Eric Brace, Karl Straub - Hangtown Dancehall (2014)

We here at Red Beet Records are pleased to announce the release of Hangtown Dancehall, a 'folk opera' written by Eric Brace & Karl Straub. It's a song-cycle set in the California Gold Rush, and performed by alt-country/Americana luminaries Kelly Willis, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Jason Ringenberg, John Wesley Harding, Andrea Zonn, along with Eric and Karl. Hangtown Dancehall is the story of two young lovers, Betsy and Ike, who leave their Missouri home for California during the Gold Rush. Eric first met the two characters in a folk song that he heard in his childhood in Placerville, California, the epicenter of the Gold Rush, known in the 1850s as Hangtown. That song, 'Sweet Betsy From Pike,' tells the story of Betsy and Ike's trek by wagon train across the continent. The song's final verses tell of their arrival in Hangtown but Eric decided that though that's the end of the song, it wasn't the end of the tale. With Hangtown Dancehall, Eric and Karl tell the rest of Betsy and Ike's story. This record has been in the works for almost a decade, often on the back burner as Eric rolled along with his band Last Train Home and with his duo 'Eric Brace & Peter Cooper.' Over the years he's worked on Hangtown Dancehall, Eric moved to Nashville and founded Red Beet Records. Karl has been busy in Washington D.C. with his bands The Graverobbers and The Karl Straub Combo, and getting degrees in composition and music education from Howard University. But every few months they'd go on a writing spree and add another chapter to the lives of Betsy and Ike. Finally, with the help of artist Julie Sola and graphic designer Bill Thompson (who together created the 24-page booklet that accompanies the CD), Red Beet Records has released Hangtown Dancehall. Hangtown Dancehall premiered to a packed house at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville, TN on November 2, 2013. With an all-star band and performances from Eric Brace, Kelly Willis, Tim O'Brien, Brian Wright, Karl Straub, Jon Byrd, Peter Cooper, and Andrea Zonn, the show was called "smart, engaging, and musically diverse...should have a future in theaters across the country."