Eric Hagen - Memories Don't Love You Back (2024) Hi Res

Eric Hagen has a new EP out there in the world, Memories Don’t Love You Back. The album was produced, record and mixed at Blackwater Studios in Sturgeon Bay, WI by Eric Hagen.

“Ponderosa Pines” exhibits Eric’s honed ability to connect emotionally through song, as he sings of one’s true love who passed away, and the poignant line “when your heart gave out and you laid to rest, could you feel it now pounding in my chest?”

“Sometimes” featured high energy vocal choruses sung like a gospel choir, in this heavy lament about someone who’s lost a lot.

The title track, “Memories Don’t Love You Back,” is a reflection on Mama’s advice (with a bottle and a bible) and how Daddy bought your first guitar. Photographs and rose colored glasses aren’t enough to change to way that memories make you feel, and even then, as the song says. “Rose colored glass is no good / You try to do just as you should / Soundtracks and photographs and fools think they will last / But memories just don’t love you back.”

“Sam” is a darker number with a raw look at addiction.

The songs here are raw and honest songs about imperfect childhood, addictions, and tragic relationships of various types. The music is good playing and the arrangements are Americana lonesome.

Musicians on the album are Eric Hagen on vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, Rhodes, and percussion; Patrick Lyons on baritone and slide guitars; Hunter Gatherer on electric guitar; Reed Pittman on Hammond organ; Marcus Trana on drums; and Ruby James and Deeza on backing vocals.

All songs were written by Eric Hagen. The album was mastered at Axis Audio in Nashville, TN by Mike Monseur.