Featuring Luke Bulla, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Bryan Sutton 

 

Bela Fleck

Just in case you aren't familiar with Béla Fleck, there are some who say he's the premiere banjo player in the world. Others claim that Béla has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Béla, you know that he just loves to play the banjo, and put it into unique settings.

Born and raised in New York City, Béla began his musical career playing the guitar. In the early 1960's, while watching the Beverly Hillbillies, the bluegrass sounds of Flatt & Scruggs flowed out of the TV set and into his young brain. Earl Scruggs's banjo style hooked Béla's interest immediately. "It was like sparks going off in my head" he later said.

It wasn't until his grandfather bought him a banjo in September of '73, that it became his full time passion. That week, Béla entered New York City's, High School of Music and Art. He began studies on the French horn but soon switched to the chorus. Since the banjo wasn't an offered elective at Music & Art, Béla sought lessons through outside sources. Erik Darling, Marc Horowitz, and Tony Trischka stepped up and filled the job. Béla joined his first band, "Wicker's Creek" during this period. Living in NYC, Béla was exposed to a wide variety of musical experiences. One of the most impressive was a concert by "Return to Forever" featuring Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke. This concert encouraged further experimenting with bebop and jazz on the banjo, signs of things to come.

Several months after high school, Béla moved to Boston to play with Jack Tottle's Tasty Licks. While in Boston, Béla continued his jazz explorations, made two albums with Tasty Licks, and his first solo banjo album Crossing the Tracks, on Rounder Records. This is where he first played with future musical partners Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas.

After the break up of Tasty Licks, Béla spent a summer on the streets of Boston playing with bass player, Mark Schatz. Mark and Béla moved to Lexington, KY to form Spectrum, which included Jimmy Gaudreau, Glen Lawson, and Jimmy Mattingly. Spectrum toured until 1981. While in Spectrum, he and Mark traveled to California and Nashville to record his second album Natural Bridge with David Grisman, Mark O'Connor, Ricky Skaggs, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and other great players.

In 1981, Béla was invited to join the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, lead by Sam Bush on mandolin, fiddle and vocals. With the addition of California based Pat Flynn on guitar and NGR veteran John Cowan on bass and vocals, New Grass Revival took bluegrass music to new limits, exciting audiences and critics alike. Through the course of five albums, they charted new territory with their blend of bluegrass, rock and country music. The relentless national and international touring by NGR exposed Béla's banjo playing to the bluegrass/acoustic music world.

During the 9 years Béla spent with NGR he continued to record a series of solo albums for Rounder, including the ground breaking 1988 album "Drive". He also collaborated with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer and Mark O'Connor in an acoustic super group called Strength in Numbers. The MCA release, "The Telluride Sessions", was also considered an evolutionary statement by the acoustic music community.

Towards the end of the New Grass years, Béla and Howard Levy crossed paths at the Winipeg Folk Festival. Next came a phone call from a friend of Béla's, wanting to introduce to him, a new bass player who was in town looking for a gig. Victor Lemonte Wooten played some licks on the phone for Béla and the second connection was made. In 1988 Dick Van Kleek, Artistic Director for the PBS Lonesome Pine Series based in Louisville, Kentucky, offered Béla a solo show.

Béla put several musical sounds together with his banjo, a string quartet, his Macintosh computer and also a more jazz based combo. Howard and Victor signed on for the concert, but the group still lacked a drummer. The search was on for an unusual drummer/percussionist. Victor offered up his brother Roy Wooten, later to become known as FutureMan. Roy was developing the Drumitar (Drum - Guitar), it was then in its' infancy. A midi trigger device, the drumitar allowed FutureMan to play the drums with his fingers triggering various sampled sounds. The first rehearsal held at Béla's Nashville home was hampered by a strong thunderstorm that knocked the electricity out for hours. The four continued on with an acoustic rehearsal and the last slot on the TV show became the first performance of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Next came the self-titled CD, which Béla financed himself. The recording attracted the attention of the folks at Warner Brothers Nashville. It was released in 1990, dubbed a"blu-bop" mix of jazz and bluegrass, and soon became a commercially successful disc. The album was Grammy nominated, and their second recording "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo" followed suit. Howard Levy toured and recorded with the Flecktones till the end of 1992. After several years as a trio and touring with special guests, saxophonist Jeff Coffin joined the Tones. Famed for a non-stop touring schedule, the Flecktones have reached more than 500,000 audience members yearly from 2001 on.

