Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz made their separate ways to Nashville two decades ago, each with a musical career well underway. Now a formidable duo, their partnership is an extraordinary sum of its parts. Eric moved to Nashville from Washington D.C. where he was leading his acclaimed roots-rock band Last Train Home. They had been named Artist of the Year in 2003 by the Washington Area Music Association, and relocated to Nashville a year later. Thomm grew up in Germany, where as a ten-year-old boy he saw outlaw legend Bobby Bare sing on a television show. It was a bolt out of the blue, and right then Thomm knew that his future was in Nashville. (Can you blame him? The power of Bare singing Pour me another tequila, Sheila, take off that red satin dress was not lost on the boy.) While touring Europe playing guitar in rock bands, Thomm saved his money and kept dreaming of Nashville. On his second try, he won the immigration lottery (yes, there is such a thing) and headed for Music City. There he immediately 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. Eric, after a leaving his career as a music writer for The Washington Post, had built Last Train Home into a formidable touring unit. After moving to Nashville in 2004, he launched Red Beet Records, a label with an eye on all the talent in his East Nashville neighborhood. One neighbor was journalist and songwriter Peter Cooper, whose debut album Eric released on Red Beet. Eric and Peters friendship evolved into a duo, one that impressed critics and audiences over the course of four albums and hundreds of live shows across the U.S. and Europe. The two also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Childrens Record after making I Love: Tom T. Halls Songs of Fox Hollow. While opening for Nanci Griffith one night, Brace and Cooper realized that the man playing guitar with her, Thomm, was someone they needed to share their musical journey with. When Thomm said the feeling was mutual, the Brace/Cooper/Jutz trio was born. Two powerful albums ensued: Profiles in Courage, Frailty & Discomfort, and Riverland (both on Braces Red Beet label). On those albums, songs by Brace and Cooper are side by side with those of Thomm, who won Songwriter of the Year at the 2021 IBMA bluegrass awards. His songs have been recorded by dozens of artists, and he teaches songwriting at Belmont University. Thomms solo album To Live in Two Worlds was nominated for a bluegrass Grammy award in 2020, and he was featured in an American Currents exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. The tragic death of Peter Cooper in December, 2022, has led Eric and Thomm to reassess their musical path, but one thing has emerged with clarity: They must continue to make music together. In June, 2023, they tracked 14 songs in Thomms studio, and the resulting album, Simple Motion, will be out on Erics Red Beet label in the fall of 2023. Their fluid acoustic guitar interplay and deft vocal harmonies will continue to be heard, all in service to the songs, songs about mill workers, folk heroes, astronauts, lovers, sailors and soldiers, songs about every day struggles, heartbreak, and triumph. In a time of division, Eric and Thomm seek and find connection.