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Walter Ehresman           Bio

Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed disc jockey Charlie Martin (host of KOOP's long-standing "Around the Town Sounds" program in Austin), Walter Ehresman has been a consistent, eccentric presence in the Austin, Texas music scene since the 1980s. A prolific songwriter and recording artist, he is equally at home presenting a delicate acoustic ballad in an intimate live setting as he is busting out screaming lead guitar with a full rock band in front of festival crowds. However, he’s just as likely to be holed up in his Snipe Bog Studio, surrounded by odd gear and recording strange, unclassifiable experimental music at 4am with a big grin on his face. The consistent factor is a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, and an approach to lyric-writing that never fails to jump off the cliff and damn the consequences.

Born in Houston, but raised in San Antonio, Texas, Ehresman was heavily influenced by the latter-city’s wildly eclectic, shambolic radio station of the late 70s--KISS FM. At the time, rumor had it that the station was owned by a rich old oilman who only held onto it for some kind of tax purposes. This seemed to explain the freedom the disc jockeys were given to play absolutely whatever they wanted, as well as those somewhat frequent stretches when a record would skip for about 20 minutes before the DJ would come back from whatever he was doing out in the alley behind the station. Listening to KISS radio was a window on a whole universe of music that Ehresman had never heard before…..BB King would segue into Johnny Winter into Captain Beyond into Aphrodite’s Child into Nektar into Bebop Deluxe into Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush into Black Sabbath into Yes into King Crimson into Mahavishnu Orchestra into Bob Dylan into Lightin’ Hopkins into Muddy Waters. You just never knew what would be played next, but it was almost always good. And Ehresman soaked it up like a sponge. Teaching himself to play electric guitar (his father’s Gretsch Astro-Jet) by playing along to Cream records, Ehresman experimented with home recording on his father’s reel-to-reel, thus sparking a life-long fascination with recording technology that continues to this day.

Ehresman moved to Austin in 1980 to attend the University of Texas. Focusing more on his guitar playing than songwriting initially, Ehresman founded several rowdy Texas guitar bands in the ‘80s, including Dirty Dog, Biological Emergency, Loper, and Swine Patrol, and played with The Spanks (which also counted Austin mainstay Kurtis Machler as a member, along with the infamous Bob Schneider) and Brainiac (precursor to Joe Rockhead). During those early years, however, he always had separate solo recording projects ongoing that focused on his acoustic playing (mainly 12-string guitar) and his more contemplative and/or experimental songs. A life-long admirer of Todd Rundgren and his one-man-band approach, Ehresman slowly but surely amassed the gear for a home studio and taught himself the engineer and producer roles. His first solo release, "Honor in the Swine?", compiles these ‘80s recordings. Despite the somewhat primitive nature of his recording gear at the time, the album has a charm derived from its wild, eclectic diversity and its tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. Ehresman’s penchant for stinging social observations, tempered with a bawdy streak, were evident from the beginning. Mandolin and MIDI guitar made early appearances on this first release, along with 12-and-6 string guitars, electronic percussion pads, and keyboards.

Honing this approach through the early ‘90s, Ehresman progressed by leaps and bounds as a songwriter, while also constantly striving to improve his playing and recording skills in the studio. New solo albums followed in 1990 (“In the Path of the Cat Chasers”) and 1991 (“Split Brain Theory”), featuring the first of several covers drawn by noted graphic artist (and USA Today staff cartoonist) Casey Shaw. Rapidly expanding as a multi-instrumentalist, Ehresman would come to use not only various acoustic and electric guitars and (fretted and fretless) basses on his solo albums, but also keyboards, electronic and acoustic percussion, mandolin, 6-string banjo, saz, (acoustic and electric) bouzoukis, (acoustic and electric) oud, theremin, mandocello, electric mandola, Persian setar, Uzbeki rawap, electric sitar, and other obscure world music instruments. The sound of the early solo recordings showed a wide palette of influences, although Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd are particularly evident. Political/social commentary was (and remains) a common lyrical theme. "My life-long obsession has been trying to figure out why people do what they do," Ehresman stated recently. "Politics seems to be just another manifestation of human psychology, and that's what drives much of my songwriting."

1996 saw the release of "The Blue Shoat Special!", which contained both new and older unreleased tracks and marked Ehresman's first tentative steps into the world of digital recording. The following year saw the release of the spoken word EP "The Rants", which contained two long tracks that would see subsequent release as bonus tracks on 1999's full-length "Handwedge From the Trap." That latter album got its title from an infamous method of cheating at golf, and features another wonderful cover from Casey Shaw. "Only Casey would be so unflappable as to take in stride instructions to draw a group of pigs playing golf, with one of them using a specific cheating method from a deep sand trap next to the green, the other swine standing around up on the green with no clue as to the devious goings-on below them," Ehresman remembers fondly. "I love that cover!".

