Eric Weissberg

Eric Weissberg (August 16, 1939 – March 22, 2020) was an American singer, banjo player, and multi-instrumentalist born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Cecile (Glasberg), a liquor buyer, and Will Weissberg, a publicity photographer. He attended The Little Red Schoolhouse in Greenwich Village and graduated from The High School of Music & Art in New York City before pursuing studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Juilliard School of Music. His Broadway career included an appearance in A Joyful Noise in 1966.

From 1956 to 1958, Weissberg regularly joined Bob Yellin, John Herald, and Paul Prestopino for Sunday afternoon folk sessions at Washington Square Park, where public folk-singing was restricted to that single weekly window. He played five-string banjo and fiddle during those gatherings, while Herald played guitar, Yellin played guitar and five-string, and Prestopino played mandolin. Weissberg briefly joined an early version of the Greenbriar Boys from 1958 to 1959, departing before the group made any recordings, and then joined the Tarriers as a replacement for Erik Darling. The Tarriers had already scored a hit with "Banana Boat Song" before his arrival. Though he was initially brought in as a string-bass player, the group quickly drew on his broader abilities as a banjo player, fiddler, guitarist, mandolin player, and singer. He began performing with the Tarriers while still enrolled at Juilliard, and his first album with the group, Tell The World About This, was released in 1960.

In 1964, Weissberg fulfilled a one-year obligation with the National Guard, after which the Tarriers re-formed. The group accompanied Judy Collins on a tour of Poland and Russia in 1965 before disbanding. Collins, impressed by his musicianship, subsequently employed him as a session musician on her Fifth Album (1965) and on several later recordings. As commercial interest in acoustic folk groups declined, Weissberg built an extensive career as a session musician, contributing to albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand, Frankie Valli, John Denver, Jim Croce, Art Garfunkel, Talking Heads, Loudon Wainwright III, Tom Paxton, Doc Watson, the Clancy Brothers, Melanie, and Herbie Mann, among many others. In 1998, he appeared on Nanci Griffith's Other Voices, Too alongside Richard Thompson and numerous other folk musicians.

Weissberg's most commercially prominent work was his banjo solo on "Dueling Banjos," used as the theme for the 1972 film Deliverance, directed by John Boorman and produced by Joe Boyd. Released as a single, the track reached number two in both the United States and Canada in 1973 and received airplay on Top 40, AOR, and country stations. It won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. The accompanying album, Dueling Banjos: From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Deliverance (1973), was largely drawn from tracks Weissberg had recorded on New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass (1963) with Marshall Brickman and Clarence White; two tracks from the 1963 album were removed and the "Dueling Banjos" recording was added. One track from that original 1963 album, "Shuckin' The Corn," was later sampled by the Beastie Boys on "5-Piece Chicken Dinner" from their album Paul's Boutique. Warner Brothers faced a lawsuit from Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, who had written and recorded "Feudin' Banjos" in 1955, the piece renamed "Dueling Banjos" in the film. Smith won a substantial settlement that included an appended film credit and a portion of royalties.

At folk festivals, Weissberg was recognized for his dobro guitar playing as well as his bluegrass banjo work. He frequently toured with Tom Paxton, and their sets often included a variant of "Dueling Banjos" alongside Paxton's own material. On February 12, 2009, Weissberg performed solo banjo at the Riverside Church in New York City as part of a concert honoring the 200th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, in which the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College orchestra and chorus, the Riverside Inspirational Choir, and the NYC Labor Choir performed Earl Robinson's The Lonesome Train, directed by Maurice Peress. Weissberg died on March 22, 2020, at the age of 80 from Alzheimer's disease at a nursing home in White Lake Township, Michigan.