Eric Brace and Thomm Jutz have played a few hundred shows together over the past decade, and have recorded five records together with their musical comrade Peter Cooper, who passed away in 2022. Now they have made their first record together with just Brace and Jutz, titled Simple Motion.

Both Brace and Jutz are Nashville transplants who have been there for more than 20 years. Brace arrived from Washington D.C. with his much loved Roots-Rock band Last Train Home. In Nashville he launched the Red Beet Records label, which became home to his duo with fellow music journalist and songwriter Peter Cooper.

Thomm Jutz grew up in Germany, but dreamed of living in Nashville, and after winning the “green card lottery” he moved there. He became a 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. After producing two albums for Eric Brace and Peter Cooper, Thomm Jutz joined the duo, and the new trio created two albums, Profiles in Courage, Frailty, and Discomfort, and also Riverland.

When Peter Cooper died in December, 2022, Brace and Jutz asked “What next?” And the answer was obviously: Make music.

The two began writing songs together, booking gigs, hitting the road, and spending time in Thomm’s recording studio. The resulting 14 tracks capture the duo in different ways. There are songs with just the duo, featuring two voices and two acoustic guitars. There are songs with a full band of players, including bassist Mark Fain, drummer Lynn Williams, fiddler Tammy Rogers, and banjo players Richard Bailey and Justin Moses, and mandolinist Mike Compton.

Both song approaches have in common that they “convey the joy of being alive in tandem with the deep blue of loss that these past few years have marked us all with.”