Album Notes

Erica Cashman makes music that is sublimely crafted and without rules. Experimenting from an early age in her home in Boston, she developed her own unique method of songwriting inspired by the radio and a love of music. After finishing Boston College, Erica packed her bags for NYC and soon hooked up with an all-girl band on the Lower East Side. "Nobody really knew how to play an instrument at that point, so we were pretty limited in what we actually did with my songs." Catching some attention from musicians while playing open mics, she put her own band together and started developing her songs in front of audiences. Then she made a demo in her apartment with her band and went out looking for some production help. She found producer/guitarist Joshua Kessler and engineer/producer Nic Hard. A week later they found themselves with 12 completed songs. "That week was the best week of my life; everything came together almost effortlessly. It felt so good; it was the best," she says with a smile, "and...it just kind of became this family. Everybody was really involved and put so much heart and soul and sweat into this music." Erica Cashman's new album, Nothin' Left to Say; is shimmering and effervescent. It is a powerfully diverse album with depth as, from moment to moment, it moves from the dangerously seductive to alluringly schizophrenic. There are crossover elements of multiple formats; the common thread being the singer-songwriter's plaintive, emotion-drenched vocals. It's a record that shows what happens when you let the music take you where it will, instead of forcing it into a cage. "I think that it's more enjoyable to listen to music like that," Cashman asserts. "My music represents who I am as a person and as a performer. Either I'm very playful, or I'm a little raunchy, or I'm really pissed off, or really aggressive, or I'm really sweet and gentle. I go through so many different moods. Everybody does." Erica Cashman is a real person. There's nothing manufactured or disingenuous about her or her music. It's just straight-from-the-heart up close and personal. And beyond that, really, like the woman says, "there's nothin' left to say."