Eric Schaffer is best known for his work with his band, Eric Schaffer and the Other Troublemakers. He also performs as a solo artist in Arizona and in Mexico, where he has a second home.
On Sunday, June 22, he brings his solo Americana set to Rosati’s Pizza, as part of the Oro Valley Concert Series hosted by the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance and town of Oro Valley.
Schaffer returns to the stage with his full band on Friday, June 27, at Catalina Craft Pizza and on Wednesday, July 16, at Monterey Court in Tucson.
Founded in 2014, the group tackles different genres, including country, folk, blues, rock and Americana, and opened for Marc Cohn and Lonestar at the Fox Tucson Theatre.
In 2017, the band toured New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada and Northern Arizona.
In August 2021, Schaffer performed a solo show for Arizona Arts Live as part of its Tucson Studio series. The performance was filmed and recorded at Centennial Hall.
“They had me in Centennial Hall with my back to where the audience would be,” Eric said.
“The whole room was lit up… One of the running jokes among musicians is that everybody has been hired to do a gig at a bar or a restaurant somewhere, and there are, like, three people there. I get there, and they help me get set up. I sit down, and one of the production folks says to me, ‘Must be really weird playing to an empty room.’ I’m like, ‘Not as strange as you think it is. Been there, done that.’”
For the last 12 to 13 years, he has performed at the Tucson Folk Festival, of which he is a member of the board.
Schaffer said that he approaches solo shows differently than full-band performances.
“With the band, it’s all about the band,” Schaffer said.
“You’re giving everybody a chance to shine. They all sing, and we’ll do a lot of three- and four-part harmonies, and people like that. It’s a big sound. When I’m playing solo, my biggest concentration is on delivering the lyrics, not just singing the lyrics but delivering the lyrics. Most of what I write is written hoping to achieve some kind of emotional connection, pressing people’s buttons. You sing certain words, and people react to them.”
For the last year, he and his wife, Carol, have split their time between Arizona and Mexico. He often writes music and performs in Mexico.
“The places I play, they have a mixed crowd,” Schaffer said.
“Down in San Carlos, you have a lot of Americans. You have a lot of Canadians. You also have a lot of Mexicans who go there to vacation.
“Pretty much any place that does music will have a mix of performers. They’ll have people doing things like me, doing American music, and they’ll have people doing Mexican and Latin music.”
As a solo artist in Mexico, he frequently plays “taco joints.”
“I’ll try anything once,” he joked.
Sometimes, Loren Dircks, his guitar player from his band, will accompany him in Mexico.
His group released its second full-length album, “Dry Lightning,” in November 2023. It was written by Schaffer and Carol during several trips to Mexico.
Carol doesn’t have a musical background but does a lot of creative writing. Schaffer writes the melodies, and Carol helps with the lyrics.
The couple has been collaborating since the band’s first EP, “The Bootleg EP.” He will perform songs from this record, including “My Friend’ and “Great Wild Nowhere.”
He said “Great Wild Nowhere” is a “barn burner,” as it has a different energy and sound when he does it solo.
“I did a solo set at the folk festival. I did a stripped-down version where I slowed it down. It’s just one voice and one guitar,” Schaffer said.
“People really connected with it. I really connected with it because it’s just got a whole different impact when you listen to it.”
“My Friend” won a songwriting competition in Washington.
The band also does songs from other albums and covers during longer shows.
Schaffer said other popular songs are “Genevieve,” “American Dream,” “Beer Tastes Better in Mexico,” “Dry Lightning” and “Mama’s Bogo Blues.”
Recently, Schaffer and Carol have been working on new songs in Mexico.
“We disconnect from all the things that normally distract us at home. I sit out on the back porch. I look at the ocean, and it makes me want to play music,” he said.
“I’m probably sitting on 30 or 40 pieces of music. I do these little recordings in my studio that we have to make lyrics for. Sometimes when we go down there, I’ll bring a dozen or so and say, ‘Hey, let’s think of something for this….’ Usually is starts with the music and maybe a line I’ve got in my head. Then, we sit down and try to fill it all in.”
One of the recent songs that they wrote is about not being able to remember what day it is.
“Whenever we play it, I dedicate it to our retired friends,” Schaffer said.
He said his most recent music has been influenced by the music and vibes in Mexico.
“The last few songs I’ve written have this very ‘beachy vibe’ to them. It’s contagious,” he said.
Schaffer said that new song ideas come to him frequently.
“I’ll just be sitting around, and I’ll hear somebody say something on TV. I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s a great line,’” he said.
“It’s important to keep your ears open and just listen to what’s going on around you. It’s amazing what you’ll hear.”
For his next album, he would like to do a live solo acoustic collection.
“It would give me the opportunity to take some songs that I’ve previously recorded as band songs and strip them all the way down,” Schaffer said.
“The songs sound a lot different. I tell folks, ‘This is what it sounded like the night I sat down and I wrote it,’ and I think people connect with that. My tentative plan is to do it sometime in early winter, to book a live show with the purpose of recording. I’ll do 20 songs or 22 songs over the course of the show. I’ll record the whole thing and then pare it down to 10 or 12.”
In addition to being a musician, He is also an avid collector of guitars and amplifiers. He recently added a vintage Fender Concert amp to his collection, similar to one he had when he was 17 years old.
“A year later, I was desperate for money, so I sold it for $225 and figured I’m a genius because I sold it for $25 more than I paid for it,” he said.
“The thing is worth $2,500 to $3,000 now to buy one. I just bought one from my friend Loren, the guy who plays guitar with me with the Other Troublemakers. I’m looking on Facebook Marketplace, and somebody is selling one of these amps. I’m like, ‘Holy crap, that’s my 1961 amp. Let me see who’s selling it,’ and it’s Loren… I need another amplifier like I need a hole in the head, but this is reliving my youth.”
As part of his collection, he has a three-quarter-scale Guild guitar, a smaller acoustic guitar. His father bought it for him when he was 10 years old.
Schaffer is a guitar aficionado who has played guitars from well-known artists, including Linda Ronstadt. This happened during their album release show for “Dry Lightning.” Peter Dalton Ronstadt, who produced the album, performed a set that night.
“He’s got Linda’s old guitar, which is a 1890 Martin from her great-grandfather,” Schaffer said.
“We’re doing the album release show, and about two-thirds of the way through the show, something went haywire on the electronics in my guitar. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, and I’m trying to fix it, and it’s not working, and it’s not working. The show’s got to go on. I went and grabbed an electric guitar, and I did a few songs on an electric guitar.
“It got to the point in the set where we had a couple songs coming up that really don’t work with an electric guitar. Petey’s on the side of the stage. He says, ‘Do you need a guitar? And I said, ‘Yes.’ So, he comes back, and he hands me the guitar. So, I played the rest of the night on the guitar.”
Eric Schaffer’s Oro Valley Concert Series Show
WHEN: 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, June 22
WHERE: Rosati’s Pizza, 12152 N. Rancho Vistoso Boulevard, Oro Valley
COST: Free
INFO: saaca.org
WHEN: 6 p.m. Friday, June 27
WHERE: Catalina Craft Pizza, 15930 N. Oracle Road, Catalina
COST: Free
INFO: theothertroublemakers.com
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 16
WHERE: Monterey Court, 505 W. Miracle Mile, Tucson
COST: Free
INFO: theothertroublemakers.com
This article appears in 06-19-2025.