Eric Brace & Peter Cooper - C&O Canal


Listeners will find great eclectic songwriting with tunes rooted in American history (John Wilkes Booth), exploring relationships (If That’s The Way You Feel) or nostalgia for times gone by (C&O Canal), all driven by soothing vocals over a rootsy back-drop of instrumentation provided by an A-list line-up of acoustic players including Andrea Zonn (violin, vocals), Jeff Taylor (accordion), Justin Moses (Dobro, mandolin, banjo), Mark Fain (bass), Lynn Williams (drums) all guided by producer Thomm Jutz (acoustic guitar, slide guitar, mandola). The roots here are of life and love and of the past and the future. For all the tracks, these roots have been patiently dug up and brushed off; their essence exposed. I’ve loved Boulder To Birmingham with an endless passion since I first heard it by Emmylou Harris back in the spring of 1975 and never thought I’d ever hear a version that would move me in quite that same way, but somehow Peter Cooper’s heartfelt vocal along with Andrea Zonn’s haunting violin and harmony vocal moved me closer to tears than I would care to admit.
Another song I never tire of hearing is John Starling’s He Rode All The Way To Texas and again this is one of the most emotional versions I’ve heard. It’s not just the lead vocal, but the way the subtle accordion sets the mood before the blue Dobro notes prick the heartstrings as the ethereal accordion harmonises delicately in the background. It’s been many years since I’d heard Blue Ridge, an exquisite bluegrass song about the irresistible call of home and here they remind me that this is indeed a great little song. Been Awhile, a new song to me, though it dates back many years to the mid-1970s, is one of those folk-pop gems that leaves you feeling that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Not so with Alice Gerrard’s Love Was The Price, a desolate song of break-up that is final with only darkness remaining.
A summer-easing-into-autumn record, the kind you slowly fall in love with through a flickering heat-haze that then keeps you warm when the cold creeps in, this album moves faultlessly across soft ballad and tough narrative, building layer upon layer into a collection of eloquent interpretations. It’s hard to imagine a more heartfelt and well-deserved tribute to a place or time in one’s music discovery, and it should be considered an essential purchase for any folk or country collection.
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