Erik Brandt of The Urban Hillbilly Quartet released new solo album titled Folksinger. It’s like a box of cracker jacks with so many surprises inside. You can hear in live on February 27 at the Celtic Junction.
Please tell us about your solo music – and The Urban Hillbilly Quartet if you don’t mind.
I’m a Twin Cities-based songwriter who mostly works in the Americana / folk genres, but I do my best to listen to the Muse and follow where it leads me – which can pull me toward rock, jazz, and other styles of music. The Twin Cities have one of the best Americana scenes in the country and I feel very fortunate to have been part of it for so long. I usually write my songs with a guitar as the supporting instrument, but sometimes I use piano and – increasingly – piano accordion. I started making solo albums as I started to hear sounds and styles that didn’t necessarily fit the members or instrumentation of the UHQ – and also when the lineup of the band was in transition and I needed to work with different players and producers in order to record the songs we were working on.
I am the primary songwriter and bandleader of the Urban Hillbilly Quartet and the 10 albums we have released are mostly comprised of songs I have written, but the band has arranged. We often perform songs that appear on my solo albums and the arrangements evolve to fit the members of the UHQ. I mostly perform with the UHQ and/or members of the UHQ – so the line between my “solo” work and my “band” work is pretty blurred, to be completely honest.
Your upcoming album, Folksinger, is your fourth solo album. How do you determine which songs are meant for you as a solo artist and which are suited to UHQ?
That’s a great question and it really comes down to who I’m working with as a producer and what we are hearing in terms of arrangements for the songs. All of my solo albums (except Sometimes, which I recorded in Hungary) prominently feature members of the UHQ, but often in different roles or trying something new that they wouldn’t necessarily do in the UHQ. Solo albums are good for when I’m feeling the need to experiment with music and push the boundaries of what I would normally do a little more. I then love bringing these “solo” album songs to the UHQ and seeing what the band then does with them for live shows.
I could not love a song more than STP, because I could not love a city more. What spurred you to sing about the best town in the world?
Thank you! St. Paul is where it’s at, for sure! This song is perhaps the most “folky” on Folksinger and it is certainly the most personal. I often write in different personas than my own in my songs, but this song is 100% about me and is about my surprise that somehow I ended up in St. Paul and have made a life here – even though that was never the plan. The song is a pastiche of real images and I began writing it when I saw the one I sing about in the first verse: “You’re an old beat-up arm chair, a “For Free” sign, all threadbare, off Fairview” – which is something I vividly remember driving past one day as I headed to the library, and tucked that image away for future use.
The song pretty much wrote itself and my main challenges were finding the best key for it and accepting that it would be such a simple folk song and not something more complicated.
The range of musical genres on the album makes each song pop. There’s a drudge dirge or Narcissus, swing sound of Play Side B, traveler Americana sound of Bike Ride to Your Heart. Please tell me about the amazing team of musicians that helped make each song sound so good. And which came first – the musicians or the music, in other words did you write some songs with certain musicians in mind?
I’m so glad you like the range of musical genres. I have always been a musical omnivore and try to express that in my recordings – as well as on my radio show “Good Acoustics.” I did not write any of the songs with particular musicians in mind, but once I partnered up with my producer AJ Scheiber and we realized that we had an album’s worth of material on our hands, I knew immediately who I wanted to work with – and, to my good fortune, all of them said yes to helping.
Jeremy Szopinski, Dave Strahan, Luke Jacobs, Peter Karman, and Chris Stromquist are all current/former members of the Urban Hillbilly Quartet – and all of them either tried out new instruments or new roles in the recording process.
Peter Rasmussen and Doug Trail-Johnson are long-time friends through a number of Twin Cities band connections, most notably the House of Mercy Band.
Rick Risch is a harmony vocal savant who lives in the Twin Cities.
Carrie Rodriguez is an old friend and if you don’t know her music, you really should look her up. She’s amazing!
Agnes Mohacsy is a former student of mine from when I lived in Hungary and she contributed harmony vocals to my album “Sometimes” – and I’ve been wanting to record with her ever since.
Paul Fonfara is a Twin Cities woodwinds legend and he used to teach one of my sons clarinet. Once I knew I needed woodwinds on my album, I knew I needed to work with Paul.
All of them brought their own spirit of creativity and playfulness to the recording session and I recruited them because I loved what they do as musicians and I knew I could trust them to deliver – and they did!
Please tell us about the upcoming release show for Folksinger.
I am releasing the album at the Celtic Junction Arts Center – which houses a variety of Celtic-associated organizations, including the Center for Irish Music, where my family and I take lessons and play in various ensembles. They have a fantastic performance hall where the UHQ celebrated our 30th anniversary concerts in 2025 and I was thrilled when they invited me to have my album release concert there too.
It’s an all-ages show – in fact, under 18 gets in for free. Folks who buy tickets get a free copy of the album as well.
The opening act is Pick, Buttons & Bow – a trio of teenage Irish musicians (one of whom is one of my sons) – who will start the night with a 20 – 30 minute set of traditional tunes. They’re pretty good!
Here is the rest of the show information – and buying tickets in advance is highly recommended:
Erik Brandt – album release concert for “Folksinger”
Friday, February 27, 2026
Celtic Junction
836 Prior Ave N / St. Paul, MN 55104 / 612-722-7000
https://celticjunction.org/
7:00. $20. Under 18 free! All-ages
Opening act: Pick, Buttons & Bow
Mostly Minnesota 