
Anne Murray
Carole King
Carly Simon
Helen Reddy
Gladys Knight
Donna Summer
Barbra Streisand
Bonnie Raitt
Heart (Ann Wilson)
Stevie Nicks
Blondie
Cyndi Lauper
The Pretenders
Madonna
Whitney Houston
Sheryl Crow
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Trisha Yearwood
Susan Tedeschi
Jonatha Brooke
Norah Jones
Tina Turner
"I
don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to."
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
"There's no bad day that can't be overcome by listening to
a barbershop quartet."
Chuck, The World According to Chuck
weblog,
September 30, 2003
"The way to write American music is simple. All you have to
do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish."
Virgil Thompson
"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always
have plenty of music."
George Eliot (1819 - 1880)
Blessed is he who has learned to laugh at himself, for he shall
never cease to be entertained.
John Powell
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no
path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)
Everything
that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of
ourselves.
Carl Gustav Jung
(1875-1961)
We must become the change we want to see.
Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948)
"I prefer not to refer to it as a mid-life crisis, but rather
a rebirth."
Erin Cruise (2003)
|
Born
and raised in the woods, by a pack of wolves, Erin never quite “fit
in”. She always wondered “who am I, really?” After
years on the road making a living as a “carni”, she began
questioning, “Is there life beyond?” Always
in search of “home”…….she moved from town
to town, singing nursery rhymes to anyone that would listen. One
day, she won a local talent contest singing the theme song to the
television show “Hee Haw” and so began her journey…..
|
Not really…..Erin was born in Hammond, Indiana,
February 18, 1962, the fourth child
and only girl, and moved from state to state with her
Daddy’s job, thru her entire childhood. Erin began
singing at a very early age and her first record, a
45 on vinyl was “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”
by Nancy Sinatra. She LOVED that song and danced and
danced to it. She was three and living in Pittsburgh,
PA at the time. At five years old, her parents bought
her an organ. She taught herself chords and began to
play and sing along.
|
|
| It
was from her father’s side of the family that she
inherited “the gift” and he would come home
from work and play his guitar and sing. |
|
Soon,
Erin joined in and sang harmonies with him to songs
like, “Green Green Grass of Home” and “Country
Roads”. At 10 years old, Erin’s parents
bought her a Baldwin spinet piano. She fell in love
with it and began composing AND writing lyrics at that
time. |
| Unfortunately,
she never saved or recorded any of that material. She
did take lessons until she was 16 when she became interested
in anything but practicing! Oh well. Her family settled
briefly in Des Moines, Iowa long enough for her to go
to high school there and college. Her senior year in high
school, she was awarded “Musician of the Year”.
She’s still not sure why. Erin began college with
the intent of earning a Music degree. But when they didn’t
offer, Rock & Roll 101, or how to have a career like
Pat Benatar, she changed her major to Broadcasting with
a minor in Music. |
During
college, Erin worked for the local ABC affiliate in
Des Moines, and had a short gig working as a field reporter
for the 5 o’clock news and then anchorperson for
the early morning news. She then relocated to Sioux
Falls, SD where she worked for another ABC affiliate
in the Creative Services Dept. |
|
| She
wrote and produced TV commercials for local advertisers.
It was there that she began dabbling in singing commercially
for a local ad agency. |
| 1987,
at the age of 25, she followed her heart and moved to
New York for a man and a dream. Well, the man didn’t
work out, but the dream began to cultivate. |
| In
1988, she met a man on the train commuting
into Manhattan, Charlie Allenson, who was an ad agency
writer and songwriter. They worked together, playing out
in coffee houses and such for two years. He played guitar
and she sang his music. Charlie was inspirational to Erin
as he brought her back to her roots with his music and
inspired her to continue to pursue singing publicly. He
was also instrumental in getting her much of her initial
jingle work as well. |
|
At
the same time, she met Mark Calcagni, in the produce
dept. at a grocery store, who eventually introduced
her to Vito Albano, of “Alive n’
Kickin". Vito then introduced her to Bruce
Sudano, (www.brucesudano.com)
songwriter, original member of “Brooklyn
Dreams”, who Vito grew up with in Brooklyn.
|
|
The two of them decided to work with Erin, write for her
and produce her and form their own independent record
label called Purple Heart Records. Erin remembers driving
down to Brooklyn in the middle of the night, from Westchester
County, NY to record in a studio off of Flatbush Avenue.
