With a dozen originals, Nashville-based Tammy Rogers and Thomm Jutz tap their mountain ethos to present heartfelt sentiments and feelings in a warm, accessible folksy way. Since 2005, Rogers has fiddled with The Steeldrivers, and this project also features her vocals, mandolin, banjo and viola. She’s a former member of the band Dusty Miller, has recorded and toured with several country and Americana artists, and she released a solo project in 1996.

Thomm Jutz (pronounced “Yootz”) hails from Germany but now makes his home in Nashville. He learned guitar as a teen, performed country throughout Germany in various cover bands, and studied classical guitar at the Stuttgart Conservatory of Music. After coming to Nashville in 2003, he worked with singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier, Nanci Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra and several others.  He teaches a songwriting class at Belmont University, and won the 2021 IBMA Award for Songwriter of the Year.  He’s released previous albums independently, as well as on the Mountain Fever and Mountain Home labels.

Their sturdy set of Americana has eclectic material with folk, country and bluegrass leanings. While “I Surely Will Be Singing” and “Long Gone” display uplifting, up-tempo grooves, the duo is also comfortable with a ¾-time “Mountain Angel,” pensive “About Last Night” and sentimental “A Writer’s Tear” that materialized in one of their Wednesday morning writing sessions. “Speakeasy Blues” was inspired by a book by Terry Roberts, whose main character was a bootlegging preacher.  Accompanied by Mark Fain (bass), Justin Moses (banjo, Dobro) and Lynn Williams (drums and percussion on two tracks), songsmith collaborators Rogers & Jutz present raw, rootsy and evocative mood pieces with considerable emotional depth. (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)