Topic Records has announced a September 29 release for an interesting new project that explores the convergence of British folk music and that of the Appalachian mountains of the southeastern US. It is a joint effort from a pair of ex-pats now living in America, noted English folk artist Martin Simpson, and German born Nashville singer/songwriter Thomm Jutz, entitled Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry.
The genesis of this effort can be found in Thomm’s fascination with the early 20th century publication of English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, compiled by Cecil Sharp in 1916 and 1918. His primary focus was on the songs Sharp and his assistant Maud Karpeles discovered in North Carolina during their 1916 visit. Their quest had been to find English folk songs that had lost their currency back home, but were still being sung in the US.
Sharp and Karpeles came across Mary Sands and Jane Gentry in western North Carolina who had retained versions of the very songs they had been seeking. Their experiences taught them that these ballads that had all but disappeared back home were still being sung in the Appalachian region.
Jutz interested Simpson in this project, and the two began poring over English Folk Songs, and jointly choosing ones to be included in their upcoming album. With the selections made, they went on to enlist a bevy of contemporary pickers snd singers to join them, with Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Dale Ann Bradley, Tim Stafford, Tim O’Brien, Tammy Rogers, and Seth Lakeman among them.
A new single from the Nothing But Green Willow, an iconic murder ballad called Edwin in the Lowlands Low. Tim O’Brien is called upon to sing and play fiddle, accompanied by Martin and Thomm.
Jutz says of the song…
“I love that the protagonist here is referred to as ‘Edwin’ in the title, but as ‘Edward’ throughout the song. The quirkiness of these old songs makes most contemporary music taste like stale bread. The violence is astounding, but it’s not used in a ‘shock and awe’ kind of way. These were tough times, but at second glance not that different from today.
I remember listening back to this recording at the session, and how Martin Simpson busted with joy every time Tim hit one of those high vocal notes. Tim is almost 70 but sounds 17. To boot, Tim sang, and played fiddle at the same time. What a guy!”
O’Brien shared Thomm’s appreciation of this ancient song.
“Old folk songs are like myths in that they sorta teach us lessons, as in here’s what happens when you do X in a situation Y. One lesson here is don’t be waving your fat wallet around! Advice to a young suitor is to meet the parents early on.
I love having a little context. Many times I’d driven past the house in Hot Springs, NC where this song was transcribed. It always looked like a nice B&B but now I imagine Jane Gentry, seated on the front porch waving a fan and singing.”
If left only to the talents of producer/singer/songwriter/guitarist Thomm Jutz and Grammy and IBMA winning guitarist, writer, and vocalist Tim Stafford, Lost Voices would seem an auspicious enough effort. Yet given the additional contributions from Tammy Rogers on fiddle, go-to bassist Mark Fain, Ron Block on banjo, Shaun Richardson on mandolin, and a cameo from Dale Ann Bradley, (who takes the lead vocal on the lovely Callie Lou), it could be considered the equivalent of a superstar session.
Happily then, the album easily measures up to any expectations this exceptional ensemble clearly inspires. As the late Peter Cooper points out in the liner notes, “There is a noble mission to Lost Voices, and it is to reveal those voices as consequential and compelling beyond the grave, quintessentially human six feet in the ground.” Sadly, Cooper passed all too soon, making his own voice one that resonates here as well.
All original compositions, the songs — save the upbeat opening track, Take That Shot, and the mid-tempo rambles The Blue Grays, Vaudeville Blues, and No Witness in the Laurel but the Leaves (which finds Rogers fiddle taking center stage) — consist mainly of mournful narratives that retrace stories that stem from various aspects of American history, be it origination in the Great Plains or the Appalachian Mountains. Influenced and inspired by Tony Rice, Norman Blake, John Hartford, and Gordon Lightfoot, they sound more like traditional tunes than impeccable originals. Nevertheless, the reverence, eloquence and emotion clearly shine through.
Of course, it’s the subject matter itself that helps fuel the fascination. A semi-professional Negro League baseball team provides the inspiration for The Blue Grays. It’s an outlaw that finds focus in The Ballad of Kinnie Wagner. A fictional feud forms the basis of the aforementioned No Witness in the Laurel but the Leaves, while Callie Lou takes its cue from a Harriette Arrow novel. Vaudeville Blues is based on the life and career of Emmet Miller, a black-face minstrel whose music became a seminal influence for Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and Merle Haggard, racist overtones aside. Code Talker offers a noble tribute to the Navajo code talkers who helped turned the tide of World War II.
