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Eric Lawson
Keyboards
 Eric Lawson (aka "E") has been an active participant in the Richmond, VA music scene for nearly 25 years. His keyboard specialties are Hammond organ and other traditional keyboards including clavinet, electric piano and analog synth sounds. Although he has many responsibilities and spends at least several minutes a day dealing with reality, Eric ultimately aspires to live in a fantasy world. Music enables this for Eric.
Prior to his current stint with SoulerCoaster
, Eric was the original keyboard player with national recording artists, Fighting Gravity, formerly known as Boy O Boy. Eric toured and recorded 7 CDs with Fighting Gravity from 1988 until 1997. He has continued to sit in and record with them periodically ever since then. Although much of it is a blur, Eric's years with Fighting Gravity had him traveling all over the U.S. in a tour bus, often in South Carolina one night and Vermont the next night. The band was featured in Rolling Stone magazine, among other things. Eric would rather not talk about the band's appearance on Star Search, although he did get to hang out with Martha Quinn and Ed McMahon. Not too shabby!
Prior to Fighting Gravity, Eric played in a couple of '80s bands with high school chum Mike Boyd (Fighting Gravity). Toward the end of high school they had progressed to playing fraternity gigs at UVA - a couple of years before Greeks might have been motivated to ask about musicians' ages.
 Since the Fighting Gravity days, Eric has been involved in several side projects playing original groove and rock music. Eric still sits in with a number of different regional bands. Music is his favorite thing in life and the greatest way to escape from reality.
In addition to playing music and dealing (occasionally) with reality, Eric is a freelance music journalist. He has most recently been writing gear reviews and other stories for Keyboard Magazine, which is an internationally distributed magazine. This has proven to be an interesting side excursion with opportunities to travel and mingle with some cool people and lots of good gear.
Eric has been influenced by a diverse collection of funk, groove, jazz, and rock keyboard masters including Schroeder, Kenny Kirkland, John Medeski, Donald Fagen, Herbie Hancock, Steve Nieve (Elvis Costello), Chester Thompson (Tower of Power), John Novello (Niacin), Steve Winwood and the list goes on and on...
Eric believes that the heart and soul of any groove-oriented music is rhythm, and thus he aspires to bring a deep funk sensibility to the keyboards. Nobody loves to rip a grinding, screaming Hammond solo more than Eric, but he also believes that keyboards offer a great opportunity to inject spice and accent deep into the rhythm section. On stage, he can often be seen dancing crazily behind the keys as he searches relentlessly for the ultimate satisfaction and escape in the music.
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Instruments on the Road:
Instruments at Home: