Eric Blackwood - Edison's Children - "In The Last Waking Moments"

Eric Blackwood is a Musician / Photographer / Author and Special FX - Props Technician for Major Motion Pictures and was born in Brooklyn New York to Italian parents… his mother, a nurse while his father served under some of the most notorious underworld characters of his era. Eric Blackwood would spend most of his childhood living in the Great Kills section of Staten Island NY. After spending the first 35 years of his life living in the New York City Metro Area, Eric moved upstate to Sugar Loaf New York and lives in the barn which produced such famed bands as Miracle Legion and Phish. Black Dirt Studios is owned by Brad Morrison... former tour manager of such bands as The Cure and Duran Duran. Eric Blackwood's musical career began with Nemesis… a progressive based Staten Island rock band highly influenced by Pink Floyd, Saga, Journey, Dan Fogelberg and Kansas with bassist Scott Braunstein. Scott was recruited by the Heavy Metal band Crimson Steel with ties to Twisted Sister and Eric Blackwood would join as rhythm guitarist, playing the music influenced by bands such as Queensryche, Rainbow, The Scorpions, Dio, Axe and Metallica. While these Metal bands satisfied Blackwood's progressive roots, Eric's writing style was based more firmly around progressive bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, Dan Fogelberg and a new band that Blackwood began to become heavily influenced by… Marillion. Eric decided to leave heavy metal and join up with fellow Pace University graduate Anthony J. Foti to form Blackwood & Foti.
Eric Blackwood's first album "Haunted Memories" came out in 1993 with Anthony J. Foti. The acoustic progressive duet produced 5 songs and had a hit single which reached the Gavin Report 7 times for most played song of the week in Atlanta, Dallas, El Paso and 7 other major southern U.S. cities (despite the single not having any sort of "country sound" to it). Several songs from this album and other original songs that Blackwood wrote with Foti for their heavy touring schedule have since been remixed by Anthony J. Foti and in 2008, 2009 and 2010… they have continued to appear on the Grammy's "long list" of nominees (the list before they shorten it to 7 for television) for "Best Song"

Haunted Memories featured some of the great names in Rock.
Lead Guitar: Asia/Trans-Siberian Orchestra/Joe Lynn Turner/Alice Cooper Lead Guitarist Al Pitrelli.
Production: Foreigner's Al Greenwood and Dave Greenberg (Green Machine Productions)
Drums: Joe Satriani/Meatloaf drummer Vinny Conigliaro
Keyboards: Fusion Keyboardist Brian Giarraffa.

After the Blackwood and Foti project came to an end, the Eric Blackwood Band continued to tour 5-7 days a week every week before "Grunge" and the Seattle scene took over. Eric Blackwood Band touring guitarist Mike Marchetta took over as the lead singer and writer and Eric moved over to bass for 7 years as Sunblister became one of New York City's premier alternative rock bands becoming regulars in such haunts as the China Club, Webster Hall, Le Bar Bat and Kenny's Castaways. Two D's were released by the band which had strong roots to the Alice and Chains, Nirvana, Deftones, Tool, A Perfect Circle and Chevelle… these last 4 becoming very strong influences to Eric Blackwood. After being scouted by Major Record Labels, disagreements within the band caused Eric to leave Sunblister and say goodbye to Mike Marchetta, who he had been touring with non-stop for a decade. Disgusted with the music business, Eric hung up his guitar for awhile, but would write and record 26 original songs for "The Sopranos" Star "Big Pussy" Vincent Pastore's "Growing Down in Brooklyn"… a mafia based film (of course) which featured a title track which brought Eric Blackwood back to his acoustical progressive roots. With prog rock losing its interest, Eric left the music scene for 7 years to become a Special FX and Props technician for some of the biggest movies and television shows in history…

Unable to use music as a source for his creativity, Eric began photographing Baseball Stadiums across North America and after 11 years, he has seen and personally photographed 650 stadiums. His website www.Digitalballparks.com was named one of the top 20 websites in the entire world by Yahoo! In their 2002 Year in Review. In November of 2011, his book "500 Ballparks" was published by English publisher Greene Media and Thunder Bay Publishing.

In 2005 at the urging of his childhood friend Frank Lomassaro to "Get off his ass and make a new album already", Eric began writing new material but was unsure of what would be the right opportunity to showcase the new music. That right opportunity came in 2006 when Pete Trewavas asked his, now good friend Eric Blackwood if he would be interested in doing a project that would just involve the two of them. After 30 years of playing in a "band" setting, Pete wanted to explore a more "personal approach" in which he could work on other types of instrumentation and perhaps even some vocals. Eric already had a decent arsenal of progressive style music just waiting for that right situation and after Pete jammed with Eric before soundcheck at Marillion's Washington D.C. gig in 2006… Edison's Children was born.

Eric Blackwood has also been a major part of Marillion's North American touring crew since 2006, personally driving the band members to the gigs and to their hotels, picking up equipment, assisting Frenchie and Lucy, Roderick, Colin and Pete Harwood as well as the band with whatever is needed and when the jeep is full… sticking Mark Kelly in the trunk

• Bourne Ultimatum (Matt Damon)
• I Am Legend (Will Smith)
• Men In Black III (Will Smith)
• Person of Interest (J.J. Abrams, Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson,
Kevin Chapman)
• Spiderman 3
• Law & Order: SVU
• American Gangster (Russell Crowe/Denzel Washington)
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent
• Sherlock Holmes (Jude Law/Robert Downey Jr)
• Mr. Popper's Penguins (Jim Carrey)
• The Backup Plan (Jennifer Lopez)
• Rescue Me (Denis Leary)
• Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief
• Julie & Julia (Meryl Streep)
• White Collar
• The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3 (John Travolta/Denzel Washington)
• Ugly Betty
• America's Next Top Model
• Wanted (Angelina Jolie/Morgan Freeman)
• The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky/Mickey Rourke)
• The Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky/Natalie Portman)
• Gossip Girl
• 30 Rock (Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin)
• August Rush (Robin Williams)
• Boardwalk Empire (HBO - Steve Buscemi)
• The Adjustment Bureau (Matt Damon)
• The Rebound (Catherine Zeta-Jones)
• Violet and Daisy (James Gandolfini)
• Perfect Stranger (Halle Berry/Bruce Willis)
• Assassination of A High School President (Bruce Willis)
• Salt (Angelina Jolie)
• World Trade Center (Oliver Stone/Nicholas Cage)
• What Happens In Vegas (Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher)
• Baby Mama (Tina Fey / Amy Pohler)
• Friends With Benefits (Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunich)
• New Years Day (Robert DeNiro)
• The Switch (Jennifer Anniston and Jason Bateman)
• The Sopranos,
• For One More Day (Michael Imperioli/Oprah Winfrey)
• Did You Hear About The Morgans (Hugh Grant/Sarah Jessica Parker)