Artists: Biography Last Train Home  

Since its beginnings in 1997, Last Train Home has evolved from a five-piece part-time band in Washington D.C. to a full-time touring unit, with more than a dozen members across five states. While roots-rock is the core of Last Train Home's sound,

their sound also includes country, swing, bluegrass, blues, folk, mariachi, punk, pop and Tin Pan Alley influences.

Named Washington D.C.'s artist of the year in 2003, Last Train Home went full-time the same year. It also won the 2004 Western Beat Showcase Best American Band competition. Its frontman, Eric Brace, is a former staff writer for The Washington Post where he covered the local music and nightlife scene. Brace has played in several Washington area bands, including B-Time, the Beggars, and Kevin Johnson & the Linemen. He ran a local rock label, Top Records, for many years, before focusing on his own music.

Brace writes the bulk of LTH material, with the rest coming from band member-songwriters Scott McKnight, Bill Williams and Alan Brace (Eric's brother), as well as such artists as Buck Owens and Barry White. Brace is always joined by bassist Jim Gray and drummer Martin Lynds, who have become a much-in-demand rhythm section since their move to Nashville in 2003. Other members in LTH's loose-knit and geographically widespread team include guitarist Steve Wedemeyer, trumpeter-fiddler Kevin Cordt, pedal steel players Dave Van Allen, Pete Finney and Rich Gilbert, guitarist Tom Mason and saxophonist-accordionist Chris Watling. Prominent in the band is guitarist Jared Bartlett, who also produced the band's 2005 recording, Bound Away.

The band has played more than a thousand shows, including tours of Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the Virgin Islands. In the summer of 2005, LTH appeared on CBS' Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson and on the public radio show Mountain Stage.