February 3, 2023 - Nashville, TN - When long-time pals, mutual admirers, and heavily respected bluegrass musicians Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz really started amassing a catalog of co-written songs during Covid lockdown and beyond, it only made sense to get these inspired, well-crafted stories recorded for the rest of the world to hear and enjoy. Decamping to Jutz’s log cabin studio outside of Nashville with a crew of like-minded greats including Shaun Richardson on mandolin, Ron Block on banjo, Tammy Rogers on fiddle, and Mark Fain on bass, Stafford and Jutz cut fourteen of their songs to create an album of tunes that the beloved, late music writer and historian Peter Cooper called “Songs that bring American history—mountain culture, steam trains, vaudeville, race, baseball, strife, and grace—to technicolor life.” The album is called Lost Voices, and it's out now on Mountain Fever Records.
From “Callie Lou,” a song based on a scene from Harriette Arnow’s The Doll Maker that features Dale Ann Bradey on vocals; to the story of Negro League heroes, The Elizabethton Blue Grays, brought to life by the dedicated research of Jacey Augustus and the Cedar Grove Foundation; to the amazing story of the now-recognized Navajo heroes of the battle of Iwo Jima in “Code Talkers”; to “The Queen and Crescent” which is full of the alluring jargon from the golden era of America’s railroads; Lost Voices is all in tribute to what the longtime Blue Highway guitarist (Stafford) and the long-respected Nashville songwriter and session man (Jutz) call “the lost voices that still had so much to say.”
After calling both Stafford and Jutz “master guitarists and writers,” the aforementioned Cooper described Lost Voices, just like this: “These are new kinds of bluegrass songs, informed by mutual heroes Tony Rice, Norman Blake, John Hartford, and Gordon Lightfoot, yet not beholden to any prior influence, other than the influence of the American experience.”
Lost Voices In The News:
The Elizabethton Star, the home paper of that famous ball team who last took the field in 1955, wrote about Stafford and Jutz’s “The Blue Grays.”
Wide Open Country and Saving Country Music both included Lost Voices in their lists of most anticipated releases of 2023.
Americana UK shared “Take That Shot,” writing a simple, hefty compliment: “Lively? Sprightly? Bluegrass Perfection? Yes to all of those.”
Alan Cackett wrote a lovely review of Lost Voices, saying, “Echoes of the tenuous trappings of America’s past come flooding to the fore in these expertly penned songs, but they find a contemporary connection as well.”
No Depression reviewed the album writing, "Lost Voices showcases the sheer beauty of the work of two songwriters who capture in a song the heart and soul of people struggling with daily life but who also evoke elegantly the spirit of a time past that pulls on us, teaching us about our present condition."
Lost Voices Tracklist:
Take That Shot
Enough To Keep You Going For A While
The Blue Grays
The Ballad Of Kinnie Wagner
Callie Lou
The Wild Atlantic Way
No Witness In The Laurel But The Leaves
Vaudeville Blues
Code Talker
The Standing People
The Queen And Crescent
High Mountain Rising
Revolutionary Love
Lost Voices
More About Tim & Thomm: Mountain Fever Records is very proud to announce the signing of Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz; two of the most prominent and prolific songwriters in bluegrass music, for the release of their forthcoming duo project, Lost Voices.
Their love for history, vintage guitars, and well-crafted songs brought the two together five years ago. “I’m such an admirer of Tim’s writing, singing, and playing. Making a duo record with Tim was a logical step and a dream come true for me,” notes Jutz. Stafford says, “Thomm is such a great, unique writer, player, and singer - we connected and found so many ideas that spoke to us both. Recording was a breeze!”
