Equal parts wandering poet and live performance mainstay, Eric Reitz delves intorock, folk, and pop to couch his purpose-driven lyrics.


Eric Reitz hails from Reading, Pennsylvania, a paradoxical place; though a suburbof Philadelphia, it neighbors Lancaster County—Amish country. Culture clash isinevitable. Eric wearily studied piano as a boy, but he longed for the guitar— its shape, its allure, its legacy. Erics parents stipulated: first learn "The Entertainer" on keys, and the guitar would follow. Even this he couldnt manage.

Undeterred, Eric convinced his parents to rent him a guitar, an axe yanked from the pages of a heavy metal magazine. Not quite the tool hed seen in the hands of idols like Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. Eric soon returned that ol lightning bolt to the rental shop. The musical muse had been quieted.

A few years older, wiser, and more motivated, Eric picked up his older brothers acoustic guitar and taught himself chords and progressions. Intrigued, Eric bough this own acoustic. He also discovered an insistent but unpolished urge to sing. Hed imitate popular songs, a tentative first step toward vocal training. Now years removed from that mimicry, Eric has developed his own peerless voice and delivery. Alongside an unquenchable songwriting thirst that’s seeped into his debut album,12 (South). Available on iTunes, CDBaby, or at Eric’s site, www.ericreitz.com.