Eric Weissberg

Musician

Born: August 16, 1939; Died: March 22, 2020

ERIC WEISSBERG, who has died aged 80 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease, was a bluegrass musician who was brought to pop prominence through his banjo playing on the instrumental Dueling Banjos in John Boorman’s 1972 film, Deliverance. In the film, Ronny Cox’s character jams on guitar with a banjo-playing local boy in the Georgia backwoods.

Weissberg, who had established a formidable reputation as a session musician, playing banjo, electric and acoustic guitar, dobro, mandolin, acoustic bass, bass guitar and fiddle with equal proficiency, was asked by Warner Brothers’ music executive Joe Boyd to record Feudin’ Banjos, a tune written and recorded in 1955 by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith, for the scene with guitarist Steve Mandell.

This resulted in Weissberg reaching a huge international audience, enjoying an unexpected hit single and winning the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Unfortunately, the track was mistakenly credited to him instead of Smith, who successfully sued. Although it wasn’t his mistake, Weissberg got the blame.

This didn’t stop him continuing as a successful session musician. Before recording Dueling Banjos he had already stood in for Pete Seeger with the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra, playing a complicated banjo concerto at three weeks’ notice despite having broken his arm in a motorcycle accident.

After touring with Judy Collins he made a significant contribution to her Fifth Album. He had also played banjo on John Denver’s 1971 hit Take Me Home, Country Roads and would appear on such albums as

Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, Billy Joel’s Piano Man and Talking Heads’ Little Creatures; he worked with jazz musicians, pianist Bob James and flautist Herbie Mann, and appeared on countless other recordings, television shows, commercials and movie scores.

Weissberg was born in Brooklyn to Will, a jazz fan who worked as a publicity photographer for the Waldorf Astoria hotel, and Cecile, a liquor buyer for the Hilton hotel chain, who played piano and introduced Eric to folk music. By the time he began violin studies aged 10, he had already received banjo lessons at music camp from Pete Seeger, who invited him to hootenannies at his house.

There, the young Eric heard luminaries Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly and became determined to be a musician. Having listened extensively to bluegrass records, he studied at Julliard Music School and made his first recordings for an album, American Banjo Scruggs Style, in 1957.

Through the informal Sundayafternoon music sessions in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, Eric joined Village hillbillies, the Greenbriar Boys, and when Erik Darling replaced Pete Seeger in the Weavers, Eric took Darling’s place in the Tarriers folk group.

After touring and recording with his band Deliverance, working with Tom Paxton and extensively with Art Garfunkel, Weissberg was invited to participate in the Weavers’ final reunion concert in 2003, singing and playing bass guitar with musicians he had hero-worshipped as a teenager.