THOMM JUTZ | “Jimmie Rodgers Rode a Train”

Single release date: Nov. 8, 2019
Bluegrass, Mountain Home Music Company — STREAM / BUY

Arden, North Carolina (November 7, 2019—Mountain Home Music Company) | Continuing to reflect on the American South and its rich musical history, songwriter Thomm Jutz has released two more singles from his upcoming album, this time capturing the storied careers of musical legends John Hartford and Jimmie Rodgers in portraits imbued with the spirit each brought to his own music.

The pair of songs — “Hartford’s Bend” and “Jimmie Rodgers Rode A Train” — is another example of the breadth of songwriting and musicianship on Jutz’s upcoming body of work, two volumes of music to be released under the apt title, To Live In Two Worlds.

“Jimmie Rodgers Rode A Train” is the solo offering in this pair of releases, featuring Jutz’s intimate vocal, fingerpicked guitar and nothing more. Drawing on Rodgers’ own blues and Tin Pan Alley influences, the song punctuates a laconic recounting of the Singing Brakeman’s career with equally spare interludes that reveal Jutz’s quiet virtuosity.

Though Rodgers had a short life and career, Jutz views it as unparalleled.

“He wanted to be every American’s favorite singer. He was the singing brakeman, the cowboy, the dapper crooner. He only had six years to make it all happen and boy did he ever make it happen,” says Jutz.

Like the rest of the extensive set Jutz has recorded for his initial projects with Mountain Home, these are songs infused with a deep knowledge and understanding of the rural southern music — and those who made it — that brought Jutz from his native Germany to Nashville at the beginning of the century.

“Jimmie loved the trains and his fancy cars. American history and musical history is one of movement,” he says. “Its past so close behind and its future moving still — that’s what draws me to it.”

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.

About Mountain Home Music Company | Mountain Home Music Company, a division of Crossroads Label Group is a premier Bluegrass label with global distribution, representing such elite artists as Balsam Range, The Grascals, Lonesome River Band, Chris Jones & The Night Drivers, NewTown, Gina Furtado, Kristin Scott Benson, The Cleverlys, Danny Roberts, Sideline, Unspoken Tradition, Fireside Collective and Thomm Jutz. Established in 1993, Crossroads is a market leader in the Bluegrass, Americana, and Christian Music fields.