Heather Eatman

Background

Heather was born in the East Texas town of Jacksonville. She grew up in a theatrical household – her father directed plays at colleges in Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania – and she developed a strong affinity for the tragic, weary, memorable female characters of Tennessee Williams. Through her father, she was exposed to the plays of both Williams and the Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov. Their work helps account for Eatman's feel for imperiled women of a certain age. 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. In 1985, at the age of seventeen, Eatman relocated to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design, graduating with a BFA in illustration in 1990. While supporting herself at a series of odd jobs, she began singing at clubs in Manhattan's East Village and Lower East Side. 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, and appearing on The Conan O'Brien Show on September 20 of that year. 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, Eatman described the music she grew up listening to as "a very strange amalgam," much of which came through her parents: Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, the Mamas & the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel, classical and religious music. Her father loved Broadway theater, so she also heard Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Jacques Brel, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein. As a teenager, however, she gravitated toward The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Patti Smith, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, and, eventually, Tom Waits and Rickie Lee Jones; she has also spoken of her deep connection to the blues, including the work of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Elmore James. Known for her story-songs, in her later writing, Eatman "became fascinated with melody, implied stories, and economy of words." Her 2015 work moved further away from linear narrative, and in the case of "Angels in the Street," released that February, toward a kind of incantatory surrealism, underlined by the accompanying video, 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. She began as an art assistant in the features department and was promoted steadily, switching over to producing breaking-news graphics in 1997 while also occasionally contributing articles. 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 never matched the critical acclaim, however, and Eatman subsequently stopped recording and performing altogether, in 2008, when the Daily News promoted her to an executive position. Promoted again in 2011, to Managing Editor/Design, Eatman left the News in late 2012 to renew her artistic pursuits. She divides her time between her design company, Heather Eatman Creative, her painting (including an ongoing series of subway portraits such as True Prosperity, shown here), and her music and videos. In 2013, she returned to live performance in New York City, appearing regularly, both solo and with her band, at venues in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and elsewhere.