Thomm Jutz

Live in Two Worlds Volume 1

Mountain Home Music Company

Thomm Jutz released the first of two volumes of music titled To Live In Two Worlds. Volume 1 released in March by Mountain Home Music Company. There is a vintage vibe as the album opens with an acoustic soundtrack to simpler times. This might just be the perfect soundtrack to these modern times as we find ourselves reconnecting with what is really important. These songs truly live in two worlds. The warm tone and clear, believable vocal is reassuring. Thomm Jutz is a historian and a storyteller, and who doesn’t love a great story?

The stories within, To Live In Two Worlds Volume 1, will transport you. In a time when staying home is the best course, Thomm Jutz takes us on a ramble down the old back roads of the great southeast. While you’re in no hurry, you’re not exactly moving slow. Stories played out on acoustic guitar and a single microphone or as a full bluegrass string band accompanied by fiddle, banjo, mandolin and upright bass. Melodious songs that capture the feel of lonely troubadours traveling through hard times on hard roads. There is a history lesson in these songs. They are reflective and thought-provoking, fresh and familiar, these songs are like time travel. To Live In Two Worlds.

A self-produced album, Thomm Jutz had planned on recording two separate style albums. One was to be a bluegrass album with a dream team of band members. He recorded that album last May in two and a half days. As producer, he just let everyone play, it gave a lovely string band feel to the recordings, and is the best way to capture magic in my opinion. The second album was recorded a few weeks later as an album of solo acoustic songs. Just Thomm and his guitar. The vulnerability in recording in this fashion is daunting and Thomm Jutz faced his fears. It worked. Not that he should be intimidated, as a touring artist since his teens and making a living as an independent artist, Thomm Jutz has been nominated for Songwriter Of The Year for the past several years. A single vintage microphone served as muse for the recording. During the sequencing of the album it became evident that the songs work well in pairs. In fact so well that you don’t realize that every other song on the album is solo acoustic. The two albums will however differ in overall theme. Volume 1 being more oral historian in nature, and Volume 2 is the darker or spiritually themed I’m album and will release in the near future.

To Live In Two Worlds Volume 1 consists of fourteen songs. The band for the project is Mark Fain on upright bass, Tammy Rogers on fiddle and harmony vocals, Mike Compton on mandolin, Justin Moses on banjo and harmony vocals. Milan Miller provides harmony vocals and Trey Hensley provides vocals. Thomm Jutz plays guitar and lead vocals. thommjutz.com

Thomm Jutz started with two separate albums to showcase his songwriting style. So much for best made plans. Such is this life as it has come to be. To Live In Two Worlds Volume 1 is one of those albums, we can imagine what the second will be called, but the complete collection is something worth looking forward to.

• Viola Krouse