Eric Brace & Peter Cooper
You Don’t Have To Like Them Both
A Nashville duo with a celebration of songwriting, in essence. Pretty good singers, the pair of them and on this set they are going for a laidback, easygoing mood that lets the compositions connect. There are some gems of songs here. Brace writes material for the band Last Train Home, which he fronts. Cooper is a writer who makes music.
Cognoscenti’s of songwriting will smile at the listing of composers, as it includes Kris Kristofferson, Todd Snider, Jim Lauderdale and David Olney.
The ensemble features legendary steel player Lloyd Green and he sits well in the gentle John Prine-style settings exemplified by opener ‘I Know A Bird’. Next song ‘Omar’s Blues #2′ is an Olney song and has echoes of the great Steve Goodman. The singers are careful to sustain clarity of delivery, often a relaxed Hammond sighs in the background, all adding to the backporch sound. ‘Down To The Well’ is soaked in tuneful melancholy, you can see the peeling paint on the buildings and there is a brief but gritty guitar solo from Tim Carroll.
Evoking the current Clint Eastwood ‘grumpster provoked’ film hit, ‘The Man Who Loves To Hate’ is a classic song worthy of moodmaster Kevin Montgomery and there’s more biting guitar from Tim Carroll.
Who will this appeal to ? Well, I guess those who enjoy John Prine, Randy Newman perhaps, Buddy Miller certainly. The album never gets noisy, stays tuneful. I would expect Radio 2’s Bob Harris to pick up on this one
Pete Sargeant www.fairhearing.co.uk
