ARTIST PROFILE: Eric Roberson ~ A Howard Alumni Jewel who is "Picture Perfect"

“The Moon” caught my ear back in 1994 as a senior in high school. This track’s positive words describing a man bellowing out his heart about how much he loved the object of his desire and how far he would travel for her love was simplistically beautiful. You can see that someone was clearly a New Edition fan and refused to water down his music. This infectious and catchy track that Eric had rocking radio air waves on adult contemporary stations such as WHUR. At the time, a Howard University student, he was clearly on his grind even if his peers didn't know it at the time. His popularity began to rise on the underground soul scene as Erykah Badu and India Arie took to the mainstream airwaves real heavy in the early 90’s.

 
At 17 years old and freshman at Howard University, I remember racing to Willie's Record and Tapes on Georgia Avenue and being told, sorry, The Vault 1.5 is sold out. Crushed and confused, I turned to go back to campus then thought wait, lets go get a book (my second love next to music). I took the trek from Howard University on an hour long metro ride to my favorite urban book store in Prince Georges Plaza mall , and staring at me as I checked out “The Vault 1.5” with the grey obscure cover. They also had some independent cd’s that they said Eric and his family brought in, and I brought them all. Those albums were Esoteric, The Appetizer, and The Vault Vol. 1.5 I ran home, ripped it open and fell in love from Track 1 all the way to the end. To date, my top five Erro songs are “Please Don’t Leave Me”, “The Moon”, “Obstacles”, “Find The Way” and “Def Ears”.
 
For the last twenty years, Eric aka Erro has released several albums: The Appetizer, Esoteric, Left, and Mr. Nice Guy and multiples live albums from shows all over the United States. Eric is a hard worker by trade driving through rain, sleet and snow and even bringing his parents to a show in DC in the middle of a snow storm to sell his Merchandise. I think his parents further realized that day that their son was a star because he performed to a packed house that was standing room only at the 9:30 club, snow boots and rain coats littering the place but no one cared, we were there for Erro. And although a lot of his albums did not get the same attention as some of his earlier works, it makes his music no less classic as he was Grammy nominated in 2010 for “A Tale of Two” and 2011 for his beautiful  ode “Still”.

Quiet as kept, Eric takes great pride in his music and has worked with some of the top producers in the game such as Jermaine Hardsoul, a Howard University alum, whose worked with Nas, Pink, Christina Aguilera and countless others, and Slimkat78, a native Washingtonian who has been featured on a plethora of "in the know" websites,  co-produced Picture Perfect (and they achieved some pretty decent VH1 Soul rotation) and even brought the instrument he used along with him in his video premiere. Erro is also known for doing some pretty dope collaborations with Jill Scott and Marsha Ambrosius. And never does he wait very long to release music, as I researched this article, I found a single release from 2014, called Mark on Me, which is really classic and modern Eric mix.
“Mark on Me” is yet another one those intricate tracks he is known for crooning over enveloped me. Eric is enchanting because he is a true vocalist and song writer who seems to speak what one’s heart can not put into words. It is clear that he understands ,as a musician, that you have to be one with your band and that he truly enjoys working with talented musicians which makes his word come to light and not a simple beat machine. A lot of singers do not get that chemistry and vibes are what make truly timeless music. On Friday, September 25, Eric Roberson will rock the Howard Theatre stage and make us all fall in love again or just touch our souls with fervent words and melodies that will satiate your musical souls. This is a show you do not want to miss! Grab your tickets here!