Then she’d get a couple hours sleep, hop on a train,
and head into the city for her day job, working for VOGUE
Magazine. |
"Cold
Shower" charted Billboard’s Hot 100 at #90
|
Over
the course of almost four years, Vito, Bruce and Erin
recorded more than 20 songs, with four official releases,
the first two being club hits, “Eat Your
Heart Out” and “Never Enough”,
the third release being “Waiting For You”
which was backed by RCA Records and was a dedication
to the troops of Desert Storm. The last song, “Cold
Shower” was the radio hit,
what Bruce, his brother Barry and all involved had worked
for. The song, with the help of BMG distribution, charted
Billboard’s Hot 100 at #90 and sold more than
60,000 copies.
|
Erin
traveled mainly up and down the east coast with one
stint in Las Vegas, accompanied by her fiancé/road
manager, Michael Marino, a New York
native, doing “track dates” to promote her
singles. She also appeared on such TV shows as "The
Joe Franklin Show" in NY and "Dance Party
USA" in Philly. After the success of “Cold
Shower”, Bruce partnered with a label
out of Boston called, Critique Records, and they began
a new path of focus musically and artistwise, and the
contract Erin had with Purple Heart was not renewed.
Right around the same time, she and Michael married,
June 12th, 1992.
|
In our trailer at a Boston concert with artists such
as The Smithereens, K.D. Lang and James Brown.
|
After
her record deal ended in 1992, Erin
got a call from a local bandleader who was looking for
a singer for weddings/corporate parties. At the age
of 30, this would be the first time Erin would sing
with a “live” band. She soon discovered,
this was a singer’s ultimate high! Although this
was intended to be a temporary gig, until her next record
deal (ha!) she remained with the Al Craven Band for
seven years. |
|
Billy
Seidman and Erin at Emerald Studios, Nashville, TN.
|
One
evening in 1994, she got up to sing
at an open-mic night at Le Bar Bat on
West 57th in NYC. She was approached by a songwriter
named Billy Seidman, who was looking
for an artist to produce. They worked diligently for
over a year, writing together and finding her sound.
|
Billy
thought Erin’s voice really lent itself to country
music so he put a band together, comprising of various
musicians from Manhattan, and they rehearsed a set of
original music and began playing out at places like
The Bitter End and Denim &
Diamonds. Billy’s drive was boundless
and soon he planned a trip for the two of them to
Nashville.
He set up meetings with record label executives, heads
of artist management companies, publicists, photographers,
anyone in Nashville that might take interest in their
material and in Erin as an artist.
Rather than bring along a NY produced demo, he set up
recording time at Emerald Studios in Nashville and used
their top-notch studio players. |
|
Wreckin'
Machine.mp3
Hometown.mp3
Slow
Leak.mp3
|
It was one of the finest moments in Erin’s singing
career recording with these amazingly talented musicians!
All three songs on this page are from those sessions.
These are scratch demos, scratch vocals,
NOT final mixes.
|
“Wreckin’
Machine” is
just a fun, energy tune and remains one of Erin’s
favorites! She never could understand why it got no
response in Nashville. But then, since when does anything
make sense in the music biz? “Hometown”
was inspired by Erin’s nomadic upbringing.
“Slow
Leak” written solely by Billy, is a
catchy, silly, country shuffle, about love, what else?!
Unfortunately, they went back to NY from Nashville without
a record deal, but with a memory of an experience that
will last a lifetime.