Still releasing albums and touring, the Tones have garnered a strong and faithful following among jazz and new acoustic fans. They have shared the stage with Dave Mathews Band, Sting, Bonnie Raitt and the Grateful Dead, among many others, made several appearances on The Tonight Show back in the Johnny Carson days, as well as Arsenio Hall, and Conan O'Brian. Béla also appeared on Saturday Night Live and David Letterman's show as well.

Although the first Flecktones albums were created live-in-the-studio, the group went on to experiment with overdubs and guest artists on later albums, with contributions from artists as diverse as Chick Corea, Bruce Hornsby, Branford Marsalis, John Medeski, Amy Grant and Dave Matthews. The Flecktones went on tour with Dave Matthews Band in 1996 and 1997, and Fleck is featured on several tracks on DMB's 1998 album "Before these Crowded Streets." In 2003, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones released the landmark three-disc set "Little Worlds" simultaneously with a highlights disc entitled Ten From Little Worlds.

Any world-class musician born with the names Béla (for Bartok), Anton (for Dvorak) and Léos (for Janacek) would seem destined to play classical music. Already a powerfully creative force in bluegrass, jazz, pop, rock and world beat, Béla at last made the classical connection with "Perpetual Motion", his critically acclaimed 2001 Sony Classical recording that went on to win a pair of Grammys, including Best Classical Crossover Album, in the 44th annual Grammy Awards.

Collaborating with Fleck on "Perpetual Motion" was his long time friend and colleague Edgar Meyer, a bassist whose virtuosity defies labels and also an acclaimed composer. In the wake of that album's release, Fleck & Meyer came up with the idea of a banjo/bass duo, which they developed and refined during a concert tour of the US. Live recordings from that tour are the basis for their latest Sony Classical recording "Music For Two" which also includes a bonus DVD featuring a documentary film by Sascha Paladino (Fleck's brother) that captures the duo's collaboration and crafting of repertoire while on tour. Béla and Edgar also co-wrote and performed a double concerto for banjo, bass and the Nashville Symphony, which debuted in November 2003.

The recipients of Multiple Grammy Awards going back to 1998, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones picked up the Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, Instrumental Grammy in 2000 for "Outbound", a typically wide-ranging project, with guest artists that include guitarist Adrian Belew and singers Jon Anderson and Shawn Colvin, built around Fleck's concept of "the banjo being weird."

Flecks' total Grammy count is 8 Grammys won, and 20 nominations. He has been nominated in more different categories than anyone in Grammy history

Sam Bush:

Though he admits a certain discomfort with the moniker "King of Newgrass," Sam Bush has more than earned it. As cofounder and leader of the seminal progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival through 18 years during the 1970s and '80s, Bush may not be the only person responsible for newgrass, the wild bluegrass stepchild that features rock 'n' roll grooves and extended virtuosic jams, but since New Grass Revival's dissolution in 1989, Bush has certainly been one of the most brilliant of newgrass's many bright lights.

Besides helming the ever-popular Sam Bush Band, featured on the upcoming release Laps in Seven, the mandolin prodigy from Kentucky has been a prodigious influence on musicians young and old. Bands like Nickel Creek, Yonder Mountain String Band, and String Cheese Incident, to name just a few, are indebted to Bush's example, not only in his wide-ranging choice of material and rock-based acoustic grooves, but by his captivating, high-energy live shows, which have made him an in demand headliner, and fan fave at important festivals like Telluride and MerleFest.

When not heading his own band, Bush has spent the past 15 years as a supersideman with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, and the Flecktones; spearheaded boundary-stretching collaborations with Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor, and David Grisman, and driven nearly every "bluegrass supergroup" imaginable with his inimitable mandolin playing.

