Eric Brace, singer, songwriter and founder of Last Train
Home came to his old stomping grounds this month during an acoustic tour with
partner Peter Cooper and guitarist
Thomm Jutz.
Their sound might be called New Nashville: a little bit
country, a little bit bluegrass, a rocking beat and head-snapping lyrics.
Whether they are mourning the loss of love, the twist of bad fortune or mocking
stuffed shirts, they are sharing intimate moments. The tiny Jammin Java café in
Vienna, Virginia was the perfect place to share that kind of music.
Mostly they were just having a good time poking fun at each
other, their years of laboring in relative obscurity in Nashville (hence the
nickname of “Neverly Brothers”)
and about making music, especially with the old masters.
Here are some excerpts from The Comeback Album:
(Ponzi Scheme)
Lost my sunbeam in a ponzi scheme
Don’t ask me how that works
Should have read the fine print
Devil’s in the details
I’m really not a fine print guy
She’s the one in the wrong here
I got the run around
Took my love and everything that wasn’t bolted down
Rust and rubber, hard concrete, that ‘s the view from under
the bus.
(She Can’t Be Herself)
She’s unabashed and unconcerned and needing to be free
And she can’t be herself when she’s with me
(Nobody Knows)
The best laid plans are a stick in the craw
You pledge allegiance to whatever you allege
I pledge allegiance to the luck of the draw…
All I know is nobody knows
Nobody, nobody knows.
Throughout the evening, as I listened to their ditties about
mundane events and ordinary people (who offered big lessons in life) on songs
like Grandma’s Batman Tattoo or Big Steve, I was reminded of Steve Goodman and
Arlo Guthrie.
As Cooper and Brace carve their own musical paths, they pay
tribute to their influences, doing strong covers of Tom T. Hall’s I Flew Over
Our House, The Seldom Scene’s signature take on Herb Pedersen’s Wait A Minute
and Johnny Cash’s Lay Me Down.
Cooper’s tenor and Brace’s baritone match beautifully and
Jutz’s guitar mastery, amplified through an exterior mike, completed the effect
of having a studio full of musicians.
On the CD itself, Jutz is joined by pedal steel legend,
Lloyd Green, session man supreme who has played on 115 number one hits. Green’s magical music is also showcased
on Brace & Cooper’s “Master Sessions” CD which also features the late dobro
virtuoso Mike Auldridge.
Red Beet Records is Brace and Cooper’s label in East
Nashville and one hopes it will help grow their music business to the point of
a new nickname: Foreverly Brothers.
(Boxcars)
Every dream is a boxcar
I’ve got a freight train
Every wish is an open road
And I’ll drive forever.
