Eric Branner is a singer/songwriter/guitarist currently living in Seattle, although he grew up in the mountains of Virginia. He lived in a log cabin above the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, spending most of his time playing guitar and fishing. His grandfather was a classical pianist and the leader of a big band, leaving his parents with no argument solid enough to sway him when he announced that he would become a musician.
    Eric went to James Madison University and got a bachelors degree in music emphasizing classical guitar, and moved to Seattle the week after graduation. He performed as a classical guitarist, and was a prizewinner at the 2002 Northwest Guitar Competition.
     All along his first love was the acoustic music he heard growing up in Virginia. Eric played anywhere that would have him, and ran the Victory Music open mic while writing his first grip of songs. His music is influenced by rock and the Appalachian music he grew up with, Spanish classical guitar, and folk heroes like Greg Brown and Jorma Kaukonen.
    Eric has played at most of the smokey, acoustic venues in Seattle and has worked up a good following. He recently released his first self-titled studio album produced by Troy Tietjen on Blackforrest Records. He toured the west coast from Seattle to Monterey, California in the summer of 2005, and was a featured performer in the 2005 Northwest Folklife Festival.
    Eric's songs are about the realm between a backroad and a busy intersection, honeysuckle and industrial smog , a general store and a shopping mall, and a train trestle and an overpass. These all merge into lyrics and a unique fingerstyle guitar that are important to anyone who has lived in the country and the city.