"I wanted to try something different," Bush says of how he approached the new record, inadvertently defining his lifelong approach to music. "I wanted to shake things up a bit while still displaying the live sound of the road band." Bush's band is a tight crew of Nashville's most in demand studio musicians, including (previous 2005) guitarist Keith Sewell (Stephen Mougin has joined the band since the recording was made as guitar picker/harmony vocalist), Byron House on bass, Chris Brown on drums and banjoist Scott Vestal. Vestal's presence marks one of the striking differences that Bush was aiming for. His dynamic, inventive playing will certainly remind listeners of the last days of New Grass Revival, which, of course, featured a young Bela Fleck. "I can't tell you how much I love playing with Scott," Sam says of his most recent banjo buddy. "He can play everything, but he doesn't feel compelled to put it in every song."

In addition to giving his band room to romp, the "something different" that Bush was looking for often occurs when one of his many special guests joins the proceedings. For example, the opening track, Julie Miller's "The River's Gonna Run," features Bush's old boss Emmylou Harris in a duet vocal with Bush, as well as the electric and acoustic guitar playing of Buddy Miller. "Buddy gets a sound out of an acoustic guitar that bluegrassers don't get," says Bush. "He's all about painting the landscape. He doesn't try to stand out, he just tries to make a big wall of sound, and boy he really does on this track."

Such a powerful, rockin' and emotional opener needed a strong follow up, and it got one-probably the most traditional-sounding bluegrass cut on any of Bush's solo CDs, the Charlie Monroe classic "Bringing in the Georgia Mail," which features the Sam Bush Band doing what they do best, throwing down the bluegrass gauntlet and waiting to see if anyone is brave enough to pick it up. Not many who hear this rousing rendition will be so bold.

After establishing both his rock and bluegrass credentials, Bush spends much of Laps in Seven paying tribute to old friends and musical influences. John Hartford's "On the Road" gives worthy respect to his dear, departed cohort and a natural for Bush's flexible band. "New Grass Revival used to play that song with John a lot," Bush recalls. "For a few years, 1975-80 or so, we played a lot of shows with John. And that was one of the more fun ones to jam on." Though the song is in 5/4, the rhythm flows naturally from Hartford's lyrical phrasing, creating the kind of complex yet accessible song that Bush and company revel in.

"I Wanna Do Right," a rendre hommage to Gulf Coast hurricane survivors was co-written by Bush and Jeff Black , a favorite writer on previous Bush recordings, and features an R&B duet with Little Feat's own Shaun Murphy (who also arranged back-up vocals of the Do-Right Singers). Darrell Scott, another talented former guitar picker in the SBB, contributes yet another of his extraordinary songs, a lyrical and haunting version of "River Take Me." Other Bush friends and favorites include Leon Russell's "Ballad For a Soldier," as timely a song now as it was years ago when he wrote it, and Robbie Fulk's "Where There's a Road," a story for touring musicians everywhere.

Bush has written a number of songs with songwriter John Pennell, and the latest is "Riding that Bluegrass Train," which gives a nod to bluegrass/newgrass music, horse racing, and Baltimore banjoist Walter Hensley, whose 1960s recording Pickin' on New Grass, was the first place Bush heard the words that would come to define his music. To give it that high-lonesome sound, Bush called on Tim O'Brien to sing the high harmony vocals. "Tim and I play the same instruments so we hardly ever get to play on the same records," Bush says. "Tim just nailed the harmony, it was effortless."

Though Bush is most often known as a mandolinist, he's also a champion fiddler and on two tracks he pays tribute to two violinists who helped push his fiddle playing into the rock arena when he was a youngster. On the rock classic "White Bird," Bush and Andrea Zonn update violinist David LaFlamme's enduring composition, both vocally and in a soaring violin arrangement that expands and improves on the original.

The recording of Jean-Luc Ponty's "New Country," which has been a live Sam Bush Band fave, includes a scintillating performance by Ponty himself, playing twin fiddles with Bush. This track is the result of a meeting at last summer's Telluride Bluegrass Festival, at which Ponty sat in with Bush and company. "I've been a fan of Jean-Luc since his first record, Sunday Walk, came out in America," says Bush. "He is the king of jazz-rock violin. He was at Telluride playing with another trio, so I asked him if he would play "New Country" with us. To be standing there looking over at him right beside me was a dream come true, something I never imagined could happen. So I thought it would be great to get him to record it, too. We recorded the track and sent it to him in France. When we got it back and I heard the beauty of his playing, tears just streamed down my face. It was as joyful a moment as I've ever had. It's nice to be 54 years old and still just be totally overwhelmed by something," says Bush of recording with Ponty. I was just as excited as I would have been if it happened when I was 16, when I first heard him."

