Eric Merrill

I once was a violin maker, musician, and record producer. But now I attend Yale Law School. I love both what I did and what I am doing tremendously. In that, I am very lucky.



While I am no longer looking for work as a record producer, I had a good run and am proud of the music, so I've left this in place. I was fortunate to be a part of a world in which people play music at once deeply rooted in tradition and startlingly creative. I've worked as a producer with many of my favorite musicians from this world, including Crooked Still, Lissa Schneckenburger, and Rachael Davis.



I split my performing life between fiddle, banjo, and voice in Irish and Appalachian styles and a devotion to the textural possibilities of viola and harmony vocals. The first is evident. The second is a survival from a former life. I grew up in Seattle singing in boychoir and later playing in string quartets. I always sang and played the middle voices. Second soprano, viola, french horn, and oboe. Thus, I love tone. I studied viola at Indiana University which is an unusually complete and open minded school and left me uninterested in an orchestral career but more in love with music than I would have imagined beforehand.