Oct 16, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 10 segments
Episode 372: In the late 1990s, Bryan Sutton was a young phenom who dropped jaws across the country as the lead guitarist in Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. And he was more than a flash in the pan…
Bryan SuttonGuestCraig HavighurstHostFrom WMOT in Murfreesboro in Nashville, Tennessee, this is The String, and I am your host, Craig Havighurst.
Bryan Sutton's new album continues a way of music-making that he's pursued for most of his career, and that is carving out time to record quick duo sessions with his friends, peers, and heroes, mostly but not entirely flat pick acoustic guitar players like him.
20 years ago, he released his first collection of these get-togethers under the title Not Too Far From the Tree on the late great Sugar Hill Records.
It included tracks with Norman Blake, David Greer, Ricky Skaggs, and his first guitar hero, Doc Watson.
Now, you may well have discerned that we've been listening to Doc Watson here, and this is from the new Roots and Branches collection, Merle Haggard's Workin' Man Blues.
It is a leftover field recording that Bryan was surprised to find when he went back through his old tapes in his archives.
Roots and Branches includes two such posthumous tracks, the other is with Tony Rice.
But most of the cuts are pretty recent, and they include performances with Cody Kilby, Chris Eldridge, Sierra Hull, Jake Stargell, and others.
There's one track with a full band, a whimsical Doc-inspired update of The Devil Went Down to Georgia with Billy Strings.
We will cover Bryan's life story in the interview pretty well, but here's the overview.
He grew up in and around Asheville, North Carolina, immersed in mountain music culture.
By high school, he aspired to be a studio musician, a multi-instrumentalist who could adapt to a wide variety of sounds and settings, and he achieved that goal.
But along the way, he got job offers he couldn't refuse, including a pivotal three-year stint with the Grammy-winning band Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder.
He was a 22-year-old phenom who could play fast, clean, and imaginative solos in the hottest band on the circuit, and it made him a leading light in bluegrass music.
He played guitar on Dolly Parton's Grass Is Blue, The Dixie Chicks' Home, Dierks Bentley's Up on the Ridge, and many more.
He was integrated into the world of Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Sam Bush for a variety of history-making acoustic records and tours.
And on Music Row, he's recorded on massive country records by pretty much everybody you could name: Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, Eric Church, Morgan Wallen.
Let's start by talking about that duo, Workin' Man Blues, that we've been hearing, and how that set the tone for Roots and Branches Volume One.
From WMOT in Murfreesboro in Nashville, Tennessee, this is The String, and I am your host, Craig Havighurst.
Bryan Sutton's new album continues a way of music-making that he's pursued for most of his career, and that is carving out time to record quick duo sessions with his friends, peers, and heroes, mostly but not entirely flat pick acoustic guitar players like him.
20 years ago, he released his first collection of these get-togethers under the title Not Too Far From the Tree on the late great Sugar Hill Records.
It included tracks with Norman Blake, David Greer, Ricky Skaggs, and his first guitar hero, Doc Watson.
Now, you may well have discerned that we've been listening to Doc Watson here, and this is from the new Roots and Branches collection, Merle Haggard's Workin' Man Blues.
It is a leftover field recording that Bryan was surprised to find when he went back through his old tapes in his archives.
Roots and Branches includes two such posthumous tracks, the other is with Tony Rice.
But most of the cuts are pretty recent, and they include performances with Cody Kilby, Chris Eldridge, Sierra Hull, Jake Stargell, and others.
There's one track with a full band, a whimsical Doc-inspired update of The Devil Went Down to Georgia with Billy Strings.
We will cover Bryan's life story in the interview pretty well, but here's the overview.
He grew up in and around Asheville, North Carolina, immersed in mountain music culture.
By high school, he aspired to be a studio musician, a multi-instrumentalist who could adapt to a wide variety of sounds and settings, and he achieved that goal.
But along the way, he got job offers he couldn't refuse, including a pivotal three-year stint with the Grammy-winning band Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder.
He was a 22-year-old phenom who could play fast, clean, and imaginative solos in the hottest band on the circuit, and it made him a leading light in bluegrass music.
He played guitar on Dolly Parton's Grass Is Blue, The Dixie Chicks' Home, Dierks Bentley's Up on the Ridge, and many more.
He was integrated into the world of Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Sam Bush for a variety of history-making acoustic records and tours.
And on Music Row, he's recorded on massive country records by pretty much everybody you could name: Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, Eric Church, Morgan Wallen.
Let's start by talking about that duo, Workin' Man Blues, that we've been hearing, and how that set the tone for Roots and Branches Volume One.
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