{"id":11137,"date":"2016-07-14T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T09:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=11137"},"modified":"2016-07-12T10:41:27","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T14:41:27","slug":"award-winning-guitarist-bryan-sutton-comes-home-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/07\/14\/award-winning-guitarist-bryan-sutton-comes-home-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Award-winning Guitarist Bryan Sutton Comes Home Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere’s a place on Interstate 40 eastbound, just on the east side of Knoxville, where you come around this curve,\u201d says guitarist\/singer\/songwriter Bryan Sutton<\/b><\/a>. \u201cSuddenly the whole horizon is an expanse: the leading edge of the Blue Ridge shows up. And it’s always been a thing that I look forward to on the trip.\u201d Sutton’s fond feelings evoked by that frequently-repeated experience are expressed in the first verse of \u201cHills for the Head,\u201d a standout track on The More I Learn<\/i>, released June 3.<\/p>\n

Sutton notes that there are a few hills around Nashville, the city in which he has lived and worked since 1993. But the Asheville native says, \u201cI’ve always been drawn to mountain terrain. So that verse in ‘Hills for the Head’ came out of wanting to tell my story as it is currently. I do like to get back to Asheville. I don’t live there any more, but \u2026 I’m still a resident in some sense. I get a lot out of returning, seeing family and friends. I still feel connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The nine-time IBMA Guitar Player of the Year built his reputation as a studio guitarist, playing on sessions for a long list of country, bluegrass and roots artists. \u201cPart of the gun-for-hire, session player skill set is to be a little bit of a chameleon,\u201d Sutton says. But on each of his six solo albums, he’s made decisive step after step to expand and assert his own musical voice. 2014’s Into My Own<\/i> found Sutton \u2013 who up to that point had worked primarily as an instrumentalist \u2013 adding his own lead vocals to the mix. The More I Learn<\/i> is an even more assured display of his multifarious talents: in addition to playing guitar, Sutton produced the album, and wrote or co-wrote 7 of its 13 tunes.<\/p>\n

Singing on the new album was \u201cpart of a process of getting more comfortable, getting better,\u201d Sutton says. \u201cAnd then getting more<\/i> comfortable because I’m getting better. I’m trying to write more songs that I can sing and feel confident about, so it’s not just me vocalizing on a song; it’s actually an idea and an emotion that I have in mind. I have a sense of ownership of what I’m singing about, and that helps the whole process. And that’s all really new for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sutton’s experience includes years of playing with the likes of Doc Watson<\/strong>, Ricky Skaggs<\/strong>, Sam Bush<\/strong> and others, in addition to being a member of legendary bluegrass group Hot Rize<\/strong>. \u201cAfter years of playing with characters like that,\u201d he says, \u201cit challenges me to be better. It challenges me to dig into figuring out what it is that I do. I ask myself: what is it about their musicianship that appeals to me? [I look for] the essence of whomever I’m around. If I’m really intrigued by that, and want more of it, I try to figure out how to create that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n