Two worlds collided the night Eric & Lindsey met while performing at the Ole Tennessee Opry, just a stone’s throw away from Cascade Hollow- home of the George Dickel Distillery.
The two born and bred Tennesseans admired each other’s musicianship and vintage style from across the room that fateful night. Naturally, they were drawn to each other’s kindred spirits and the magnetism was undeniable. First came love, then came marriage, and inevitably the couple combined their passion for making music and American Love Affair was born.
Soon they were off to the races traveling up and down Route 66 writing songs and collecting vintage mementos, eventually landing at the birthplace of the mother road herself- Springfield Missouri. The two multi-instrumentalists joined the Allstar cast of Raiding The Country Vault in Branson, Missouri at the Starlight Theatre, eventually earning them a #1 TripAdvisor award for their performances.
They labored over their original material religiously and like pigeons returning from a long flight, they homed in on their unique styles and with fierce focus, they contributed to each other’s talents. Lindsey added the electric bass to her already impressive arsenal- bouncing between guitar, keys and vocals. She also developed skills in audio/visuals becoming adept at videography, graphic arts and social media marketing. Simultaneously, Eric continued his relentless pursuit of “the sound” for the duo by revisiting old analog recordings, troving through archives of obsolete studio techniques and studying the masters of legendary compositions. He attempted to strategically block out the modern white noise mixes that engulf our daily lives- “basically I had to hit the reset button and go back to the roots music catalog that inspired me to be a musician/producer in the first place. Once I recalibrated my ears and let go of the assumption that in order to be relevant in today’s market, we’d have to make a slick sounding record for the masses, we made a calculated decision to exclude auto-tune, loops and plug-ins with fake sounding spring reverbs and overly compressed mixes to command the sort of tonal palette this music needs. We decided if we were gonna do this that we were gonna leave the “stank”on it. I found my creative center again with Lindsey as my muse and biggest cheerleader. So we just hit red with reckless abandonment.”
Eric just celebrated the 25th. anniversary of the release of his debut record, Swimming in Champagne on Mercury Records that included the world wide smash hit song and #1 video, Flowers On The Wall. As he recalls, in the year 2000 when polished country-pop was all the rage, “we came out the gate like a raging bull, fresh out of playing Tootsie’s on Broadway for years, we just took all that angst and intensity into the studio and laid down some fiery surf guitar and drums LIVE to analog tape- that was a very renegade approach to making records in Nashville back then when pro-tools and digital had taken over the mainstream country genre”. Using their past experiences has helped Eric & Lindsey forge ahead with the roots music sound of American Love Affair. In much the same way as Eric was credited for sticking to his guns and not compromising his artistry a quarter century ago, this duo is on their way to repeating that success.
Collectively they’ve toured and performed with superstars: Shania Twain, Toby Keith, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Reba, Dwight Yoakam, Trace Adkins, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Exile, Grand Funk Railroad, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many others. Awards include: #1 video designations on CMT, GAC & VH-1, recipient of Music Row’s Critic’s Pick Award and Featured in People Magazine, Music Row, Guitar Player, USA TODAY and The Tennessean.
You’ve seen them on: The Grand Ole Opry, Austin City Limits, FOX17, Good Morning America, CMA Awards Show and Fox & Friends.
The power couple has redefined what it means to be DIY musicians. They’re 100% self contained and make no mistake, without corporate support they’ve had some incredibly challenging times since their collaboration. They each had to sacrifice deeply to make the new record a reality- by taking on mundane day jobs between gigs, selling off their beloved ‘58 pink caddy and regrettably Eric’s most prized guitar from his teenaged years, an olympic white ‘63 Fender Stratocaster.
Through all the adversity Eric says, “the love of making art is so intoxicating that it literally leaves us both paralyzed and stagnated until we can get our lyrics on paper and the music on tape.” Lindsey adds, “Yeah we’re like two curmudgeons wandering around aimlessly until our mission is fulfilled- we’re incredibly excited to unleash this special collection of songs on the world. This has been a labor of love and years in the making.”
Incorporating techniques pioneered by legendary producers like Phil Spector, Sam Phillips, Barry Gordy & Rick Hall, The Heatherlys took on the painstakingly slow and grueling challenge of making new recordings that have an authentic 50’s-60’s era sonic quality to them. The self-imposed goal for the twosome was to break the cookie cutter sound that has become the norm in today’s modern day recordings and radio hits. The only conceivable way to successfully pull off such an endeavor was to literally start with nothing. Nothing but simple, yet profound and hooky self-penned songs with some originality then pepper them with familiar sounding melodies using a few vintage guitars and amps. There’s not even a piano, keyboard or any synthesizers on the record. Just the two of them playing and singing live- with the addition of a drummer. Every note, hand clap, grunt, lonesome train whistle and even dog barks were part of the magic they made in their home studio, housed in an historical 1927 Spanish Mediterranean style abode.
Time, skill and an immense amount of patience were needed to pull off the daunting task of reverse engineering the record making processes of Stax, Sun, Dot and Fame records. Attempting to emulate those exquisite sounds had to be done the hard way, even when modern technology such as the use of auto-tune and AI has made music making so instantaneous and easy. Their hope is that this new material and their unorthodox approach to manufacturing it, will not only pay homage to the greats that inspired them, but that it will stand on its own as a fresh spin on vintage sounds.
They proclaim that Duane Eddy, Nancy Sinatra, Julie London, The Ventures, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Wanda Jackson and Roy Orbison are all Vinylicious! Eric states, “If you spin classic vinyl and listen with a discerning ear (and not with your eyes) you’ll find that those recordings had depth, lots of textures and nuances with dense layers of instrumentation. The vocals were honest and had a hint of desperation in them or in some cases a spontaneous combustion of emotion. We wanted to recapture that kind of feel and groove again- anything that felt too premeditated or constricted by modern day thought processes were scrapped”. Lindsey adds, “For instance our track Jackknifed, only has one repeating lyrical chorus that is flanked by instrumental verses. It’s not the typical song form that most people are used to hearing. It perks your ears up a bit and hopefully leads the listener on a musical journey- wondering where the song is going to take them next.”
What The World Needs Now Is Love…Sweet Love AND American Love Affair!!!!!
-Billy Burnette
(Member of Fleetwood Mac, guitarist for John Fogerty)
“This talented duo Has that awesome blend where authentic Country meets Rockabilly”
-Steve Dorff
(One of the most successful songwriters in the United States- three time Grammy and a five-time Emmy nominee, Dorff has penned more than 20 Top Ten country and/or pop hits and nine chart-topping film tunes. The music supervisor for George Strait's 1992 film, Pure Country, which included two number one hits)
"Dangerous ...one word…DANGEROUS! Eric & Lindsey put it all together on this one...not to be missed LIVE!!!”
-Pete Anderson
(Guitar Legend and legendary record producer/creative partner of one of the most significant country/rock artists of the 1980’s & 90’s, Dwight Yoakam)
