Biography
Boston-born guitarist Eddie Mottau built a career spanning five decades that took him through successive waves of shifting musical fashions. A childhood fascination with folk led him to join forces with Joe Hutchinson in the duo Two Guys from Boston, which cut a single for Scepter Records under the production of Paul Stookey from Peter, Paul & Mary. The pair later expanded into the psychedelic folk-rock outfit Bo Grumpus and moved to New York for sessions overseen by Felix Pappalardi; for a period the group operated under the name Jolliver Arkansaw before disbanding in 1970.
Mottau soon rejoined Stookey’s circle, supplying guitar and sharing production duties on the singer’s debut solo release after leaving Peter, Paul & Mary, the album Paul And. Those sessions brought him into contact with John Lennon, whose live band he subsequently joined, and also yielded a collaboration with Lower East Side provocateur David Peel. In 1973 Mottau issued his own debut solo effort, No Turning Around on MCA, again produced by Stookey. He returned to Lennon’s projects the next year for Walls and Bridges and once more in 1975 for Rock ’n’ Roll. A second solo album, No Moulding, appeared in 1977. Mottau has remained active as a performer and recording artist, though since the 1980s he has worked from New Hampshire rather than New York City.
Mottau soon rejoined Stookey’s circle, supplying guitar and sharing production duties on the singer’s debut solo release after leaving Peter, Paul & Mary, the album Paul And. Those sessions brought him into contact with John Lennon, whose live band he subsequently joined, and also yielded a collaboration with Lower East Side provocateur David Peel. In 1973 Mottau issued his own debut solo effort, No Turning Around on MCA, again produced by Stookey. He returned to Lennon’s projects the next year for Walls and Bridges and once more in 1975 for Rock ’n’ Roll. A second solo album, No Moulding, appeared in 1977. Mottau has remained active as a performer and recording artist, though since the 1980s he has worked from New Hampshire rather than New York City.
Albums