Later in the ‘90s, Ehresman formed the band Snipe Hunt, which went through several incarnations before settling into a four-piece line-up which gigged extensively around Central Texas and which released two CDs: "We'll Be Right Back!" (‘98) and "Dirty Ditties and Cover Tunes" (‘00). Ehresman chose the name because "it was a perfect metaphor for the many wild goose chases that the public seems so intent on blindly following when they're dangled out there by the powers that be."  Check out the logo on the first album, with a nervous snipe smoking and drinking at the bar, as seen through a rifle scope.

By the turn of the century, Snipe Hunt had turned to a duo of Ehresman and rhythm guitarist/vocalist Vic Ramirez, who together released the wonderful "I Saw the Future (But the Damn Train Hit me Just the Same)" in 2002. This version of the band had a bit of a split personality. In the studio, the songs took on a life of their own, with no thought given to being able to reproduce them live. Ehresman played most of the instruments, and shared vocal duties with Ramirez. Live, the duo did more acoustic renditions of the Snipe Hunt catalogue, as well as songs from Ehresman's many solo albums.

All during these years, Ehresman continued to record and release solo albums, with the quality of the playing, songwriting and recording improving steadily as a sign of his restless creativity and desire for producing music that would stand the test of time. 2001 saw the release of the all-digital "Le Cafard."  Ehresman calls this his "divorce" album, and songs of frustration and loss are interspersed with songs inspired by Ehresman's deep involvement in the annual Burning Man Festival in northwest Nevada. The album’s last track ("Soul Called Desolation") also featured the pedal steel playing of the late Jon Bessent, beloved mainstay of the Austin music community and the superlative repairman that kept Ehresman's (and countless others') gear working for decades.

2003 saw the release of the solo album "The Feral Rugby Team Must GO!," with the strongest one-two punch of opening tracks yet. "I really feel like the production on the song 'Jesus, That Blimp is Following Me!' is the best I've ever done," Ehresman recalls now. "It's one of the very few--if not the only--instances of a song where I wouldn't change a thing about the playing, singing or mix." This track is followed impressively by "That's a Fleshy Reality," which Ehresman jokes is his "attempt to do a Steely Dan-type of thing without the jazz chops, knowledge of theory, or dynamite background singers." The hilarious album cover is by his old bandmate from the mid-80s, Derrick Caballero, with Ehresman himself providing the color.

Snipe Hunt broke up in 2003 when Ehresman temporarily moved to San Francisco with intentions to marry a girl he'd met at Burning Man the year before. Things didn't work out and, tail between his legs, Ehresman moved back to Austin in 2004. The time away had not been a total loss, however, because most of the tracks for the solo album "No Unifying Theme" were recorded on the West Coast, and the CD was released in 2004. Focusing for a time on his solo work, Ehresman performed solo at local art exhibits, The Maker Faire, coffee houses, down by the docks (as Bill Hicks would say), etc....in short, wherever his particular brand of weirdness might be appreciated. He also performed live ambient exotic soundscapes, featuring electric oud, sitar, and bouzouki run through multiple delay and reverb units, at Austin's "artier" venues, often to bewildered onlookers uncertain how to take this strange person playing these strange instruments (with battery-operated lights attached to them and him) and this dark, wild music.

In the summer of 2007, Ehresman was asked to join the venerable Austin punk/hard rock band Los Platos as lead guitarist. Held together by his long-time friend Kurtis Machler, who also owned Austin’s award-winning Million Dollar Sound studio and Monkey Boy Records, the band featured the famous, enigmatic LA punk diva, Texacala Jones (of 1980's Tex and the Horseheads fame), on lead vocals. Although a musical deviation for Ehresman, his ability to peel out heavy rock guitar licks and walls of sound made the pairing work, and the band gigged around Austin and went on a brief, chaotic tour of the American West in February of 2008 (avoiding arrest on three separate occasions, but just barely....see pics at: www.myspace.com/los_platos).

Soon after, Ehresman was contacted by Vic Ramirez, from the Snipe Hunt days, who had a new rhythm section and was looking to start an uptempo rock and roll band. Feeling somewhat frustrated with not being able to perform his own songs, Ehresman left Los Platos in the Spring of 2008 and joined Ramirez in a new group that worked under the name Delphi Rising. Ehresman suggested the name to reflect the fact that the US was the only country in the "Western World" where reason was on the decline and superstition (belief in angels, disbelieve in evolution, rise of fundamentalist christianity, etc.) was on the increase. Recorded at Million Dollar Sound and produced by Kurtis Machler, with Ehresman, the group’s only album “For Granted” was released in January of 2010.   The album has a diverse, driving sound:  from punk-influenced hit-and-runs to hard rock guitar workouts; from British-sounding pop circa 1966 to a Steely Dan-ish piano and horn song about love in a post-apocalyptic globally-warmed world; from blues to a Dylanesque western ballad.  All four band member contribute songwriting and vocals.  Ehresman played lead guitar and keyboard (and bass on two songs).

Still, Ehresman's solo albums kept coming, with two releases in 2007--"March, Scream or Cry", and the dark ambient "The A.D.G. Project", the latter composed and recorded for a major art installation at Burning Man that year--and a new album to start 2009, "Monkey Paw Situation.”  The songwriting and production continued to progress to new levels of sophistication.

