Eric Brandt has notched up nearly 30 years of releasing music, predominantly with the band The Urban Hillbilly Quartet, but he also has four solo albums to his name and it’s the latest, Folksinger, that we’re bringing you a preview of today with the song Size of Diamonds. It’s a song that straddles a line between folk and rock, and presents a tale of a wife who has become disillusioned with her life and, specifically, with her marriage – it has the feel of the more gentle outings in the Long Ryders’ discography.
Folksinger itself encompasses a range of styles from country to rock to ska to jazz and folk, which allowed Brandt to gather together a cast of musicians capable of covering all the bases. Amongst others appearing on the album are The Urban Hillbilly Quartet’s Jeremy Szopinski (electric baritone guitar) and Dave Strahan (drums, pedal steel, electric guitar), along with AJ Scheiber (bass, pedal steel, guitar), percussion parts by Chris Stromquist (NYC based touring drummer), woodwinds by Paul Fonfara (The Brass Messengers, DeVotchKa), and harmonies from a cast of friends, including Luke Jacobs & Carrie Rodriguez, Doug Trail-Johnson (House of Mercy Band), and Ági Mohácsy (Hungary).
