Album Review : Eric Brace and Peter Cooper : The Master Sessions
Oct 4, 2010 Album Reviews
This is the third article in three days featuring Artist of the Month, Peter Cooper. This time paired with Last Train Home’s Eric Brace and backed by a band that features Lloyd Green and Mike Auldridge.
Let me start off by saying that this album is as close to the perfect country album as you can get. It is an absolute shame that country music radio is in the state that it is because had this record been released in say 1972 there would have been two or three number one hits on it and a couple of guys who deserve it would be reaching star status. Alas it is 2010 and instead of mainstream accolades they will have to live just having produced a damn fine record.
Everything about this album is spot on, the harmonies between the two and guests, the instrumentation, and the song selection. The vocals are superb, Brace may have my favorite country voice out there today and Cooper’s lead vocals perfectly compliment the songs where Brace handles the leads. Even more impressive is the sound the two create when singing harmonies together, hopefully this collaboration continues because they were made to sing with one another. As for the backing music, Lloyd Green once again stars on the pedal steel but shares the spotlight with former Seldom Scene dobro player, Mike Auldridge. Throughout the album these two go back and forth with extremely tasty lead breaks always adding to the songs and never overpowering them. Another standout on the record instrumentally is Jen Gunderman who plays keyboards throughout but, on a few songs breaks out the accordion pushing the sound even further.
The song selection really sticks out on this one as once again they drew from both of their catalogs as well as a few perfect covers. As was the case with their first effort there are only a couple co-writes but every song sounds as though they the were meant for this arrangement.
The album kicks off right, with a version of Herb Peterson’s “Wait a Minute”. A staple song the guys learned from going to countless Seldom Scene shows in the ’70′s. On this version the two alternate lead vocals on the first two verses before singing together on the last. Special guest, Kenny Chesney (yes I was surprised too) adds to the vocal flavor during the harmonies on this one as well. As far as I’m concerned this is now a Brace/ Cooper song from now on.
The next song on the record is the first of two Cooper co-writes with Don Schlitz (writer of the “The Gambler”). “Suffer a Fool” is an ode to a very patient wife who manages to keep her husband pointing in the right direction despite is best efforts to do the opposite.
The first Brace-penned number is “It Won’t Be Me”, written with Karl Straub, it is a good old train song, that tells of a man watching for a train to roll in so he can take the next one leaving town.
The second Cooper/ Schlitz contribution to the record is “Big Steve”, the story of a famous door man in Nashville who loves his job and has always stood up for the musicians. Although I’m not from Nashville I feel like I’ve met Big Steve in countless numbers of clubs across the country. You know the guy who works there not so much for the money, but rather because he loves the music. An interesting note on this one is that Eric handles the lead vocals on it.
“Circus” is one of the few co-writes between the two on this one. While lyrically this song is somewhat silly it really works and it gave Auldridge and Green an opportunity to play around a bit. Overall the feel of the song with the harmonies throughout and the instruments weaving in and out ends up really being nice.
The last song that I will go into is their version of Tom T. Hall’s “I Flew Over Our House Last Night”. Not one of Hall’s most famous songs, this has become one of my favorite country songs since the first time I heard Cooper and Brace sing it live. Last Train Home included it on their live record as well and that version is insanely good, but the version on this album is what hit songs are made of. Cooper’s harmony vocals really add to the amazing job Brace does handling this tune. Once you listen to this version of the song you will be singing it in your head for days on end. I would imagine that Tom T. himself would agree that this song finally found its rightful place with Peter Cooper and Eric Brace.
If you haven’t figured out already I absolutely love this record, it is easily one of my favorite records to be released thus far this year and will have a regular place in my listening rotation for years to come. It is not very often that pieces come together in this manner forming some kind of perfect storm. If you are interested you can order it from Red Beet Records.
Tags: don schlitz, eric brace, Lloyd Green, Mike Auldridge, peter cooper, tom t. hall
Album Review : Peter Cooper : The Lloyd Green Album
Oct 3, 2010 Album Reviews
Peter Cooper said on our podcast that he had been thanked for coaxing Lloyd Green out of retirement to work on his albums. He also said that it was like being thanked for picking Michael Jordan on your basketball team. I too would like to go ahead and thank Peter, but not really for just getting Lloyd Green on the album.
