Assistant rector's album is `gold'
By CHRISTOPHER SHIPLEY
Scene Music Critic
"It's about growing up." That is the way Erik Goldschmidt, current assistant rector of St. Edward's Hall and former George and the Freeks frontman, describes his first solo album, appropriately titled, Learning to Live.
The eight-year project, which finally saw completion shortly before the Christmas holiday, is a 12-track concept album which deals very seriously with some of life's most difficult issues: anger, depression, loss of relationships and the discovery of personal limitations, and how these issues are transcended through love, friendship and faith.
"I'm taking the content more seriously [than anything I've done before]. Now I'm being more true to the source of my music, which is my spirituality," said Goldschmidt.
The album is meant to challenge the listener to discover faith and spirituality through personal reflection. Much like U2 (who is headlining World Youth Day 2000 in Rome), Goldschmidt's sound is generally secular with the intention of reaching members of the pop culture on the fringe without using explicit Christ imagery.
Goldschmidt, a graduate student in the Master of Divinity program, began writing the music for Learning to Live in 1992 and had finished more than half of the albums tracks before 1996. After four years with the popular campus band George and the Freeks, Goldschmidt took a break from writing music while participating in the Alliance for Catholic Education program.
A prolific songwriting year followed upon his return to Notre Dame. The 26-year-old finished five additional songs and an invocation for the album.
"I have to have music in my life to have balance and to be happy," the 1996 Notre Dame graduate said.
With musical influences from classic folk rock acts, including the Grateful Dead, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, Goldschmidt is able to weave an incredibly mature tapestry of lyric and sound. Driven by Goldschmidt's acoustic guitar, each song dives head first into tackling the struggles each person faces throughout life. The result is an album which only gets better each time it is played.
What strikes the listener most about the album is its amazing quality given the fact that this is an independent recording. Each song is incredibly tight and carefully crafted. The sound quality is exceptional and the incorporation of several of Notre Dame's most talented musicians on the violin, cello, congas, mandolin and banjo only adds to the folk-rock quality of the recording.
Since the albums' release Goldschmidt and his former George and the Freeks bandmates, bassist J.P. Hurt and lead guitarist Mark Lang, have created a new band, Intuitive Rain (taken from the Learning To Live track "Annunciation") and have appeared at Acoustic Café. Showing no signs of performance rust, the group played a terrific set which received a great deal of attention from onlookers. Their set list at Acoustic included classic hits like Van Morrison's "Into The Mystic" and the Grateful Dead's "Jack Straw," in addition to songs from Goldschmidt's own album.
"Why do I keep playing? Because I can't not play. It's just who I am," Goldschmidt said.
Learning to Live can be purchased at the LaFortune Information Desk or by direct e-mail request to Goldschmidt.2@nd.edu.
All Scene Stories for Tuesday, February 15, 2000
