THINGS TO KNOW

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Raised in the Black Forest of Germany, Thomm Jutz has become an American roots music treasure. His virtuosity, eloquence, and clarity of expression have made him a linchpin of Nashville’s creative community, and his To Live in Two Worlds, Volume 1 (watch a promotional preview for the album, click the “play” button in the image above) is nominated for a Best Bluegrass Album GRAMMY®, making him the first immigrant to receive a nomination in that category.

Beloved by GRAMMY® winners including Bobby Bare, Tom T. Hall, Jim Lauderdale, and Buddy Miller, Jutz writes songs of depth and breadth. He sings of mill workers, Civil War characters, folk heroes, struggle, heartbreak, and triumph. In a time of division, he seeks and finds connection.

Jutz (it’s pronounced “Yootz,”) was a young, classically trained musician in Germany when he heard Outlaw legend Bare sing on a television show and decided to devote his life to informal music. He saved money, won the immigration lottery (yes, there is such a thing), and eventually moved to Nashville, where he found work touring with Nanci Griffith, Mary Gauthier, David Olney, Kim Richey, and many more.

He built a recording studio and produced albums for Country Music Hall of Fame members Bill Anderson and Mac Wiseman.

He earned three nominations for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Songwriter of the Year prize, and taught songwriting at Belmont University. Now, in addition to recording music with record label Mountain Home Music Company, he’s working on a Masters in Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University, planning to write his thesis on GRAMMY®-winner Norman Blake.

Jutz’s story involves fortitude, empathy, scholarship, devotion, wood and wire. If the beer commercial guy is the most interesting man in the world, Thomm Jutz is the most interesting man in two worlds.