Berkeley, Lübeck, Coventry..

..and the origins of Eric Roy Dinwiddie

Greetings, all!

I’m excited today to announce my latest creative project. I’ve decided to produce and release some new recordings under my full name,
Eric Roy Dinwiddie.

This is in part because some of my recent songs and song ideas have been inspired by my personal origin stories, both in my and my dad’s hometown of Berkeley, California, and my mom’s hometown of Lübeck, Germany. It just feels right to use my whole name for this.

I’ve vacationed in Lübeck twice in recent years, and this last visit gave me a deep sense that Lübeck is a hometown to me as well. And I’ve learned a lot about the history of Lübeck, going back to its time as the center of the Hanseatic League.

One piece of history from the 20th century surprised me, and quickly led to a song idea. See, in 1941, Lübeck was bombed by the RAF, partly in retaliation for the Luftwaffe’s bombing of Coventry. Not only that, the RAF used it as a sort of test case for their later, larger bombings of Dresden and other cities. Bombing civilian areas as a means to try to demoralize “the enemy” became common during that horrible war.

So, Coventry. Coventry is the hometown of one of my lifelong favorite bands, The Specials. The Two-Tone movement they led had a profound impact on me as a teenager, and directly inspired and motivated the creation of The UpTones. Their message of interracial love and unity helped shape and solidify my own values. So Coventry is part of my origin story as well, though I have not visited there yet!

This weekend the pieces came together quickly, and I wrote and recorded a song called COVENTRY. I’ve published it on Bandcamp as the first entry in a new album, called DISAMBIGUATION. I think the lyrics speak for themselves, no need to say much more about the meanings of the song, here! The song is Ska, and the guitar solo is a nod to Roddy Radiation, lead guitarist of The Specials, whose wild rockabilly/ska style greatly influenced my own playing.

And here it is!

The cover artwork, by Shannon Wheeler, started as a graphic for my Schlager song, Wenn Die Sonne Scheint / When The Sun Shines, which I’ll add to this album in Bandcamp when it’s ready (soon, I think!). I love the artwork and decided to use it for the album, and for each song, with the titles at the top. The lettering is from my own pen, adding another dose of personalization, instead of using an existing font. I scan a title and send it to Shannon, and he expertly lays it in to the cover.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. All of this on Berkeley Cat Records, of course. Streaming releases to follow, I don’t know when yet. I hope you enjoy COVENTRY, and of course I invite you to share it on your socials, email it to your friends, play it to your cats, etc. Also please forward this note around if you like.

My Eric Din recordings remain here, and most of those records are in all the Spotifys and Pandoras and Apples and Deezers etc, where my Eric Roy Dinwiddie records will eventually also land.

Many thanks for your earballs, Love and Unity forever,

Eric