Cliff has composed original music for, and is performing in, the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Folger Theatre production of The Taming of the Shrew, in Washington, D.C. The show, which is set in the American frontier of the 1800s and is directed by Helen Hayes award winner Aaron Posner, runs through June 10, 2012. For tickets, please click here.

The shows director cites Cliff among his inspirations for the show: "So we have this unique Shrew, influenced and inspired by Deadwood. Of course, it is influenced and inspired by many other things as well, most particularly the amazing music of singer/songwriter Cliff Eberhardt, who is composing original music and performing in a role we call The Blind Balladeer.

The show, and particularly Cliff's performance and music, have been getting rave reviews.

This summer, Cliff returns to teach at two summer music camps.

July 15 – 21, 2012, you can attend his classes at WUMB’s 17th Annual Summer Acoustic Music Week (SAMW) in New Hampshire on beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee.

July 29 – August 4, 2012, he’ll be teaching at The Swannanoa Gathering on the campus of Warren Wilson College, just east of Asheville in the heart of North Carolina's beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Doors were a classic rock band and their songs are rarely “covered” well – the exception being Jose Feliciano’s take on “Light My Fire” which may have actually sold more singles than the Doors’ original.

Singer-songwriters James Lee Stanley and Cliff Eberhardt put their pens (or is it their PC keyboards these days?) aside for this project in which they strip down all the classic Doors hits to an acoustic production. And it works beautifully! There’s not an electric instrument in sight and none are missed. Not only do the words shine through but there are new settings as well. Listen to “Touch Me”. Its pace is showed down so the words take on a new meaning. All the songs are slowed down. The lead off track – “Break on Through” may be the fastest one here. And the twelve songs all average about 3 ½ minutes in length – even the mega-hit “Light My Fire”.

This is a follow-up to the CD “All Wood and Stones”, which Stanley recorded with John Batdorf (and I have not heard). Original Doors drummer John Densmore heard it and suggested this project to Stanley, who – after hooking up with Eberhardt at the International Folk Alliance in Memphis – convinced Densmore to play percussion on a few tracks on the album. Densmore brought along Doors guitarist Robby Kreiger to the project as well. The all too brief liner notes list SIX different lead guitar players (including the Monkees’ Peter Tork, Kreiger, Eagles’ Timothy B. Schmidt and Little Feat’s Paul Barrere, but do not identify which “lead” is on which track. Stanley and Scott Breadman are listed along with Densmore on “Percussion”. You can probably spend all day guessing who is playing on each track but that’s just a “celebrity guessing game”. It’s the music you are hearing that counts and all the tracks sound great to me. If I had to pick favorites it would be “Break on Through”, “Love Me Two Times”, “Strange Days” and “Moonlight Drive” (one of the Doors’ lesser-known recordings. Eberhardt’s raspy voice blends nicely with Stanley’s smoother vocal tone, when needed, but usually they take turns on lead vocal.

Real ROCK fans may find this too toned-down but those into acoustic and Americana music will find this an album worth seeking out. And the style fits in perfectly for “folk radio” where you’d rarely (if ever) hear a track by Jim Morrison and the Doors.

Steve Ramm
“Anything Phonographic”