Erik is a composer, lyricist, instrumentalist and vocalist who has appeared on over 60 rock, pop, and Americana albums. He has toured and recorded extensively with Joan Osborne, Natalie Merchant, and Joan Baez, and has worked with legendary music producer T-Bone Burnett. He is conservatory-trained, holding a BFA in Classical Guitar from the Mannes School of Music (now The New School). He also plays the banjo, lap steel guitar, and mandolin. In 2024 he won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics for his off-Broadway musical, Dead Outlaw.

Musician

Erik began performing in New York City with various Americana bands that emerged from the New York art scene in the late 1980s. In 1994 he joined rock/blues singerJoan Osborne’s touring band for five years in support of her debut platinum-selling album, Relish, and her sophomore album, Righteous Love.  Next, in 1998, he began working with singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant in an association that continues to this day. He has recorded and toured in support of eight of her gold and platinum-selling albums, including Ophelia, Motherland, The House Carpenter's Daughter, Leave Your Sleep, and Keep Your Courage.

In 2001, he formed a "metropolitan folk" duo called Kill Henry Sugar with Grammy award-winning producer and drummer Dean Sharenow. Erik served as the band’s songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist. The Washington Post described Kill Henry Sugar as a band with the ability to “wed intriguing lyrics to little textured grooves that have a habit of getting under your skin.” 

In 2005, he joined the touring band of legendary folk musician Joan Baez, performing with her until 2011. In 2013 he joined the blues/world music/roots band Hazmat Modine, described by The New York Times as a "category-defying blues-rooted group that can swerve into New Orleans brass-band, jazz, and ska."

Erik’s playing has been described as "folksy but rapid-fire acoustic guitar that leads through rivers of well-timed but delightfully off-kilter lyricism" (Pop Matters) as well as "Appalachian banjo atmospherics" and "fuzz-tone guitar lament"(Washington Post).

Songwriter

As a songwriter, Erik is known for his "curious tales," "low-fi storytelling," "Steinbeck-eulogizing narratives" and "frighteningly memorable melodies." Erik cites Leon Redbone, The Marx Brothers, Bob Dylan, and David Bromberg as influences on his songwriting.

"When Leon Redbone was musical guest on ‘Saturday Night Live,' he revived that style of crooner and played guitar in a very simple, straightforward way...I was about 10 or 11, and thought that was just great. And I’m a big Marx Brothers fan, so I always had a quirky interest in that period. My parents were late adopters of Hippie culture, so I got a lot of first-hand Dylan and David Bromberg, and that period of folk revival." (The Berkshire Eagle)

Erik has written and recorded seven albums of original songs with Kill Henry Sugar, and is one of the primary songwriters for Hazmat Modine, writing songs for four albums. He co-wrote four songs with Joan Osborne for her album Righteous Love, and co-wrote "Disney is the Enemy" with Mojo Nixon. In addition, he has written two solo albums.

Composer and Lyricist

Erik wrote the music and lyrics for his first musical, Toby and the Big Top, in 2002. This children's musical was subsequently produced in 2003 by Walden Family Playhouse. In 2015, he wrote the music and lyrics for a second children's musical, Kitty Hawk, which is regularly produced by the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. He also wrote the score for the documentary film Remnants of a War, as well as the documentary film Tree Man, on Netflix, and contributed songs for many other film projects and television shows.

Over several years beginning in 2017, he co-wrote the music and lyrics for the musical Dead Outlaw with David Yazbek (book by Itamar Moses). The musical comedy tells the true story of an outlaw named Elmer McCurdy, born in the late 1800s, whose mummified body had a very public second act that lasted until the 1970s. The songs of Dead Outlaw are the result of David and Erik’s long reflection on death, fame, and the aberrations of America. In 2024, Dead Outlaw opened off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village. It won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical. It will open on Broadway in April of 2025.