Eric Thompson took up the guitar as a teenager in Palo Alto, California in the early 1960's, at a time when very few folk guitarists were playing more than basic rhythm guitar. Among his earliest bands were the Black Mountain Boys (with Jerry Garcia and David Nelson) and Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. He quickly became nationally known as an exceptional lead flatpicker, winning the World Championship Cup at Union Grove, North Carolina with the New York Ramblers (which also included David Grisman and Winnie Winston) and flying to Nashville, Tennessee to record Beatle Country with the Charles River Valley Boys (reissued on Rounder).

During the 1970's, Eric worked with two Irish accordion players from County Clare, Joe Cooley and Kevin Keegan. He organized the Graineog Ceilidh Band around these two master musicians, playing tenor banjo, and spent six months in the west of Ireland, visiting and learning from older traditional musicians there.

Eric's first solo LP, Bluegrass Guitar, featured an all-star band including David Grisman and Tony Rice, and was released in 1979 on Kicking Mule; it was recently reissued, with additional duet tracks with David Grisman, as Thompson 's Real. A duet album with guitarist Alan Senauke, Two Guitars, featured a more eclectic mix ranging from American bluegrass to Irish reels to Greek rembetika; it has also recently been reissued in tandem with the Blue Flame Stringband album.

In the 1980's Eric toured extensively nationwide and abroad with the Blue Flame Stringband (with Kate Brislin, Alan Senauke, and Suzy Thompson) and the Backwoods Band, recording with both bands. Between tours, he traveled to southwest Louisiana, pursuing his newest musical interest, Cajun music. In 1983 he formed the California Cajun Orchestra which is a vehicle for his recently-acquired skill on the electric guitar; his playing can be heard on their two award-winning Arhoolie CDs. Eric appears as a sideman on recordings by Mike Seeger, the Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, Mac Benford, Jody Stecher, Jane Voss, and Frankie Armstrong, among others.

Eric is a knowledgeable and patient teacher, who has been a staff member at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Port Townsend Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camp, and Lark In the Morning. His three recent guitar instructional videos are distributed by Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. Eric is featured in the recent Mel Bay publication Flatpicking 2000 and has been writing columns for Flatpicking Guitar and Acoustic Guitar magazines.