Thomm Jutz Releases New singles, the First Releases from Two Volumes of Music

Thomm Jutz is a songwriting fury. He spins historical tales as reflected in the mind of a deeply insightful observer who, though foreign born, has always found his soul belonging to the American Southland. 

Together with Mountain Home Music Company, Jutz - a nominee for the IBMA's Songwriter of the Year award - is releasing a large body of work beginning with single releases and culminating in two volumes of collected songs under the apt title, To Live In Two Worlds.

Among these releases we find the stories of rambling vagabond musicians, the hard life of mill workers, tragic Civil War characters both real and imagined, semi-forgotten regional legends and new stories of more recent real-life dramas and tragedies that will be tomorrow's parables. Each single release is a pairing of works - one featuring a crackerjack bluegrass band, the other featuring just Jutz and his guitar - that may complement, expand upon or contextualize one another.

The first of these are two songs - "Mill Town Blues" and "I Long To Hear Them Testify" - about musicians from the first part of the 20th century based in the deep south. 

"Mill Town Blues" tells the story of Charlie Poole and his band roaring through the Carolinas. Jutz finds himself returning to Poole's story often, as he's a flawed role model whose legacy carries on. Appropriately enough, "Mill Town Blues" gets a full band treatment with Jutz on guitar and featuring driving banjo from Justin Moses, the stylish mandolin of Mike Compton, the silvery fiddle of Tammy Rogers and the rich pulsing bass of Mark Fain. 

"It's not just because of his music that Charlie Poole finds his way back into my subconscious and thus into my songwriting time and time again," says Jutz. "Like most role models, he is the best and the worst - at the same time. He paid the price for how he lived and left a musical legacy that rings through today."

Poole reappears in the bluesy, contemplative solo, "I Long to Hear Them Testify," which also tells the tales of Blind Willie McTell and Skip James. The song, written by Jutz and Trey Hensley, describes Jutz' fascination with the south and how he feels as though he has one foot in the past and another in today - living, as the ultimate project title reminds us, in two worlds.

Listen to "Mill Town Blues" HERE and "I Long To Hear Them Testify" HERE.

About Thomm Jutz
Thomm Jutz is a songwriter, producer and guitar player whose songs have been recorded by Balsam Range, Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, Terry Baucom, Nanci Griffith, Kim Richey and many more. To date he has had six #1 bluegrass songs and was nominated for IBMA Songwriter Of The Year in 2017 and 2018. His song "Going Back To Bristol" was nominated for Song Of The Year 2017. He's the producer and principal songwriter of The 1861 Project, a three-record collection of original songs about the American Civil War. He also co-wrote and produced I Sang The Song, a musical biography of Mac Wiseman featuring John Prine, Alison Krauss, Shawn Camp and many other renowned Bluegrass artists. Jutz has previously released two Bluegrass solo records Volunteer Trail and Crazy If You Let It.