MUSIC

McGonigel's Mucky Duck presents Eric Brace - Peter Cooper.

The body of work that Eric Brace and Peter Cooper have created reflects their literate sensibilities as songwriters, a love of harmony and wry humor, and their deep respect for the masters they're lucky enough to play with. Eric Brace and Peter Cooper have acclaimed music careers outside their impressive work as a duo. Eric Brace is the lead singer and songwriter for the renowned roots rock band Last Train Home, which has eight CDs and one live concert DVD to its credit (Last Train Home, True North, Holiday Limited, Time and Water, Bound Away, Tributaries, Last Good Kiss, and Live at IOTA), along with a recent release, Six Songs, which Twangville named Best EP of 2010.

Brace also released a sublime album called The Skylighters, where he led a band that included bluegrass luminaries Mike Auldridge on dobro and Jimmy Gaudreau playing mandolin. A former journalist for The Washington Post, Brace found a kindred spirit in fellow East Nashvillian Peter Cooper, who has released two critically praised solo records, Mission Door from 2008 and The Lloyd Green Album in 2010, another step in his ongoing collaboration with the legendary pedal steel Hall of Famer. Named one of Nashville's "10 Most Interesting People" by Nashville Arts & Entertainment magazine, Cooper is also a music writer for the Tennessean and other publications, a producer, and a professor of country music at Vanderbilt University.

When Brace and Cooper play together, it's something special. The pair’s most recent album, Master Sessions, is a tour de force that made its way onto numerous critics’ Best of 2010 lists. It features the instrumental work of pedal steel guitar legend Lloyd Green and dobro master Mike Auldridge. You Don’t Have To Like Them Both was released in 2009 and was a #1 album on the Freeform American Roots Chart, Top Five on the Folk DJ Chart, and Top Ten on the Americana chart. The opening track, “I Know a Bird,” which was penned and sung by Brace, was the #1 Folk song on its release and a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition.