Album Review: Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz, ‘Lost Voices’
Thomm Jutz has been a Nashville fixture since he heard Bobby Bare on a TV show in Germany and saved his money for the move. He’s toured with some of the city’s finest exports and produced albums for even more. During Covid lockdown, he started writing songs with the illustrious Tim Stafford (Blue Highway, Union Station), and the duo has finally released a collection of their creations.
Lost Voices (released Feb. 3 on Mountain Fever Records) is thick with impeccable stringband instrumentalism, which should be no surprise. Jutz and Stafford are masters who surrounded themselves with some of the very best Nashville cats, when they stole off to a cabin and recorded the disc.
It opens with “Take That Shot”—a tribute to the great artists who have lived and died—specifically name-checking Robert Johnson and Bill Monroe, in case you’re wondering where their affections lie. It’s a terrific bluegrass romp, but it’s the album’s second track, “Enough to Keep You Going for a While,” that seems to carry the thesis (“I believe there’s good in people, though sometimes it’s hard to find.”)
Indeed, the album tours through stories of folks who mean well and work hard. Sometimes they swing and miss, sometimes the world hasn’t caught up quite yet. But the characters in Jutz and Stafford’s songs are all motivated by something pure and true.
Though Jutz and Stafford both have considerable bluegrass bonafides, they don’t stick to the traditional avenue in delivering a straight bluegrass album. Stylistically, Lost Voices tours from bluegrass to a folkier singer-songwriter style, to blues, and beyond.
Highlights include the historical baseball-themed “The Blue Grays” (an early single), the story-songs “Callie Lou” and “Code Talker,” and the warm and folky “The Standing People.” But, with fourteen tracks, there is plenty to listen to and fall in love with on this remarkable collection of great songwriting by two of Nashville’s best.
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Lost Voices is available HERE.
Resources
ThommJutz.com
Music & Merch
Tour
YouTube
TimStaffordGuitar.com
Music & Merch
Tour
YouTube
Follow at:
Instagram – @thommjutz
Facebook – @ThommJutzmusic
Twitter – @ThommJutz
Instagram – @tstaff14
Facebook – @TimStafford
Twitter – @TimStaffguitar