Both moving and memorable, Lost Voices brings life to those whose stories might otherwise have been lost. Stafford and Jutz have, in fact, made a masterpiece.
These two have been friends for some time, but only recently started writing together. After knocking out a couple of good songs, Thomm and Tammy decided to record an album of their music, Surely Will Be Singing, released earlier this year. Rogers is the fiddler and a vocalist with The Steeldrivers, while Jutz earns his keep primarily as a songwriter.
During the sessions for their duet project, they also cut this original Christmas song they wrote, Welcome The Babe, a lovely waltz time number that retells the nativity story. With Thomm on guitar and Tammy on fiddle, the pair sings this one with Mark Fain on bass and Justin Moses on fiddle.
Mountain Fever Records has dropped a second single today from their upcoming duo project with singer/songwriters Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz. Both men are well renowned for their original songs, Tim for his contributions to Blue Highway and dozens of other artists, and Thomm under his own name and likewise to many other recording acts. During the pandemic shutdowns, the two began to write together using online communication, so when the restrictions were lifted, a joint recording just made sense.
Today’s single bears the curious title, No Witness In The Laurel But The Leaves. It’s a waltz time ballad of historical fiction, drawn from the era where feuding clans shed blood in the Blue Ridge regions of Kentucky and West Virginia, often after the reasons for the conflict were forgotten by survivors. Stafford has long been recognized for his work in this realm, and listening to this newest, it’s clear his co-writer excels in it as well.
Tim offered a few words of explanation.
“No Witness In The Laurel But The Leaves is about a fictional feud in Eastern Kentucky, much like Hatfield/McCoy and other Appalachian mountain wars that are well-known and mythologized to this day. Clans were often divided on either side after the Civil War, leading to many decades-long feuds, with dozens killed. The point of the title is simple: no witnesses, no problem. But we’re left with the song’s final line: And when children ask what the killing was for, honestly, what can you say?”
Tim and Thomm both play guitar on the track, with Stafford taking the lead vocal and Jutz the harmony. They are supported by Ron Block on banjo, Tammy Rogers on fiddle, Shaun Richardson on mandolin, and Mark Fain on bass. Listen for the unexpected six major chord in the verses which gives the song its own special twist.
It’s a good’n, bringing to mind the rich catalog of murder ballads that have endured over the centuries.
Mountain Fever Records has released a second single from their upcoming duo project with Tim Stafford & Thomm Jutz. Both are heralded as among the top songwriters in the bluegrass genre, as well as veteran performers. Their new album, Lost Voices, is due later in 2022, consisting of songs the pair have written together over the past two years.
This latest track, Take That Shot, plays on the triple meaning of the phrase, as either taking a photograph, firing a gun, or going for your dreams. The lyrics are sung as though they were coming from a number of historically important figures including Billy The Kid, Robert Johnson, and Bill Monroe, with additional references to other pop culture figures like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. The song also includes a first for both men – their initial journey into bluegrass rap!
Take That Shot was inspired by recently released archival photos of Billy The Kid and Robert Johnson. Thomm said that he and Tim were struck by the contrast between these pictures of the two as youths, and how their images were eventually honed by time.
“Those two photos revealed so much more about these two legends than anyone previously expected. Billy the Kid, in the newly discovered photo, looks like a boyish Huck Finn-type and not like a juvenile killer. Johnson looks like an upbeat young man with a guitar and not like the brooding bluesman with the cigarette dangling from his mouth we all know.”
Tim agreed, reflecting on the tremendous value of historical photography.
“We talked about other iconic photos that shaped American history, and this song fell in our lap. I love the idea that the art of photography can say as much as libraries full of books, summing up entire eras, defining moments in time.”
Stafford and Jutz trade verses throughout the song, harmonizing on the chorus and both playing guitar. They are supported by Ron Block on banjo, Tammy Rogers on fiddle, Shaun Richardson on mandolin, and Mark Fain on bass.
The two started writing together during the pandemic shutdowns in 2020, working via Zoom, and have now recorded an album of these songs together.
Thomm and Tim sound like a mutual admiration society when it comes to each other’s work. “I’m such an admirer of Tim’s writing, singing, and playing. Making a duo record with Tim was a logical step, and a dream come true for me,” notes Jutz.
Stafford says, “Thomm is a very intelligent, very musical writer, and we think the same way about a lot of things. He’s also a great guitarist and has a wonderful studio. It was all done there, and I really like the way it turned out. Recording was a breeze!”
A debut single, Take That Shot, will be released in the next week or two.
