Thomm Jutz

Raised in the Black Forest of Germany, Thomm Jutz has become an American roots music treasure.

His virtuosity, eloquence, and clarity of expression have made him a linchpin of Nashville’s creative community, and his To Live in Two Worlds, Volume 1 is nominated for a Best Bluegrass Album Grammy, making him the first immigrant to receive a nomination in that category.

Beloved by Grammy winners including Bobby Bare, Tom T. Hall, Jim Lauderdale, and Buddy Miller, Jutz writes songs of depth and breadth. He sings of mill workers, Civil War characters, folk heroes, struggle, heartbreak, and triumph. In a time of division, he seeks and finds connection.

Jutz (it’s pronounced “Yootz,” like young people in Brooklyn) was a young, classically trained musician in Germany when he heard Outlaw legend Bare sing on a television show and decided to devote his life to informal music. He saved money, won the immigration lottery (yes, there is such a thing), and eventually moved to Nashville, where he found work touring with Nanci Griffith, Mary Gauthier, David Olney, Kim Richey, and many more.

He built a recording studio and produced albums for Country Music Hall of Fame members Bill Anderson and Mac Wiseman.

He earned three nominations for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Songwriter of the Year prize, and taught songwriting at Belmont University. Now, he’s working on a Masters in Appalachian Studies East Tennessee State University, writing his thesis on Grammy-winner Norman Blake.

Jutz’s story involves fortitude, empathy, scholarship, devotion, wood and wire. If the beer commercial guy is the most interesting man in the world, Thomm Jutz is the most interesting man in two worlds.