Jobst vom Brandt (1517–1570) was born into an ancient noble family in the Upper Palatinate. He received his musical training from the age of 13 as a chorister in the Electoral Palatinate court chapel in Heidelberg. There he met Georg Forster, the two enjoying a long friendship to which we owe the fact that most of his compositions have been preserved to this day.

Jobst vom Brandt's songs are composed according to different genres: "Ich armes Käuzlein kleine" (track 3), "Nun schürz Dich, Gretlein, schürz dich" (track 17), "Het mir ein espes zweigelein" (track 10) and "Drei Laub auf einer Linden" (track 1), which also provided the title for this CD, are composed in the "folk song" genre.

Only one religious song has been included: "Thu gleich ein jeder, was er will" (track 12). The other songs on the CD correspond to the so-called "Hofweisensatz". The texts cover quite a wide range and we are grateful to Prof. Dr. Franz-Josef Holznagel from the University of Rostock for his translations. These are quite important as the actual meaning of some of the words is no longer known to us.