First off I have said for many years that all songs could be a little bit better if you would just add some pedal steel. Well here is an entire record where the instrumental star of the record is no less than the greatest living pedal steel player and that my friends, is awesome. Secondly, I love the fact that Lloyd Green finally has his name prominently displayed on the front of a record after spending so many years appearing on the liner notes. It’s a great opportunity for everyone who buys this album to discover who Lloyd is.
Throughout the album, Green weaves intricate steel parts in between everything else that is going on. What is amazing is that the steel parts are not the same old steel parts that you hear on every recording, Green really has the ability to transform the songs with his instrument.
With all the talk of Lloyd Green, what cannot be forgotten is that this is very much a Peter Cooper record. This album contains some of Cooper’s best originals to date and a few perfectly chosen covers. Cooper has really come into his own as a vocalist on this one and he brings in Eric Brace, Fayssoux McLean, Rodney Crowell, and Kim Carnes among others to compliment his voice on various songs. Cooper co-produced this album with Green and you can really tell that these songs were near to both of their hearts as there is not a single throw away on the ablum.
My favorites on the album start rolling right from the beginning with “Dumb Luck”, a song that could just as easily be describing my lifetime. “Ever since I was a young buck, I’ve been on a run of dumb luck”, sings Cooper which may be true, but if he continues releasing songs like this one he will be creating his own luck.
Next on the record is ” Last Laugh”, a co-write with Todd Snider, whose version appears on his last album, The Excitement Plan. As big as a Snider fan that I am, I have to say that Cooper’s version is better, I like the tempo and the feel much better than Snider’s take. “Elmer the Dancer” is the next great tune on this one, it’s the story of a local man famous for his dancing in the town bar, who is no longer with them.
The next track is my favorite Cooper tune, “Gospel Song” which I discussed in yesterday’s Artist of the Month article. I will mention that this version is more complete sounding than the one found on Clown Juice.
“Bells of Odelia” is the next on the album. A song written by Cooper’s friend, Chris Richards, that Cooper calls a great companion piece to Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. The narrator in this one has done some things he’s not proud of, but he is being led back to the righteous by the bells of a nearby church, even if not by choice.
Tom T. Hall’s “Mama Bake a Pie” rounds out the first six tracks on the album. That’s right, I am that taken with this one that I just ran down the first half of it. Anyways, the Hall classic still seems pertinent today and Cooper nails the feel and heart of it on this version.
The next Cooper original is “Champion of the World” which compares his life to that of his father who was a preacher. This song really struck me live and lives up to my memories on this record.Skipping ahead to the last song on the record, “Train to Birmingham” which is a John Hiatt song, that Hiatt himself never recorded. The song is amazing and Cooper makes it his own. That is another thing that Cooper seems to excel at, the ability to pick the right mix of covers to put on his records.
When I finished listening to this record, I immediately restarted and that process continued for an entire day and the only thing that stopped that process was the record Cooper released with Brace on the same day…review coming tomorrow.
If for some reason you haven’t already ordered this do so at his personal site or the Red Beet Records site.
Tags: album review, eric brace, John Hiatt, Lloyd Green, peter cooper, todd snider, tom t. hall
Artist of the Month, October 2010 : Peter Cooper
Oct 2, 2010 Artist of the Month
Originally from South Carolina and presently located in Nashville, Peter Cooper is a man of many trades. He is a music critic (The Nashville Tennessean), a producer (Fayssoux McLean’s Early), a professor of country music history (Vanderbilt) and most importantly an amazing songwriter and performer. For the purposes of this article we will focus on the latter of this list and his short but brilliant recording career.