Rounding out this musical adventure are two of Bush's signature instrumentals. This recording features "The Dolphin Dance" and "Laps In Seven," a drinking tune written by Sam, Byron and Scott and inspired by Bush's dog Ozzie.

Sam Bush's ability to be continually touched and amazed by new music may be the quality that makes him such a successful and virtuosic performer and band leader. He helped create newgrass music almost 35 years ago, but Laps in Seven is evidence that he's still as vital a presence on the acoustic music scene as ever: still making new sounds, still rockin' out on great songs, and still pushing the bar higher for the legions of his proteges, fans and friends.

Jerry Douglas

Called "dobro's matchless contemporary master," by The New York Times and lauded as "my favorite musician" by no less than rock legend John Fogerty, Jerry Douglas could have been a musical innovator on any number of instruments. However, as a teenager, Douglas adopted the relatively obscure and unexplored Dobro, and that decision has helped him carve out a unique place in American music.

By discovering the capabilities of this expressive instrument during a period of intense creativity in acoustic music generally, Douglas has wielded incalculable influence on bluegrass and its many related genres.

His transcendent technique and his passionate musicality have helped him net twelve Grammy Awards and numerous International Bluegrass Music Association awards. Douglas holds the distinction of being named Musician of the Year by The Country Music Association (2002, 2005, 2007), The Academy of Country Music (ten times), and The Americana Music Association (2002, 2003). In June 2004, the National Endowment for The Arts honored Douglas with a National Heritage Fellowship, recognizing his artistic excellence and contribution to the nation’s traditional arts.

Jerry Douglas is a most innovative musician, both solo and as a member of groundbreaking bands including The Country Gentlemen, J.D. Crowe & the New South, Boone Creek, The Whites, Strength in Numbers (with Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O’Conner), and since 1998, a key member of Alison Krauss + Union Station. As a recording artist, Douglas’s distinctive sound graces more than 2000 albums, including discs released by James Taylor, Phish, Paul Simon, Bill Frisell, Earl Scruggs, Ray Charles, Lyle Lovett, Bill Evans, the Chieftains, and the 8 million-plus selling soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou.

While a large section of music aficionados may know the sound of Jerry Douglas from albums and concerts with other artists, it is on his own solo projects where the artist truly stretches the boundaries of his musical vision. He has established himself a force in the recording studio, as both musician and as producer, since the release of his debut album, Fluxology, in 1979.

The restless creative spirit, which is the common thread in his eclectic discography, also is prominent through every moment of is most recent solo releases, The Best Kept Secret (Koch Records) and the 2007 collection Jerry Douglas: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill Records), highlighting selections from five of his trailblazing recordings.

Balancing his solo career, his work in Union Station and a variety of collaborative efforts has kept Jerry Douglas sedulously active in 2007. After his eponymous band acquired a completely new set of fans in 2006 (having been honored with opening act slot for the legendary Paul Simon), they have continued to break new stylistic barriers. The Jerry Douglas Band may been seen at prestigious festivals (Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Bonnaroo), as featured artists on the A Prairie Home Companion live radio show, and on televised specials of A Prairie Home Companion.

Jerry Douglas was a featured player at Eric Clapton’s 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival. Douglas has recently completed work as Music Director for Transatlantic Sessions 3, a weekly television special airing on BBC TV during autumn 2007, featuring highly acclaimed artists from Scotland, Ireland, and America. This BBC project has reunited Douglas with his long time collaborator, Sir Aly Bain.

Luke Bulla

Luke Bulla has been singing and playing music most of his life. He started touring and singing with his family band at the age of four and took up the fiddle at seven. Over the next few years, he won the National Fiddle Contest in Weiser, Idaho, six times in his respective age categories, with a seventh win in the Grand Champion division at age sixteen – the youngest ever to have earned the title at the time. Luke was also the youngest to make the top ten at the Grand Masters fiddle contest in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of ten. In the spring of 1999, Luke moved to Nashville and began working as a full time musician. His first couple of years were spent as a member of Ricky Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder. After that, he joined the John Cowan Band. Recently, Luke has performed with Jim Lauderdale, Darrell Scott, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Sean Watkins, Tony Rice, Sara Watkins, Chris Thile, Glen Phillips and Earl Scruggs, to name a few. Luke is also a regular instructor at Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camps. Luke and long-time friend, Casey Driessen, started the band Wisechild, which toured briefly with John Mayer and Counting Crows. Luke also plays guitar, sings and writes songs and is currently working on material for a solo project. Luke is the most recent full-time member of the Jerry Douglas Band.

Edgar Meyer

Prominently established as a unique and masterful instrumentalist, Edgar Meyer delights his audiences both as a vibrant performer and an innovative composer. Hailed by the New Yorker as, "...the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument," Mr. Meyer's unparalleled technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore, where he is appreciated by a vast, varied audience. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002.

As a solo classical bassist, Mr. Meyer has released a concerto album with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra featuring Bottesini's Gran Duo with Joshua Bell; Meyer's Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma; Bottesini's Bass Concerto No. 2 and Meyer's Concerto in D for Bass along with an acclaimed album of Bach's Unaccompanied Suites for Cello.

Fruitful collaborations are a major aspect of Mr. Meyer's work. Music for Two is the latest collaboration with banjoist Béla Fleck and features live performances from the duo's tours together from October 2001 to September 2003. The recording also features a DVD with footage documenting the tour and the development of their collaboration on specific works in the program. Prior to that, Mr. Meyer joined with violinist Joshua Bell and legendary bluegrass musicians Sam Bush and Mike Marshall to form a quartet featuring a unique fusion of classical and bluegrass musical styles. The album, Short Trip Home, released in Fall 1999, was nominated for a Grammy award in the category of Best Classical Crossover album and the group was subsequently invited to perform live at the 42nd annual Grammy Awards. Shortly before this collaboration, Mr. Meyer was involved in an inventive trio project with Béla Fleck on banjo and Mike Marshall on mandolin, performing original compositions marrying bluegrass, classical and other traditional styles. In October 1997, the Fleck/Marshall/Meyer trio opened the 1997-98 season of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in conjunction with the release of their SONY disc, Uncommon Ritual. Earlier in Mr. Meyer's career, from 1986-1992, he was a member of the progressive bluegrass band "Strength in Numbers," whose members included Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, and Mark O'Connor. Mr. Meyer also works with pianist Amy Dorfman, his longtime accompanist for solo recitals, featuring both classical repertoire and his own compositions. To further explore his interests in a variety of musical genres, Mr. Meyer's vast musical interests have also led him to be a widely sought after guest bass player for an assortment of recording artists, such as Garth Brooks, Bruce Cockburn, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Hank Williams, Jr., Emmylou Harris, James Taylor, Lyle Lovett, T-Bone Burnett, Reba McIntyre, the Indigo Girls, Travis Tritt and the Chieftains.

An exclusive Sony Classical artist who is ever involved in imaginative projects, Mr. Meyer's latest venture is a collaboration with himself. This recording, entitled Edgar Meyer, presents him performing 14 all new instrumental pieces he has created for himself to perform, on an array of instruments, through multi-track recording.

On Sony Classical, Mr. Meyer and colleagues Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O' Connor have been widely acclaimed for the release of Appalachia Waltz, which soared to the top of the charts and remained there for 16 weeks. Appalachia Waltz toured extensively in the U.S., and the trio was featured both on the David Letterman Show and the televised 1997 Inaugural Gala. The follow-up recording, Appalachian Journey, was released in March 2000. This time, their tour took them not only to major venues across the U.S. but also to Europe and parts of Asia. Appalachian Journey won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album that season. In October 1999, Mr. Meyer's violin concerto written for violinist Hilary Hahn was premiered and recorded by Ms. Hahn with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra led by Hugh Wolff.

Mr. Meyer began studying bass at the age of five under the instruction of his father, and continued further to study with Stuart Sankey. He is the winner of numerous competitions. In 1994 he became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2000 became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Prize. Mr. Meyer premiered his bass concerto in 1993 with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1995, he premiered his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet in collaboration with the Emerson String Quartet, which was later recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Also, in 1995, he premiered his Double Concerto for Bass and Cello, in collaboration with Carter Brey, cello and Jeffrey Kahane conducting the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra. Mr. Meyer has also performed with the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, featuring the premiere of one of his own works, the Meyer Double Concerto for Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma, and most recently premiered an exciting new concerto for Banjo and Double Bass with co-composer Bela Fleck and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. A frequent guest at music festivals, Mr. Meyer has appeared as performer and composer at Aspen, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Chamber Music Northwest, and Marlboro. At the Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival, he was a regular guest from 1985-1993, and composed six works for the festival during that time. In 1994, Mr. Meyer joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and continues to perform regularly with this ensemble. Currently, he is also Visiting Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Bryan Sutton

Like any working musician Bryan Sutton spends a lot of time traveling, but rarely has a road trip inspired such a fortuitous collection of musical encounters as his new recording Not Too Far from the Tree. Sutton first conceived of his new album of guitar duets "in a car on the way back from a trip," he says. "I was thinking about all these guys that had influenced me and that some of them weren’t going to be around forever. I was thinking about records like Mark O’Connor’s record of fiddle heroes and Jerry Douglas’s record with all the Dobro players. And I got this idea of recording with these guys that were my heroes and also good buddies and advice-givers - people that have helped me in my career as a player. I felt like it was something I could do, and I felt honored to be in a position to be able to call everybody up and ask if they wanted to record."

Sutton is one of the most high-profile acoustic guitarists in bluegrass and country music these days, a first-call Nashville session player whose jaw-dropping technique, deep background in tradition, and fluency in multiple styles have landed him important gigs with Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Earl Scruggs, the Dixie Chicks, Béla Fleck, and others. But with his third solo recording he opted for a more low-key approach. Though it features some of the greatest, iconic bluegrass guitarists in history (Tony Rice, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, David Grier, among others), Sutton’s new CD is a tribute to the kind of personal, spontaneous music making that often happens when guitarists get together to jam informally. "I wanted to get out of the studios, out of the sterility of standard record making," he says "and capture as much of the music on my own as possible, so I decided to go to people’s homes.

"I really like the musical conversation that goes on in a duet," he continues. "I like the reactions, and with this record I tried to capture as much of those nuances as possible. In a duo, you have the freedom to go as far as each person is willing to go. You have this great possibility to get one sound, one voice. The guitar has such a wide tonal range that in a good duet situation you don’t miss anything, you don’t want for bass or the mandolin chop or anything. You’ve got plenty of sustain and rhythm, all that stuff. When you get a trio, suddenly you have different roles to play. And in a band everybody has their specific part to do at any give moment. But with a duet you can constantly change dynamics and it’s completely free."

Sutton not only wanted to showcase his heroes, but also demonstrate just how his own playing as evolved under their influence. However, far from aping his partners, he simply listens and reacts, allowing the music to grow naturally. "There’s a conscious level when I’m playing with these guys, where I’ll be inspired to do something just because I hear it," he says. "I’m a real reactionary player. When I hear something, whether it be a cool lick from Norman or some weird chord voicing that David Grier is doing, it’s going to inspire me to go somewhere spontaneously. It’s all improv on that level. But there’s also subconscious stuff that happens, little intercommunication things, rhythmic things, the general pocket and groove. I feel like we were able to capture the sound of two guitars sounding like one big instrument, and a lot of that happens subconsciously, where you’re really trying to dig into the groove of what’s going on - trying to complement the duet partner, whoever that might be. So the influence isn’t demonstrated by me playing the same licks that I’d just heard, but in nuances of feel and tone, very subtle kinds of things.

"I never was one to really study other players. I didn’t transcribe Tony Rice solos as a kid, but I would try to listen to the feel of what Tony Rice did and try to capture the crux of the intent of what was going on. The whole Not Too Far from the Tree idea reflects that, in that I’m obviously of that, and I do my own thing, but I know where it came from, and I don’t take any of it for granted."