Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz have just made their debut album. A curious fact, given they’ve played a few hundred shows together over the past decade, and have recorded five records together in the company of their musical comrade Peter Cooper.
But with Simple Motion, Eric and Thomm launch the next leg of their varied and impressive careers. They each made their way to Nashville more than 20 years ago.
Eric moved to Music City from Washington D.C. with his acclaimed root-rock band Last Train Home. In Nashville he launched the Red Beet Records label, which became home to his duo with fellow music journalist and songwriter Peter Cooper.
Thomm grew up in Germany, but dreamed of Nashville, and after winning the “green card lottery” he moved there. Thomm quickly became an indispensable sideman to the likes of Nanci Griffith, Mary Gauthier, David Olney, Kim Richey, and others, while also building a studio and a reputation as a producer and songwriter. After producing two albums for Eric and Peter, Thomm joined the duo, and the new trio gave the world two stellar albums, Profiles in Courage, Frailty, and Discomfort, and Riverland.
When Peter Cooper died in December, 2022, the music world lost one of its brightest and best. And Thomm and Eric lost a musical brother whose creative spark had always inspired them and sent them down new paths together. The question was before them as 2023 dawned: “What next?” And the answer came easily: Make music. And so they did. Eric and Thomm began writing songs together, booking gigs, hitting the road, and spending time in Thomm’s recording studio.
The resulting 14 tracks capture the duo in different ways. There are songs with just the duo, two voices and two acoustic guitars. There are songs with a full band of brilliant players (bassist Mark Fain, drummer Lynn Williams, fiddler Tammy Rogers, banjo players Richard Bailey and Justin Moses, mandolinist Mike Compton). But however they’re arranged, the songs are full of life and love and beauty and sadness, and convey the joy of being alive in tandem with the deep blue of loss that these past few years have marked us all with.
1 - FROST ON THE SOUTH SIDE (3:56) by Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz
2 - BURN (2:40) by Finn Goodwin-Bain & Thomm Jutz
3 - SIMPLE MOTION (3:18) by Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz
4 - OUTSIDE VIEWS (3:02) by Mike Compton & Thomm Jutz
5 - JUST A MOMENT (4:13) by Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz
6 - CAN’T CHANGE THE WEATHER (3:52) by Peter Cooper & Thomm Jutz
7 - ANYWHERE BUT HERE (4:14) by Eric Brace
8 - WHEN LONDON WAS THE WORLD (3:25) by Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz
9 - ADAM & EVE (3:51) by Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz & Bert Van Mourik
10 - WHAT YOU GET FOR GETTING OLDER (3:09) by Tammy Rogers & Thomm Jutz
11 - RAMBLE (2:41) by Eric Brace
12 - ARKANSAS (3:47) by Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz
13 - NASHVILLE IN THE MORNING (3:26) by Trey Hensley & Thomm Jutz
14 - SEA FEVER (2:48) by Eric Brace & John Masefield
Eric Brace: Guitar and vocals
Thomm Jutz: Guitar and vocals
Mark Fain: Bass Lynn Williams: Drums
Tammy Rogers: Fiddle
Mike Compton: Mandolin Richard Bailey: Banjo (1, 5, 7, 10)
Justin Moses: Dobro, banjo (3, 8)
Jeff Taylor: Accordion, tin whistle (9)
Produced by Thomm Jutz and Eric Brace