My personal introduction to Cooper’s music came the way that I discover so many artists, through a live recording. I was listening to a copy of one of Todd Snider’s What the Folk performances and in between sets Peter comes in and plays two quick songs. The first of the two tracks was one of the greatest crowd grabbing opener’s ever. “Nirvana Was Better Than Pearl Jam” is funny and probably true. It is the kind of song that makes the crowd pay attention to you even if they have never heard of you. Following that was the song that instantly had me interested in finding more out about Cooper, “What’s the Use”. It follows along as the obviously over intoxicated hero makes one bad decision after another during a night that should have ended three drinks and two bars before. What really struck about the song was the way he injects conversation into a song seamlessly with lyrics such as “You say you’re gonna cut me off, leave me be, you say you got a word for people like me… it ain’t a good word, you don’t have to say it again”.
I began frantically scouring the internet to find out more about this guy to no avail (at the time he had no website and this was just prior to the Myspace craze) , so I sent a message to the Todd Snider listserve asking if anyone had any more information for me. To my surprise my answer came in the form of an email from Cooper himself. He introduced himself and told me that he had just released his debut ep, Clown Juice.
Not too long after that I was excited to find out that Peter would be opening up for a run of Snider shows I would be attending in Dayton. This was my first chance to see him live and as he has done every time that I have seen him, he blew me away. Cooper put on the best opening set I have ever seen especially from someone that was virtually unknown by the crowd. He is engaging on stage, fills the space between songs with witty banter and always seems to nail the tunes.
Since then I have had the opportunity to see him live on a number of occasions. He was gracious enough to come to our bar and do a show a few years ago and Jerry Brightman, former pedal steel player for Buck Owens, met him there and they put on a spellbinding three hour show filled with Cooper’s originals and appropriate covers.
In addition to releasing two full length solo records since then he has also teamed with Eric Brace of Last Train Home to put out two phenomenal records. Earlier this year I had the chance to go see them together live two nights in a row which you can read about here. Prior to the second of those shows the two of them stopped by the home studio to appear on our podcast which can be downloaded here.
Normally, at this point in the article I would break down my favorite three or so recordings of the artist, but I am going to do a little something different on this one. Cooper’s second solo release, The Lloyd Green Album, and his second collaboration with Eric Brace, The Master Sessions, are actually my two favorite of his releases but, since they were just put out this month I will be doing full length reviews of them hopefully today. I will just say that it is remarkable that the same person released two of my top ten records of the year.
I would like to highlight Cooper’s first three efforts because they were also very good.
The aforementioned ep, Clown Juice, contains three additional songs other than the two that he played that night in Nashville. “Gospel Song” (which will later re-appear on The Lloyd Green Album) is still my favorite Peter
Cooper song. Does a line get any better than, “There’s gonna be some wreckage when your dreams and your habits collide”? “Andalusia” is the story of Hank Williams Sr. and Cooper’s grandpa and their interactions in Andalusia. Rounding out the ep is the song, “Thompson Street”, the place in Spartanburg, South Carolina where Pink Anderson sang.
Arriving three years later in 2008, Cooper’s full length debut, Mission Door, really opens the door to what he is capable of as a songwriter. Immediately you notice that Cooper has found a muse instrumentally in Lloyd Green who is a session work master playing pedal steel on countless number one hits. Green’s absolutely flawless pedal steel playing weaves its way in and out of this entire album, perfectly complimenting the outstanding songs and also setting us up for the next Cooper record that would bear his name.
Something that really begins to show on this record is Cooper’s ability to tell someone’s story through a song. He can make anyone’s life seem significant whether or not they were famous. This is a feat that many have tried and few have mastered and Cooper does it better than anyone. One such song on Mission Door is “Take Care”, the story of Townes Van Zandt that both idolizes him and does not pull any punches when it comes to his shortcomings.
Further along in the album is the greatest marriage of sports and song ever, “715 (For Hank Aaron)” is a brilliant song even if you aren’t a baseball fan. Written while Barry Bonds was chasing Hank, the song chronicles the real life struggles that Hank faced when he was legitimately breaking the home run record.
“Sheboygan” looks at the idea of predestination through a different window, one where even acts that aren’t the most ambitious or moral can be looked at as divine. Along the same lines is “One By One”, the best track on the record. In this one the narrator commits a heinous crime after having a one-sided conversation with a bartender basically justifying his upcoming act.