Thomm Jutz and Tammy Rogers may operate in slightly different spheres, but Surely Will Be Singing,their aptly dubbed new album— and their first effort as a duo — makes its clear they are solidly in sync.
Rogers, lead singer and fiddler for the popular bluegrass band, The SteelDrivers, and Jutz, an in-demand producer, guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, had been writing songs together for the past five years, but the idea of making an album never came to fruition until the pandemic put a halt to their usual activities and gave them an opportunity to share some studio time. As its title implies, Surely Will Be Singing leans towards a traditional tapestry and music of a vintage variety, hardly a surprise considering the fact that both Jutz and Rogers have always expressed their affection for the form. Likewise, with the more than 140 songs they had composed in tandem, sourcing material was not a difficult choice.
That’s evidenced in the songs themselves, be it the reflection and reminiscing shared in On Your Own, the arcane imagery that gracesAll Around My Cabin Door, the rousing revelry expressed in Long Gone, or the forlorn feelings found in songs such as The Tree of Life, Mountain Angel, and the album’s final entry, simply titled The Door.
Ironically, the COVID crisis worked to their advantage due to the fact that neither of them were able to tour. However, even if that hadn’t been the case, the project would still have been a priority. “The most shows the SteelDrivers played in any given year was 150 dates,” Rogers notes. “That kind of leaves room to do a few other things, so I’m pretty relaxed about all that stuff. I always feel like things tend to fall in place as long as you kind of roll with it and are open to what happens. There were a few occasions where I really wanted to do something, but I couldn’t. Nevertheless, the pandemic solved that problem.”
Jutz, on the other hand, found it easy to commit to the project. Despite the fact that his services are constantly in demand, he says he had no problem committing to the project. “All I do on an ongoing basis is teach a couple of days a week at Belmont University, and the rest of my life is dedicated to making music,” he explains. “So I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do over the next year. I just put one foot in front of the other.”
Even though the album has just come out, the pair are already thinking about their next effort in tandem.
“We loved the way the music turned out, and plus, we had a great partner with Mountain Fever Records,” Rogers reflects. “If they’re open to putting out more records, we’ll probably get to do another one. One thing’s for sure — we’re gonna keep writing together. So I think it’s highly probable that there will be multiple records. The great thing is, we have folks around us that seem to support the idea of us doing these records, without having to go out and play 150 days a year.”
For his part, Jutz is already going thought to the duo’s next album. “It may be something that’s even more stripped down than this record,” he muses. “We’ve been thinking of maybe making it a Gospel record, a real old fashioned kind of Gospel record. I like the idea of speaking in an old fashioned language, or at least in an older language, while still sharing a newer message. That would be something that I’d be very interested in. So we’ve been talking about that. Like Tammy said, the good thing is that we don’t feel like we need to play 100 gigs or whatever to make it work.Everybody has their own thing going on, and that’s good because it keeps it fresh and fun.”
Given the fact that both artists tend to imbue a modern sensibility within bluegrass boundaries, they’re well aware of the need to find a balance between their tie to tradition and the need to also attract a contemporary crowd at the same time. One has to wonder whether they risk alienating any part of the populace while trying to please them all.
“I can speak from personal experience with the SteelDrivers,” Rogers suggests, speaking of their modern approach to bluegrass. “We certainly have experienced that. But we kind of knew the situation from the get-go and, and we were pretty determined to do what we wanted to do. That’s why you don’t see us booked at the uber-traditional festivals very often, because we felt compelled to make the music that we make. I would say that if you ask any of the younger acts coming up, they probably feel the same way. If you see people that that are trying to be all things to all people, they’re not going to be very successful at doing it.”
“I think that innovation requires preservation and the other way around,” Jutz inserts. “I would also argue that a lot of what is considered traditional bluegrass at the moment is not necessarily traditional bluegrass music. It’s a more commercialized form of it. People may think of it as such, but I think it needs both elements to be successful. Whenever people can bring in a bit of both, it’s a good thing in my opinion.Somebody in the audience might hear music that they’ve never heard before. How can that not be good for the music? It also means that everybody just needs to do what they do. As time goes by, we’ll need people who can retain that spirit of authenticity to curate and preserve the music. And because bluegrass is a relatively small niche genre, there’s a lot of space for everybody to participate in it.”
“You’ve got to move forward in order for a genre to advance, gain new followers and simply to progress,” Rogers maintains. “You have to add new elements to it, or it just becomes stagnant. Like Thomm was saying, maybe that means a little more commercialized version of quote-unquote ‘bluegrass’ music. If you look at what Bill Monroe was doing, it becomes obvious that he was a great innovator and that he experimented with a lot of his music. So did Flatt andScruggs. So did the Osborne Brothers. I think there’s a push forward that’s kind of built into it.”
