For the latest taste of Bryan Sutton’s impressive flatpick spectacular, From Roots To Branches, Mountain Home Music is featuring a track with his fellow multiple IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award winner, Kenny Smith.
From his debut on the big bluegrass stage as a member of Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder in 1997, through a long career as a first-call Nashville sideman and recording artist, Sutton has established himself as one of the acoustic guitar’s most prolific and exceptional performers. Along the way he stepped in for Charles Sawtelle as guitarist with Hot Rize, and toured with Béla Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Chris Thile, and many more top bluegrass and acoustic music artists.
Kenny made his mark in similar ways, playing with Claire Lynch and Lonesome River Band in his early days, and with his talented wife as Kenny & Amanda Smith. Like Sutton, Smith is a revered flatpicker and sideman, who has also built a strong reputation as an online instructor.
Bryan explained a bit about why he wanted to include Kenny in this series of guitar duets.
“I met Kenny Smith when I first moved to Nashville. He had been there already a few years and was doing some work with Gallagher Guitars down in Wartrace. I forget exactly where I might have met him, but I went down and hung out with him. I had a guitar that I had some questions about, and he took a look at it, and then we played a little bit and I’ve known him ever since.
I love the way Kenny is so reverential towards fiddle tunes. He really finds the sweet spot in his guitar artistry, but you hear the melody, and it’s such a classy sound. I found this old tune that I heard at a jam session in western North Carolina, and sent it to him and said, ‘What do you think? Here’s one that neither of us have ever played.’ He didn’t know it, but he was game to learn!
I didn’t necessarily want to do an obvious low-hanging fruit kind of fiddle tune, and here was a newer tune that he was game to do. So that’s how we got into that tune, and I just love what he did with it.”
And offered a few words about their choice of Three Star Hornpipe.
“That’s one of the more mellow tracks on the record, and I love it because, again, it really features this beautiful melody. Kenny always puts tone and melody first, and when I hear qualities like that in players, I think, ‘I want more of that — I want to hear that in me,’ and that’s what I love about Kenny Smith’s playing.”
What more is there to say? Two top pickers sitting down and playing through a stately fiddle number.
Have a listen.
Three Star Hornpipe is available now from popular download and streaming services online.