Later in 2008 marked the beginning of what will hopefully be a long lasting collaborative endeavor between Cooper and Brace with the release of You Don’t Have To Like Them Both. While this album only hints at what they 
produce together live and have mastered with their new release, it is full of remarkable songs and harmonies. They had not yet begun writing too many songs together and had both recently released their own albums, so they decided to fill the spaces in the record with covers of songs that were written by friends of theirs.
Among the songs and songwriters chosen for this album was David Olney and his song “Omar’s Blues #2″, which in my opinion is the standout on this record. It exhibits the harmonies that these two find that have the ability to transform any song into a masterpiece. Todd Snider’s “Yesterdays and Used to Be’s” is another track that is excellent cut on this one. Cooper takes the lead vocals on this and delivers a first class version of his good friend’s tune.
The only song that the two wrote together on the record was “Lucky Bones”, a song that Brace began with Jim Lauderdale and later finished with Cooper’s help. Brace takes the lead helm for this one and it is an amazing country tune that would have sounded right at home at any honky tonk in the country.
That wraps up the first part of Cooper’s recording career. I promise to have the reviews of the new ones up in the next few days, because they are both spectacular. If you are not familiar with Cooper check out his site here or Red Beet Records’ site here. As a selfish side note, I’d like all of you to buy two copies of every one of his albums so that he can start to think about quitting that nagging day job as a music critic and therefore make more frequent trips to Ohio to perform.
As always the reward for making it through my long winded ramblings, here is a video clip I filmed a few years ago of Cooper playing “Sheboygan” as part of an opening set for Snider at the Canal Street Tavern in Dayton.
Tags: eric brace, Jerry Brightman, Last Train Home, Lloyd Green, peter cooper, todd snider, Townes Van Zandt
Youtube Clip : Peter Cooper and Eric Brace
Jul 7, 2010 Youtube Clip
Here is the first video I am uploading from last month’s Brace/ Cooper shows. This one is from Columbus where I didn’t shoot much video and I forgot the tripod so what I did shoot was kind of shitty quality. However, the performance is great and they mention their appearance on our podcast. Hope you enjoy.
Peter Cooper and Eric Brace : “Down to the Well” : June 5, 2010 Red Door Tavern Columbus, OH
Tags: eric brace, peter cooper, Youtube Clip
Podcast, Episode 2: Peter Cooper and Eric Brace
Jun 11, 2010 Podcasts
As promised, here is the second installment of the Broken Jukebox podcast with guests, Peter Cooper and Eric Brace. Had a ball with this one and the guys play five songs along the way.
Check us out on iTunes and leave a review. To download just right click the download button and save link as.
Tags: eric brace, peter cooper, Podcasts
Concert Review : Peter Cooper and Eric Brace
Jun 11, 2010 Concert Reviews
I spent my entire weekend last week enjoying the music of Eric Brace and Peter Cooper. I attended two shows and in between recorded the second episode of the Broken Jukebox podcast (which should be posted this weekend) with them. The weekend was great, I got to hear some amazing songs, spend time with my wife and friends, meet some new people, and catch shows at two venues I had never been to before.
On Friday the wife and I dropped off the kids and began the four hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky. Despite the heat and the traffic, the drive down was a blast. We listened to some fun tunes all the way down as we cruised the highway. We arrived at The Rudyard Kipling with about ten minutes to spare.
The venue was interesting looking from the street, it looked almost like something you would see in a film about the Alamo. It was a large brick wall with an opening that led around the building on a nice wooden deck to the side where you went inside. Once inside the place was divided nicely. You walked in and to the right to the bar which was open and pretty large. If you were going the show you took an immediate left to a closed off room with quite a few tables and a small stage. On a busier night this set up would have been great for separating those wanting to hear the music and those who were only there to drink. It also allowed for the venue not to lose bar patrons because of the cover charge.
The show opened with a local kid, Sam Hadfield, solo on an acoustic guitar. He played an entertaining set, considering that the crowd was very small and he was there to open. His originals were good, and he covered “Tom Ames Prayer” and “Stack-O-Lee” which is always a good thing in my book. The highlight of his set was the songs he finger picked on the guitar, which he was very talented at. I think the set was about twenty minutes.