Jutz — who was born and raised in Germany — has an international perspective on the way bluegrass music has evolved and gained the populist appeal that it has today.
“It’s a distinctly American form of music,” he notes. “After World War II, and starting in the ’50s, people in central Europe became very interested in emulating any expression of American culture, whether it was a movie or the music or whatever. And bluegrass was just one tiny part of that. These days, there’s a lot of bluegrass music in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. And during the era when those countries were controlled by communism, the musicians were only allowed to play music professionally if they had a classical education. As a result, they were drawn to the virtuosity of bluegrass music. And that’s why it’s so popular there.”
Nevertheless, Jutz found his way to bluegrass a bit differently. “I heard country music and bluegrass music on the Armed Forces Radio Network and the Canadian Forces Network and through some Canadian soldiers that happened to live close by on a large airbase,” he recalls. “They introduced me to American music, not just bluegrass, but country, rock and roll, blues, and stuff like that. I was always fascinated with the simplicity of bluegrass music and the fact that there’s a zen aspect to it. You can put five people playing instruments in a room and that becomes as good as it’s ever going to get. It’s a perfect sound.And when you record it, you try to create that dynamic, that perfect tone. That always spoke to me and it still does.”
“If you look back at the history of bluegrass, it kind of cycles in and out,” Rogers adds. “There was a big resurgence in the ’60s. With Flatt and Scruggs and the Newport Folk Festival, the music was embraced by younger generation, and even in the ’70s, with J.D. Crowe & The New South, they really established a new template for what people now consider bluegrass. They were pulling songs from other sources, and all their songs weren’t just about living in a cabin or on a mountain or something. So, I think that’s been part of the history of the music, the thing that keeps it being rejuvenated so often and brought to a larger audience. The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou did that some 20 years ago.”
Nevertheless, for Jutz and Rogers, the music rings with a personal appeal.
“At the end of the day, the music provokes an emotional response,” Jutz concludes. “I’m driven to go back and learn more about the roots of the music. That continues even today.”
Like all the tracks on this new album, Long Gone comes from the pens of Tammy and Thomm, both well-respected writers in Music City. Rogers is also a member of The SteelDrivers, and Jutz has a number of albums under his own name as a singer. Long Gone brings yet another perspective on the classic train song in s bluegrass style.
This time they opt for a full band sound from their duo project, supported by Justin Moses on banjo and Mark Fain on bass, Tammy plays fiddle and mandolin, and sings harmony with Thomm, who provides guitar and the lead vocal.
Check it out.
Tammy and Thomm will be hosting an album release show on January 30 at The Bluebird Café in Nashville, and will be filming an episode for the Song of the Mountains television program on February 5.
Dancing in the Snow isn’t really a Christmas song, but it captures the joy to be found during the holidays when cold weather outdoor activities abound. It’s another co-write by this celebrated team of singers and songwriters, who have been writing together for several years. They have a new duo project of their original songs set for next year, but they also wanted to have a couple of new ones that celebrate the holiday spirit this month, wholly separate from their upcoming album, Surely Will Be Singing.
This new single also differs from the duo record as it features a full bluegrass band, the perfect setting for this feel good song. With Tammy singing lead and playing both mandolin and fiddle, Thomm plays guitar and adds the harmony vocal. They are supported by Justin Moses on banjo and Mark Fain on bass.
It makes for a delightful track, just the thing when you are wrapped up at home from the cold, or sitting by a roaring fire.
Ever since it was announced in August, there has been growing anticipation concerning the upcoming duo project by Tammy Rogers and Thomm Jutz on Mountain Fever Records. Both are noted songwriters in the bluegrass world, Tammy in her position with The Steeldrivers, and Thomm as both a gifted writer and a solo artist.
A live performance video is now available for one of the tracks, which finds the pair singing Jutz’s lovely ballad The Tree of Life, which Thomm says was partly inspired by the writing of a professor whose essays and books looked at mythology and comparative religion.
“I’ve long been fascinated with the writing of Joseph Campbell. He talks about ‘the tree of life’ as the tree from which Adam and Eve ate. By doing so, duality entered the world. The cross Jesus died on is ‘the tree of life’ through which non-duality was restored. The Buddha found enlightenment under ‘the tree of life,’ he died to the world but awoke to his spirit.”
Tammy takes the lead with Thomm harmonizing below in this old time duet.
Their duo project, I Surely Will Be Singing, is expected in 2022.
