found filk in 1991 while attending university. While still a student, Eli produced two albums for Wail Songs and the oversaw the reprint of the Westerfilk songbook. In 1997, he founded Prometheus Music, which has set a new gold standard for production quality in recording, engineering and graphic design. His releases have gone where few filk albums have gone before: into the mainstream.
His first Prometheus release was in 1999 with Kathy Mar’s My Favorite Sings, followed by Bob Kanefsky’s first CD of parodies Roundworm (2000). He re-mastered Julia Ecklar’s out-of-print Divine Intervention (2002 — from old tapes caked in mold) and re-released her Traveler (2006). The rerelease of out-of-print music entails many headaches regarding obtaining rights, including the rights to the artwork in the Traveler companion songbook. In 2012, Eli published brand new recordings of many old Leslie Fish songs on Avalon is Risen. In 2004 he released new recordings of new and old space songs in collaboration with two space advocacy organizations, with To Touch the Stars. And, of course, he produced Ecklar’s return to recording with Horsetamer (2013).
Eli is a natural and tireless media promoter, and with To Touch the Stars, he generated a massive amount of coverage in mainstream media for filk music. He got filk on the front page of the print, and television (the Seattle Times, and CBC, MSNBC and many more) and an endorsement by Buzz Aldrin. He was successful in persuading NASA to play “Pioneers of Mars” as wake-up music for the Mars Rover Opportunity. The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission included “Witnesses Waltz” from the album in NASA’s Born of Dreams – Inspired by Freedom book and DVD. Top space historian Dr. Roger Launius quoted songs from the album in the NASA-published anthology Realizing the Dream of Flight.
Eli arranged to have To Touch the Stars featured at space parties from Houston to Tokyo to Azerbaijan. Schools and science museums have used it to teach space science and physics. It is the first filk album stocked in both the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and the Museum of Flight.
Similarly he arranged to have Avalon is Risen aired on Pagan podcasts worldwide, reviewed in Pagan newsletters, and played on dozens of folk radio programs worldwide, bringing the songs to thousands of new listeners.
Eli Goldberg has made one of the greatest commitments of any single individual towards advancing the cause of recorded filk music. In the end, he has spent thousands of hours and a huge amount of his own money to help filk reach a wider audience, through high quality recordings, extensive radio and other media promotion. He has long been a silent voice in the filk community, by enabling others to have a louder voice by recording and promoting filk.
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Eli Goldberg is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this ninth day of April, two thousand sixteen.