My guest on this episode is Bryan Sutton.
We’re talking about Bryan’s new project From Roots to Branches, the follow up to his 2006 album Not Too Far From the Tree, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
The new album features a series of duets with musicians from the wold of bluegrass and beyond, plus a couple of unreleased tunes he recorded with Doc Watson and Tony Rice.
Topics covered
We chat about:
- The original idea behind Not Too Far From the Tree
- How From Roots to Branches differs
- Who Bryan chose to record with this time (including Billy Strings, Chris Eldridge, Sierra Hull, Trey Hensley, Joe Bonamassa and more)
- Why he’s choosing to release it as a series of tracks over several months, before putting the full album out
- How it feels to have gone from recording with his heroes to taking on the mentor role for the next generation of flatpickers.
About Bryan Sutton and From Roots to Branches
Bryan Sutton is ten times IBMA Guitar Player of the Year winner and probably the most celebrated flatpicker of his generation.
As the 20th anniversary of his epochal 2006 Not Too Far From the Tree: A Collection of Duets with Heroes and Friends approached, Sutton began to plan a follow-up — but this time, instead of featuring mentors and peers like the original album’s Tony Rice, George Shuffler, Norman Blake and David Grier, his vision was broadened. “I’d been thinking ever since that it would be fun to do another version where I have more players of my generation, or even younger, to revisit this idea and capture and record some duets — just me playing with friends and younger players who still influence me,” the master musician noted, and in the summer of 2025, as he embarked on a month-long tour with Strings to support Live at the American Legion, Mountain Home Music Company announced that they had partnered with him to present those duets as the From Roots to Branches series.
Resources and links
You’ll find all the tracks released so far on Spotify, Tidal and all other streaming platforms.
There’s a great video for The Devil Went Down to Deep Gap on YouTube.
You can get bluegrass guitar lessons from Bryan Sutton on ArtistWorks (I can highly recommend them).
Oh, and Bryan wrote and recorded the cool theme tune you’ll hear on this episode too!
Related to this episode
Bryan has been on the podcast several times. Here are the episodes he’s been part of.
Celebration Doc Watson’s 100th birthday
Celebrating 40 years of Tony Rice’s Church Street Blues
Bryan also joined me for a very special Hurricane Helene fundraiser episode, featuring questions put to Bryan by listeners of the podcast and with all funds raised going to the IBMA Trust Fund
Other ways to listen
You can listen to this (and other) episodes of Bluegrass Jam Along on Apple podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.
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Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)
Bluegrass Jam Along is proud to be sponsored by Collings Guitars and Mandolins
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