"The last time I played a show it was at Braemar Bakery," says street guitar slinger/singer Eric Pyle regarding his last onstage performance as Eric the Great eight years ago.

"It was a weekly gig, every Sunday for a year. The music was the same I play today, minus the covers."

Since his weekly slot at the bakery, Pyle (ex-Ludwigs, the Devil Dancer from the Chocolate Bunnies from Hell, Rumpus Room, I.Q. 80, The Slice, Lick, Fast Eddie) has made a local name for himself by sluggin' it out as a performer on our downtown streets, a street-beatin' guitar in his hand and a struttin' song in his heart to share with anyone out there with the time and inclination to listen.

"I originally went out on the street to play because I wanted to exercise my freedom of speech and expression," Pyle says with a super smile and a serious bent. "I've felt all my life that I've been feed poison in my brain by the school system, television, newspapers and so forth, so I started out at Winnipeg Square under the TD Bank about six years ago.

"There, I could speak out to counter the claims put forth by business, the machines of industry and media - whether it is about swine flu or the economy. Excuse me, I want to tell the other side, my side of the story.

"Then that metamorphed into something else. I had initially stopped. Then my friend Andrea gave me lodgings, so I went back to the street to raise money for us."

Pyle says his chosen path was fortified by his love for music at an early age - then he decided to take it to the people.

"I was DJing socials when I was 16. I bought a thousand albums by the time I was 21. It just kept evolving to the point where I was putting on socials at the old Native Club. I always had a love of the music scene, rock music festivals here when they first started up. I went to Festival Express featuring Joplin, and a year later I went to Zeppelin just to see a local band called Choppin' Block. They were great. They had two lead singers. One of them was American. He eventually got deported."

Pyle eventually ended up being a roadie in the late '70s for a local pub rock band called Barrelhouse that was a contemporary of Woodwork, Harlequin, Mood Jga Jga, the amazing Papa Pluto and the lesser known but stellar heavy rock band Ozzy Mandias.

"Then I started playing and moved on to my own things. The first one was Fast Eddie. The early bands were short-lived. Things were fast," Pyle remembers. In the '90s, Pyle fronted an alternative rock band called The Ludwigs which released an indie album. He morphed into Eric the Great by the end of the decade.

Pyle has played thousands of times for thousands of locals on our streets. He says he's mostly known as 'the Johnny Cash Guy' - the result of being besieged with requests for Cash from an excited fanbase.

"On the street it's Johnny Cash first and foremost," Pyle says. "I Walk the Line, Ring of Fire, Folsom Prison Blues, those, and I like to play Red River Valley because when Peter Warren was doing his last radio show a few years back he kept asking for people to phone in with their version of it. Nobody did, and that stayed with me, so I do it now."

Eric the Great is obviously on a bit of a roll. He says he has over 40 new tunes "ready to record" and he's celebrating the release of his new album, The World of Love and Other Things, at the Pyramid Cabaret with a host of guests including, "Alex, Paul Bundy, J. Williamez and more" on Nov. 26. Fire up ludwig41@hotmail.com for more Eric the Great info.

"I usually play during the Moose games, the Library Walkway. I have a real connection with that crowd, and the Osborne Village by the LC there in the circle, and outside the Garrick Theatre. It's going to be a big show at the Pyramid with lots of people, so get there early," Pyle says, before offering a great accolade to all his past, present and future listeners.

"The fantastic love that I've gotten from the people here in town for what I do is beautiful - from the tiniest baby to the greatest grandmother - I just want to say, 'Thank you.'"

Got some news to bleat? No attachment treat! Keep it textly sweet! Fire tips to Don at Street Beat! streetbleep@hotmail.com.