Cliff Eberhardt knew by age seven that he was going to be a singer-songwriter. Growing up in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, he and his brothers sang together and their parents played instruments. Fortunate to live close to the Main Point, he cut his teeth listening to the likes of James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bonnie Raitt, and Mississippi John Hurt — an early tutorial in acoustic music. At the same time, he was listening to great songwriters like Cole Porter, the Gershwins, and Rodgers and Hart, which explain his penchant for great melodies and clever lyrical twists.
At 15, Cliff and his brother Geoff began touring as an acoustic duo, playing the Eastern club circuit until Cliff turned 21 and moved to Carbondale, Illinois. There he found space to develop his own voice within a vibrant and supportive music scene that included Shawn Colvin. After a couple of years there and a short stay in Colorado, Cliff moved to New York in 1978. Because the clubs were great (the Bitter End, the Speakeasy, Kenny’s Castaway, Folk City) and the company amazing (John Gorka, Suzanne Vega, Lucy Kaplansky, Julie Gold, Steve Forbert, Christine Lavin, and Shawn Colvin), New York was an ideal musician’s boot camp.
In 1990 Cliff’s song “My Father’s Shoes,” appeared on Windham Hill’s Legacy collection, leading to a deal with the label. They released his debut, The Long Road (1990), featuring a duet with Richie Havens. Two more albums followed before 12 Songs of Good and Evil (1997) heralded a move to Red House. The High Above and the Down Below (Compass), named the #5 album of 2007 by USA Today, marked his artistic renaissance.
In 2011, the Folger Theatre and Shakespeare Library in Washington DC commissioned Cliff to write original songs for The Taming of the Shrew. Set in the old West, it featured Eberhardt as a blind but wise old saloon singer. He and the cast won Helen Hayes Awards for Best Ensemble and Best Play. In 2018, Cliff was hired by Aaron Posner and the Roundhouse Theater in Maryland to write and perform in a modern re-telling of Sophocles’ Philoctetes: The Heal which debuted at the Getty Villa, Malibu, in September 2019. Knew Things (2021), an album of original songs that includes material from The Heal, reached #4 on the Folk Alliance International’s Folk Radio Chart.
October 4 @ 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm
The Greenwich Village Folk Festival: Live 40th Anniversary Concert