Eric Brace and Peter Cooper Salute Their Washington Roots
Eric Brace and Peter Cooper have been a formidable pair for several years now, having combined their talents as singers, songwriters and musicians to create music that reflects a distinctly homegrown instinct. Each man came to the collaboration with successful track records already established — Brace as a Grammy-nominated producer, the front man of the acclaimed roots-rock band Last Train Home and the founder of East Nashville indie label Red Beet Records. Peter Cooper, a respected Nashville journalist, is also an accomplished musician and producer in his own right.
Yet, as good as their collaborative efforts have been up until this point, their new album, C&O Canal, exceeds everything they’ve released thus far. A tribute to the Washington D.C. music scene where both men were musically weened, it’s also a collection of covers, mostly of the lesser known variety. Nevertheless, it spotlights Brace and Cooper’s ability to take songs spawned by others and subsequently make it their own. That’s a formidable task, especially considering the original writers included Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, John Starling, and Ralph Stanley. Yet, even on one of the album’s few standards, Harris’ “Boulder to Birmingham,” they’re able to take the tune and give it the same sturdy determination that graced the original. Carpenter’s “John Wilkes Booth,” a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of Lincoln’s tortured assassin, shines like a folk music classic, rugged and revealing. “Blue Ridge,” “He Rode All the Way to Texas,” “Been Awhile” and “If That’s the Way You Feel” create equally indelible impressions, each making for a moving encounter delivered with both emotion and authority.
To say this is a superb record doesn’t even begin to do C&O Canal justice, but hopefully that description will still suffice.