Due
to contractual differences, Billy and Erin parted ways
in 1996.
|
| 
|
In 1996, after four years of marriage,
Erin gave birth to her first child, Madison
Dee. She was still singing with Al Craven and
doing studio session work. During pregnancy, Erin began
to contemplate her relationship with HER Mom and wrote
a song called, “My
Mama’s Hands” which
was inspired by this period in her life. She collaborated
with a woman from Larchmont, NY, Sandy Wilbur, who has
an impressive resume of her own as a songwriter. Sandy
co-wrote and produced this demo for Erin. |
| In
1998, Erin gave birth to her second child,
Benjamin Michael. Still singing on the weekends, she devoted
the rest of her time to being a full-time Mom. Never one
to turn down a gig, her husband would bring their newborn
to the job during the band’s dinner break and Erin
would run outside, hop in the car, nurse the baby, and
then go back to work and finish the gig. |
| Around
1998, Al Craven added another female vocalist
to the group. It wasn’t long before she and Erin
discovered what a beautiful blend their voices had. Ten
years Erin’s junior, Christine Tambakis had a drive
and a freshness with a LOT of new ideas. |
 |
“SistaGroove”
|
In
2000, Christine and Erin felt it was
time to branch off and start their own band. After being
in the business for almost eight years, Erin was ready
co-run her own operation. So, they put a seven-piece ensemble
together and called it, “SistaGroove”.
Just naming the band, was one of their most exciting
moments!!! Ha! They actually came up with “Groove
Sistas” first and then simply turned it around.
Brilliant! |
| Right
after the band started booking gigs, Erin’s husband
started his own business and her family relocated to south
central Pennsylvania. Upon
moving to York, PA, it was Erin’s intention to
take a breather from weekend work as a singer an be
more of a wife/suburban Mom. Silly idea, as it was soon
apparent that although you could take the singer away
from the gigs, you can’t take the need out of
the singer.
While Erin continued to commute back and forth to NY
for her bread and butter, working with Christine and
SistaGroove and freelancing in other bands, she started
to explore work in the D.C. area, closer to home, and
although she did find some freelance work, it wasn’t
enough to support her “need”.
|
At
the same time, Erin’s 10-year marriage was coming
to an end and this was probably a huge factor in her motivation
to make her mark as a singer in the Harrisburg/York area.
Music being the one consistent in her life, she relied
heavily on that being the focus during this emotionally
turbulent time.
She decided to take her experience as a singer and bandleader,
with SistaGroove, and see if she could build that business
for herself locally.
|
|
Her
first band was formed with drummer, Dwayne Dickey, called
“Word of Mouth”. That band broke up after
only about nine months and Erin then met Butch Barber,
drummer and co-founder of “Cruise
Control”.
|
Cruise
Control |
The
two worked together to form a five-piece variety/dance
band and began performing publicly in early 2002. Today,
it continues to be on the rise as a successful area cover
band. |
| Erin
is in the process of writing a small catalog of original
songs, for which she has demos of, but you’d be
hard pressed at this point, to get her to go public with
them! She is hoping to find someone to help her take them
to the next level production-wise and would like to eventually
make a CD available for purchase on this website. But
on a singer’s budget, these things take time! She
has also had the wonderful opportunity to work with this
area’s top musicians on their original studio projects
as well. Erin
would like to go back into television in the near future
working in that area to supplement her music. On-camera
or behind-the-scenes, she enjoys every aspect of working
at a TV station. She sees television people coming from
at least the same “breed” of tree that musicians
do.
Having spent so much time in NY with so many talented
musicians, Erin is truly impressed by the number of
original artists and original bands in this area and
the large number of local venues that support “live”
music! She is inspired by the drive, determination and
talent of so many local artists. It is her hope to also
be an inspiration to others, some how be a positive
influence on a local level and to have a voice of her
own in south central PA.
|
|
|
|
Links: 
