Songwriter, singer and guitarist Eric Lugosch, a National Fingerpicking Champion, had his first European tour almost twenty years ago. Then his voice changed. Born in Philadelphia, he was involved in music at an early age. He was hitting the high notes with Princeton's Columbus Boys Choir and the Philadelphia Boys Choir as first soprano. With the choral groups he was performing classical repertoire but his first true love of music was Motown's Supremes. Then came Janis Joplin. "What I loved about the Supremes wasn't the voices, but the tunes. In Janis' voice I heard an instrument." Then Eric's oldest brother returned from Vietnam with a Japanese folk guitar. Eric would clandestinely take the instrument, go upstairs and teach himself to play.

His development as a guitarist was influenced by the evolving British blues-rock movement. "They weren't afraid to mix in classical and rock'n'roll. The Stones introduced orchestration into really cool melodies." His listening broadened to include the spectrum from Sun Ra to John Lee Hooker. For guitar-work, he picked up the styles and was heavily inspired by Leo Kottke and Reverend Gary Davis. His studies in voice and music continued at Temple University in Philadelphia, including formal composition and notation.

While he eventually explored the electric guitar, his focus continued to be the six-string acoustic. "I was 21 when I had my first show, opening for Leon Redbone. I was still wearing my Arco overalls from my day job at the oil refinery. I even got paid $100." His virtuosity on guitar led to slots in front of Doc Watson, John Prine and David Bromberg.

In 1983, Eric entered the National Fingerpicking Championship in Winfield, Kansas. A third-place showing inspired him to try again the following year. This time he emerged with the grand prize. "I met Duck Baker and Pat Donahue. Meeting all these great players was really inspiring. I studied with Guy Van Duser for one summer. All of this really opened my ears up. Listening to others expanded my writing style. I started playing as much as I could... anywhere, often working with other musicians. I also began to teach."

On Eric's first self-release from 1985 was a jazz-oriented suite for guitar, flute and bass called "Strike." Comedian Aaron Freeman used it as the closing theme for his television talk show for four years. His 1990 self-release, I Wanna Know, featured guitar, dobro, bass and vocals. Lately he's been working with percussionist Lana Wordell (marimba, steel drums, and singing), Old Town School vocalist Elaine Moore, accordionist John Williams and bassist Al Erich, all of whom make appearances on Making Models.

One of his compositions, "Stars Up Above," has been used occasionally as segue music on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. The recording that NPR uses is by guitarist Joe Miller from his album Semi-Traditional Guitar Solos, released on Rising Sleeves. Eric had been playing the instrumental on a West Coast tour with Miller. Miller asked Eric to write it down for him and subsequently made the first recording of the song. Eric's own version appears here on Making Models.

Eric settled in Chicago in 1988 and has performed regularly throughout the Midwest since. Among his favorite media appearances was on Omaha's River City Folk program. "I spun a Professor Longhair record, performed a rhumba version of the traditional fiddle tune "Colored Aristocracy" on guitar, and read a poem of my own." On public radio station WBEZ Eric has often made live appearances on the eclectic Earth Club show. A highlight of recent concert experiences was organizing and playing in a finger-style guitar festival at Chicago's venerable Old Town School of Folk Music with Tim Sparks and German guitarist Peter Finger.

While often noted for his instrumental repertoire, Eric has always been a songwriter skillful with lyrics and vocal melodies. This album, Making Models on Whitehouse Records, contains mostly original songs featuring his singing and songwriting. The first exception is a thoroughly re-thought version of the solemn gospel instrumental "There's A Destruction" that Eric learned through a Reverend Gary Davis recording. A "drunk" version of Pete Seeger's instrumental "Living In The Country" utilizes steel drums as does the original vocal song "Don't Start Wanting." The only other cover is a new rhumba version of the aforementioned "Colored Aristocracy." The subject matter of his own songs range from the romantic "More Reasons Than Stars," to a stroke of the comb to men's favorite drug Rogaine ("Change Of Heart") to the black humor of "Stalwart Rubbermaid." Eric reprises "I Wanna Know" from his self-released tape, this time with Green Linnet accordionist John Williams. "Her Grace" is "just a very natural love song" as is his very English-sounding "You Were In August."

"I compose for other instruments off the guitar. I'll use both standard notations and tablature. All my music is written, published and available. A basic concept I've had with projects is to take musicians (whether they're classical or blues players) and put them into my music... whether they're comfortable or not." As Ellington did, he'll write structure and melody and then allow them to improvise. Eric's prior recordings emphasized his composing but not his guitar playing. "My current guitars of choice are a John Arnold custom and a "Jenny Craig"-model Martin. This album is dedicated to my own style of playing. I used to be strongly influenced by other guitarists but now I have a pallet of colors that I can use that is mine and not someone else's. It definitely has my signature...and that's ERIC LUGOSCH."