Ehresman has also performed live at the Burning Man Festival's Center Camp Cafe several times over the years, performed DJ sets at major theme camps on the playa, and recorded the theme song for the venerable Lost Penguin Cafe theme camp (ie. "Benny, the Well-Hung Penguin"). His world music and experimental music shows on Radio Electra, the main pirate radio station at the festival, exposed thousands of people each year to rare music culled by Ehresman from all over the world as part of his avid collecting. Between 1999-2007, each year also found Ehresman bringing his own art installations and events to the desert, and he composed, recorded and donated several original pieces for use with large-scale art installations by other art teams from around the country.

November 2010 saw the release of Ehresman's 13th solo album, "Well.....Let's Look at Your Track Record, Shall We?". The cover photo featured Ehresman as the Devil, sitting behind a heavy oak desk with the file of the new arrival.  The CD contains a typically wide variety of styles. Electric piano-based numbers, sometimes with extensive horn parts, make a prominent appearance and demonstrate Ehresman's affinity for Steely Dan. Subtle electronica grooves underlie some songs and provide a sleek undercurrent. Vocal harmonies are stacked, and in some cases key-controlled from a Roland vocal processing keyboard, like never before. British ex-pat and Austin resident Nigel Jacobs contributes a fine 5-string violin solo in the style of Dave Swarbrick to the tearjerker "Flood the Empty Quarter." This album marks Ehresman’s first full-foray into writing love songs with lyrics, and they are a long way from the triteness he feared which kept him largely away from writing such lyrics in the past. Heartfelt, and somehow timeless, the lovesongs have a sad poignancy given that the girl he wrote them for abruptly left him in the middle of the recording sessions for the album. Songs written after that break-up have a very different tone, of course, with some heart-wrenching ("Flood the Empty Quarter") and some juxtaposing the sad lyrics with uptempo rock and roll (check out the vintage Stones sound on "Knocked to My Hands & Knees"). There's also a song written in memoriam to Jon Bessent, recorded the night Ehresman heard about his passing. He remembers now, "Jon's benediction whenever you left his shop was 'may the tone be with you,' so I called this song 'May the Tone Be With You, Jon.' He left us far, far too soon. He was really one of the good guys." The song features mandolins, bouzoukis, and mandola along with tasteful piano accompaniment. Overall, the entire album has a hint of the melancholy to it, despite the presence of such a purposely light romp as the opening number "Summer Calls the Shots", which recalls the heady teenage excitement of beaches and girls and summer vacations without adult supervision, and which constitutes Ehresman‘s first attempt at a summer pop anthem.

From July 2010 to February 2011, Ehresman played lead guitar/talking drum in the 11-piece African ensemble Aciable, led by Jean-Claude Lessou from the Ivory Coast.  The band gigged heavily during that time, including a show on a paddleboat steamer and later a spot at the Fela Kuti tribute concert at Red 7 in Austin.  But the inherent difficulties in keeping a band of that size together, along with his desire to be performing his own material, caused Ehresman to leave that band and focus back on his solo material.  Ehresman’s 14th solo album, “Life Outside the Tent,” was released in June of 2012.  A more consistently electric guitar-centered album than any of his previous solo outings, the album featured a wide pallet of material, from Ehresman’s first foray into ska to an Irish pub rocker written as a rallying cry for working people to rise up against the parasitic rich.

Currently, Ehresman is planning a new album of guitar-based instrumentals. He has also completed a remix of the cover version he recorded with Los Platos of Brian Eno's "Baby's On Fire," posted on the Los Platos MySpace page.  And if you get a copy of the 2012 edition of the venerable Indie Bible, you’ll see Ehresman on the cover montage.

Always looking ahead for new creative avenues, and seeking to hone his musical skills, Ehresman seems to have a bottomless well of material to challenge listeners. His political satire, biting social critiques, deeply-emotional songwriting, and abiding sense of humor make for a fascinating journey each time one of his albums is put on the box.


Discography
--solo albums: "Honor in the Swine?" ('89); "In the Path of the Cat Chasers" ('90); "Split Brain Theory" ('91); "The Blue Shoat Special" ('96); the spoken-word "The Rants" ('97); "Handwedge from the Trap" ('99); “Le Cafard“ (’01); "The Feral Rugby Team Must GO!" ('03); "No Unifying Theme" ('04); "March, Scream or Cry" ('07); "The ADG Project" ('07); "Monkey Paw Situation" ('09); “Well…..Let‘s Look at Your Track Record, Shall We?” (’10)’ and “Life Outside the Tent“ (’12).

--with Snipe Hunt: "We'll Be Right Back!" ('99); "Dirty Ditties and Cover Tunes" ('00); and "I Saw the Future (But the Damn Train Hit Me Just the Same)" ('02).

--with Los Platos: “Oh, No” EP (’08).

--with Delphi Rising:  “For Granted” (‘10)

--compilations (various artists):  
    (with Swine Patrol) “The Austin Cassette Compendium” (‘86)
     (solo) "Monkey Boy Sampler" ('01, '05); and "Several Famous Orchestras" ('03).






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www.myspace.com/delphirisingband
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