Heather Eatman

Heather Eatman (born November 22, 1968, in Jacksonville, Texas, United States) is an American songwriter, singer, graphic artist, and portraitist, whose songs are "Gothic character studies closer in spirit to the fiction of Flannery O'Connor than conventional folk music, complete with lyrics possessing a real flair for poetic physical imagery." She has recorded four full-length albums, Mascara Falls, Candy and Dirt (1998), Real (2001), and Gorgeous Maze (2020) in addition to 2015 singles "Angels in the Street," "Soul Highway," "Gold Ring," and 2020's "Red Wine." Baby Teeth, an EP (extended play) consisting of new recordings of some of her earliest songs, also appeared in 2015. She was Managing Editor/Design at the New York Daily News, where she was employed from 1991 to 2012. Eatman has been called "A gifted storyteller, whose casual narratives capture the seemingly settled fates of restless small-town dreamers and big-time losers, circus freaks and social geeks, with a bracing mix of compassion and detail." In May 2016, she produced "Because the Night," a multi-artist tribute to the music and poetry of one of her formative influences, Patti Smith, at Brooklyn's Union Hall.

Background

Heather was born in the East Texas town of Jacksonville. In fact, Eatman credits the theater with helping her overcome her shyness by demonstrating to her that she could create her own world through her songs....once onstage, she could manipulate the way she came across. At one of these gigs, she met Tom Lewis, an A & R rep for Oh Boy Records, an independent record company owned by singer-songwriter John Prine, who signed her to the label in 1993. Her first album, Mascara Falls, was released two years later in 1995. Heather subsequently toured the United States, opening for Prine, Billy Bragg, John Hiatt, Crash Test Dummies, Jill Sobule, Ferron, Donovan, Richie Havens, and Rosanne Cash, among others, performing at venues such as the Fillmore West in San Francisco, California and the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, Reviewing a performance in 1996, Los Angeles Times pop music writer Robert Hilburn said, "Her set was filled with an authority and individuality of vision...Unlike so many artists who walk in the thematic footsteps of obvious models [like Lou Reed, Rickie Lee Jones, and Nick Lowe], Eatman unveils new attitudes and ironies in songs that spring from such varied symbols as the King of Rock 'n' Roll and the Statue of Liberty. Most important, there is a sizable portion of Eatman originality in her music...it will be interesting to see how she expands on that freshness."

Influences and artistic development

In a 2002 interview with Perfect Sound Forever, which Eatman devised and produced herself. She also produced the video for her subsequent release, "Soul Highway."

Journalism and later career Eatman maintained her job at the New York Daily News, a tabloid newspaper, from 1991 to 2012. In an effort to take more control of her music career, Heather made the decision to manufacture and market the 1999 Candy & Dirt on her own Impossible Records label. Her May 2001 album, Real, was released on Eminent Records. Alanna Nash's review concluded, "Eatman is always hypnotically original, her imagery ('muscles, bones, thrown at the sky') haunting and new. The surprise is how powerfully she sucks you into the swirl, her whispered vocals, softer than pillow talk, perfectly poised between passion and pain. Unforgettable." Sales Brooklyn, and elsewhere.

Discography