Second Act: Stanley Erdreich Jr. ’57 After a 60-year career in investment banking, real estate and venture capital, Erdreich embraced his creative side and turned his passion for poetry into songwriting.

By Jessica Luck
August 13, 2024

At the age of 86, Stanley Erdreich Jr. ’57 did something few people would fathom: He not only took up songwriting as a new hobby but ambitiously sent his tunes to Dolly Parton. Although the queen of country has yet to respond to his note, undeterred Erdreich continued to write lyrics for country and Western songs. He even succeeded in recording them at The Rock House recording studio in Franklin, Tennessee.

After graduating from Washington and Lee University with a degree in commerce and spending six months on active duty for the U.S. Army, Erdreich settled back in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. He spent 20 years at Regions Bank as senior vice president and director of the bank’s international activities. He also served as chair and CEO of AmSouth Bank International, an Edge Act subsidiary. (AmSouth was the prior name of what is now Regions Bank.) Leaving banking, he formed Coleman and Erdreich Investment Partners. The firm focused on development, merger and acquisition and venture capital activities for U.S. and foreign clients as well as represented client interests in the development of U.S. policy related to international trade, investment and technology.

In 1986, the company acquired Engel Realty Company Inc., and Erdreich served as chairman of Engel Realty from 1986-1991. In 2005, he sold his interest in Engel to focus on consulting. International relations remained a focus for Erdreich throughout his career. He was appointed to matters dealing with the Pacific Basin by the Carter, Reagan and Bush administrations. In 1981, he was appointed to CULCON, the U.S. Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange, and he also served as a member of the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. As a result of 30 to 40 visits to Japan, he suggested that Birmingham establish a sister city in Japan and was able to convince the city of Birmingham to establish the Birmingham Sister City Commission. As the inaugural chairman of the commission, Erdreich negotiated with the governments of Hitachi City, Japan, and Anshan, China, to establish sister city relations. Today, the commission enjoys sister city relations with cities worldwide.

“(Visiting Japan) was so different from anything I’ve ever experienced,” he said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Erdreich found an old file containing poetry written when he was a student at W&L and a few years after. He turned those poems into a self-published book, “Swallow Path,” asking each of his grandchildren to select a poem to illustrate.

At the same time, the pandemic had encouraged him to read more. One book was “How to Write One Song” by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who explained the relationship between poetry and songwriting. Although he doesn’t sing or play a musical instrument, Erdreich has always loved the works of great storytellers (he counts author Tom Wolfe ’51 and musician Leonard Cohen among some of his favorites), and he wanted to try his hand at crafting his own tales. His poems were largely about life in the South. And he had grown up near some of the country music hot spots, including Nashville, Tennessee, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and had always had an appreciation for the genre.

After writing about 10 country songs, Erdreich reached out to a cousin in New York who has a company that creates the background music for television commercials. He connected Erdreich with a high school buddy who had moved to Nashville and was in the music production business. As a result, Erdreich worked with Grammy Award-winning music producer and musician Kevin McKendree and spent four days in July 2022 at his recording studio watching seasoned musicians bring his songs to life.

“It was one of the most exciting things that happened to me since my children were born,” he said. “It was awesome.”

In April 2024, more of his songs were recorded in Nashville, with many of the same musicians from the original session participating in the project. The first three songs, “You and Me,” “So Many Miles” and “Sing Me a Love Story,” were released in December 2022. His most recent songs, “Cryin’ in the Rain,” “Rockin’ Grandpa” and “Sunrise Over Georgia,” came out in July 2024.

“I’ve always loved words, their meaning,” he said. “When you’re trying to make something rhyme, you have to be very creative to find the right words and hope they work.”

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