After a very short break Cooper and Brace took the stage. I had never seen Eric Brace before, having only been introduced to him recently through their joint record, You Don’t Have to Like Them Both, that was released in 2008. I was however very familiar with Peter Cooper.
I was immediately enthralled with the show, they started out with “Wait a Minute” and the harmony vocals were completely mind blowing. If I took nothing else away from my weekend spent with these two it would be that they may have been put here to sing with one another. The set was filled with tracks off of their album, a few older Cooper tunes, Last Train Home (Brace’s band) songs, and some very good new material from them both. Unfortunately the venue had another show going on and their whole set was over in an hour.
Highlights musically from the Louisville show were, the new Cooper tune, which I think is entitled “Champion of the World”. It is an autobiographical story of him becoming a singer and his daddy being a preacher. Another highlight was the Eric Brace penned “Tranquility Base”, a song full of questions for astronaut, Neil Armstrong. The lyrics and the harmony vocals during the chorus of this songs gave me and my wife goosebumps. They ended the set with their version of a song Cooper co-wrote with Todd Snider, “The Last Laugh” from his album The Excitement Plan. I am a huge Snider fan, but I have to say I think I like their version of the song a little better.
We left Louisville immediately after the show for a drive that seemed much longer the second time around. Although the show was short, it was a great time for the wife and I to get out for the night and the music more than made up for the long drive.
On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Brace and Mr. Cooper made their way to my hometown to do the podcast ( I promise it will be up soon). We all had a great time doing that and I learned quite a few things about exciting topics such as the best lima beans in the world and the best surviving 80′s metal band.
In the evening, my cousin and I headed up to Columbus (only 30 minute drive) to catch the second show of the weekend run. We arrived at The Red Door Tavern about an hour prior to showtime. A much larger crowd turned out for this show than the previous night and the venue was once again great. The place has a great restaurant and Guinness on tap. What more could you ask for? Like the night before the show was held in separate room from the main eating area, but this time there was a bar in the room where we were. The show is hosted by a couple friends of mine, Bob Teague and Chip Kobe who modeled it after the listening rooms you find all over the country. This made for a great house concert feeling in a public place.
There was no opener on this night and we were treated to two outstanding sets of songs from Cooper and Brace. With no time limit the show seemed to be more relaxed, with the in between song banter getting stretched out and the set list very much expanded.
I think they played damn near everything on their album and delved deeper into their respective catalogs as well as breaking out some other killer covers. There were so many highlights to this show that it would really make this column ten times longer ( I know I’m smashing 1000 words already). We were treated to a few more new ones that will be included on Cooper’s upcoming release, The Llyod Green Sessions. Also included in the set were new tracks from the yet untitled new album from the two of them.
Specific songs that stood out were a song about a famous door man in Nashville that Cooper wrote with Don Schlitz, “Hendersonville”, Brace’s song about Johnny and June Carter Cash, Last Train Home’s “Anywhere But Here”, and their covers of Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You” and Tom T. Hall’s “I Flew Over Our House Last Night”.
All I can say is that if you get a chance to see these two together live drop everything and do it. I was totally blown away by their on stage chemistry, their song choices and most importantly the amazing harmonies that they delivered. Their album is great, but it really doesn’t do them justice when compared the live environment. Both these shows were like invitations to sit in their living room and listen in on an intimate guitar playing, song singing, whiskey drinking night of fun.
You can find them both on Brace’s record label Red Beet Records . Go to a show, buy them a drink and sit back and enjoy.
Tags: bob dylan, concert review, don schlitz, eric brace, johnny cash, peter cooper, red door tavern, todd snider, tom t. hall
Youtube Clip : Peter Cooper and Eric Brace
May 27, 2010 Youtube Clip
In honor of the fact that they will be coming to town next weekend to record the second episode of the Broken Jukebox podcast (I know the first episode has not been published yet), Here is a clip of Peter Cooper and Eric Brace playing at a house concert in Virginia.
Great country harmonies and a great song, can’t wait to see these guys together live.
Tags: eric brace, peter cooper, Youtube Clip
