Eddy Lawrence emerged from Alabama as a folk singer whose songs, laced with wry insight, draw from his Southern roots, Native American heritage, and the rural setting he later called home in upstate New York. After gaining footing in the Greenwich Village folk milieu during the 1980s, he relocated northward and became a fixture on the local singer/songwriter rounds, appearing at clubs, coffeehouses, and festivals while issuing his own recordings such as 1996’s Locals and 2001’s Going to Water through his Snowplow imprint. For a stretch he turned his energies toward producing and championing fellow Native American musicians, then partnered with his spouse Kim for the 2008 duo effort My Second Wife’s First Album. Though he kept performing steadily, a decade elapsed before he unveiled another collection, the fully solo 2019 album Eddy & the Abstract Truth.
Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Lawrence absorbed country, old-time folk, blues, and broader strands of American roots music from an early age. He arrived in New York City at the start of the 1980s, sharpening his skills with the East Village folk-rock outfit LESR before striking out alone with the 1986 release Walker County. Paying homage to his Southern origins, the self-made, self-issued record introduced his blend of dry wit and precise, sometimes moving detail, delivered in a warm, relaxed tenor. As the first Snowplow title, it helped him secure a place in the city’s folk network through two follow-ups, 1988’s Up the Road and 1989’s Whiskers & Scales, after which he pursued a quieter life farther north in New York state. Remaining active through the 1990s, he logged regular northeastern dates and scattered national tours behind records including 1994’s Used Parts and 1998’s Guitars, Guns, & Groceries. While widespread fame stayed out of reach, he cultivated a loyal audience and drew favorable notice in outlets such as Dirty Linen, Performing Songwriter, and Sing Out!.
Most of his work favored spare acoustic settings, yet during the first half of the 2000s he revisited the electric approach of his New York beginnings on releases like 2001’s Going to Water and 2004’s Inside My Secret Pocket, enlisting a rhythm section for a buoyant folk-blues-country fusion. In the ensuing period he stepped away from his own songs to serve as producer and arranger for several Native American acts, some of which appeared on Snowplow and earned him Native American Music Award nominations. He reentered his own catalog with the 2008 duo album My Second Wife’s First Album, created alongside his wife, bassist Kim Lawrence. His tracks have surfaced on collections including the Smithsonian Folkways Fast Folk series and NPR’s Car Talk Car Tunes. Lawrence maintained a performing schedule across the 2010s, returning to the studio only in 2019. The resulting Eddy & the Abstract Truth mixed fresh originals with selected traditional numbers in an intimate, one-man format supported solely by his guitar and mandolin.
