Eric Brace & Thomm Jutz

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.


Their latest album, Simple Motion, hit #1 on the Folk DJ chart (FAI) in March, 2024, and between steady touring this year they’re recording another.

Eric moved to Nashville from Washington D.C., where he was leading his acclaimed roots-rock band Last Train Home. They had been named D.C.’s “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 an eleven-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 youngster.)
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 to 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 powerful touring unit. 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 Peter’s 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 Children’s Record after making I Love: Tom T. Hall’s Songs of Fox Hollow.

While opening for Nanci Griffith one night, Brace and Cooper realized that the man playing guitar with her, Thomm Jutz, 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 Brace’s 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. Thomm’s 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. 

In 2015, Brace wrote a musical based on the California Gold Rush, Hangtown Dancehall, featuring such Americana stars as Kelly Willis, Tim O'Brien, and Darrell Scott. (https://www.tumblr.com/hangtowndancehall) Brace also produced a powerful solo album by the lead singer of The Persuasions, Jerry Lawson.

The tragic death of Peter Cooper in December, 2022, led Eric and Thomm to reassess their musical path, but one thing emerged with clarity: They would continue to make music together. Their first album, Simple Motion, was released in February, 2024, and there’s much more to come.
Their fluid acoustic guitar interplay and warm vocal harmonies will continue to be heard, all in service to the songs. Songs from the heart, songs about insomniacs, mill workers, train whistles, astronauts, lovers, sailors and soldiers, songs about everyday struggles, heartbreak, and triumph.
In a time of division, Eric and Thomm seek — and find — connection.

QUOTES ABOUT SIMPLE MOTION:

“The strong songwriting on the album conjures up images that stay with listeners…With their musical finesse, Brace and Jutz navigate life’s changes with simple images and simple motions, just as the album title suggests.”
- Nancy Posey, No Depression

“Majestic songwriting, genuine authenticity, incredible insight on a record filled with their pristine harmonies wrapped around stories of everyday life, struggles, triumphs, love, loss and redemption."

- Alan Cackett 

"Simple Motion is a 48-minute folkie apotheosis"

- Edd Hurt, Nashville Scene

"Both Brace and Jutz are in that pantheon of musicians that seem to be able to hit that elusive golden double – prolific and sustained excellence. This album does not disappoint...Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz can do no wrong"

- Rob Dickens, Listening Through The Lens 

"lovely melodies, splendid playing, insightful lyrics, great production, and wonderful harmonies. It is all there on this wonderful album."

- Frank Arnold, Americana UK 

"In tough times, Brace and Jutz resort to what they do best, songcraft, while tapping some of Music City's best in banjoist Richard Bailey, string man Justin Moses and accordionist Jeff Taylor who augment a core band of Mark Farin, Lynn Williams, Tammy Rogers and Mike Compton. Rather obviously, the picking is top shelf as Jutz's production captures immaculate instrumentation and lush harmonies throughout."

- Jim Hynes, Country Standard Time

"Simple Motion draws the listener into its world of characters out of both folk song (sailors, gamblers, migrant farm workers) and the 21st-century struggle with situations we all recognize or have experienced ourselves. There are few if any unquiet moments. The singing and the harmonies are calm, and they are also melodic, emotionally compelling and lyrically eloquent enough to take you back for a kind of spiritual comfort rarely available to us anymore."

- Jerome Clark, Rambles

"What a set of complex and moving songs" 

- Marilyn Rea Beyer, Host Midnight Special

"Simple Motion deserves a big audience"

-  Paul Riley, Country Music People UK 

"Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz have found the sonic equivalent of a Nashville hidden gem."

- Glide Magazine 

"this is an unfussy, highly appealing album by two consummate musicians who have nothing to prove, making music for the joy of it and, in turn, affording that same experience in those who hear it."

- Mike Davies, KLOF 

"A good sensitive & relaxing set that keeps an old genre fresh."

- John Apice, Americana Highways

"Simple Motion with its interesting stories quickly captured my attention."

- Theo Volk, Music That Needs Your Attention

"Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz are song masters"

- Donald Teplyske, Fervor Coulee

"This is an album that presents you with grown up ideas, with grown-up music – for grown-ups."

- Nick Barber, The Rocking Magpie