#bryan sutton

Song Review(s): Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton with Royal Masat - “Way Downtown” and “Make Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor” (Live, Sept. 6, 2025)

As they continue working to get their vocals in synch, Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton more than make up for it with their six-string synchronicity.

Bound together by their love of Doc Watson - and electric bassist Royal Masat - the guitarists continued their short trio tour and teased the Sept. 6 livestream from Kentucky with “Way Downtown,” which also opened the previous evening, and “Make Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor.”

Sutton sung lead on the former; Strings on the latter. And while calling and taking solos on the fly worked flawlessly, each musician was in some ways tied to their respective versions of “Downtown” and “Pallet,” making for some bumpy transitions and errors.

But this is live music without a net. And if the mistakes are pronounced on video, they’re likely thrilling in person, where two of bluegrass’ premiere axemen are making music simply for the love of making music.

Grade card: Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton with Royal Masat - “Way Downtown” and “Make Me Down a Pallet on Your Floor” (Live - 9/6/25) - B/B+

Song Review: Alison Brown and Steve Martin feat. Tim O’Brien - “5 Days Out, 2 Days Back”

Tim O’Brien counts it in: A-one … two … you know what to do.

And when banjoists Alison Brown and Steve Martin - with accompanists Bryan Sutton (guitar), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Todd Phillips (bass) and Vickie Vaughn (harmony vocals) - kick into “5 Days Out, 2 Days Back,” they prove O’Brien correct.

Credited to Brown and Martin featuring O’Brien, Martin’s words about a working musician are not meant to be funny. They instead explore the collateral damage caused by a life on the road.

Up and down the Virginia coast, we miss the ones we love the most/tell my baby on the phone, the traveling show is traveling home/put her to bed, it’s getting late, she wants to negotiate/listen Daddy, how about five days home and two days out, O’Brien sings over Brown’s smooth melody that could represent a bus rolling down the freeway

In a statement, Martin called O’Brien “one of the all-time greatest singers in bluegrass” and O’Brien, hilarious guy that he is, seems to agree.

“Alison Brown and Steve Martin compress a year of a touring musician’s life into a few minutes on their new single,” he said. “Our protagonist finds a path between the conflicting pulls of family and the road, plus I sing it really good.”

Grade card: Alison Brown and Steve Martin feat. Tim O’Brien - “5 Days Out, 2 Days Back” - A

Song Review: My Bluegrass Heart with Jerry Douglas - “Boulderdash” (Live, 2022)

Packing a 15-string punch with a triple-banjo attack and a guesting Dobro master Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart wasn’t messing around when it rolled out “Boulderdash” at the 2022 Grey Fox Bluegrass festival.

An instrumental played with wildfire intensity, it features solos from fiddler Michael Cleveland, Douglas, Fleck, guitarist Bryan Sutton and others all packed into six minutes of lighting-fast sawing, sliding and picking.

And while such sonic shenanigans might be too much of a good thing in lesser hands, Fleck’s Bluegrass Heart pumps just enough oxygen to keep up the pace without risking palpitations. No balderdash in this “Boulderdash,” which was just released on video.

Grade card: My Bluegrass Heart with Jerry Douglas - “Boulderdash” (Live, 2022) - A

Song Review: Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland feat. Sam Bush - “Give it Away”

Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland are urging their listeners to “Give it Away.”

Love that is.

The song is the title track from Carter and Cleveland’s first duo album. The dual fiddlers are joined on this one by Sam Bush on mandolin, guitarist Bryan Sutton, banjoist Cory Walker and Carter’s Del McCoury Band-mate James Alan Bartram on bass.

Adding to the supersession nature is that “Give it Away” is a Tim O’Brien/Matt Combs co-write set to a supercharged arrangement and girded with O’Brien’s trademark compassion:

The world is made of love and it doesn’t hurt to give it away, Carter sings.

There’s no release date for Give it Away. But “Give it Away” suggests there could be something special in the grooves.

Grade card: Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland feat. Sam Bush - “Give it Away” - B

Song Review: Tommy Emmanuel with Bryan Sutton and Ross Holmes - “Mr. Bojangles” (Live, Aug. 31, 2024)

There was no flashiness - just thoughtful, low-key soloing and rhythm work to unlock the latent melancholy inside Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles.”

Instrumental save for Tommy Emmanuel taking a couple of passes at the refrain as his unrehearsed, Aug. 31 performance with fellow guitarist Bryan Sutton and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band fiddler Ross Holmes reached its conclusion, this version is breathtaking in its subtlety. It’s powerful without exerting power; virtuosic without betraying virtuosity.

It seems to call for a proper studio version; however, the magic of this performance lies in its off-the-cuff presentation and likely could not be recreated. Thankfully, someone had the good idea to capture this “Bojangles” as it unfolded during Emmanuel’s guitar camp in Nashville, making another iteration unnecessary.

Grade card: Tommy Emmanuel with Bryan Sutton and Ross Holmes - “Mr. Bojangles” (Live - 8/31/24)

Song Review: Andy Hall - “Up in Bigfoot County”

Getting lost “Up in Bigfoot Country” sounds really good.

And how could it not? The new instrumental single from Infamous Stringdusters Dobro dude Andy Hall features contributions from Sierra Hull on mandolin, Bryan Sutton on guitar, Wes Corbett on banjo and Hall’s fellow ’Duster Travis Book on bass.

“Bigfoot Country” is a brisk track, with plenty of full-throttled solos that seem to depict the speed at which one would run to get the fuck away from the titular apeman.

The track announces the June 23 arrival of Hall’s Squareneck Soul, which will feature 10 “bluegrass-pickin’ tunes played by some of the best in the biz,” Hall said in a statement.

Grade card: Andy Hall - “Up in Bigfoot County” - A

Song Review: Dierks Bentley feat. Billy Strings - “High Note”

Thank goodness for the acoustic jam on the back half of “High Note,” because the song proper is one of the stupidest things ever written about pot.

The latest Dierks Bentley single features Billy Strings on guitar and vocals and instrumental appearances from Sam Bush, Bryan Sutton, Jerry Douglas and Charlie Worsham.

The song itself is an electrified country-rocker with lyrics about goin’ out on a high note/a blaze of glory lit in my left hand/like a tenor in an old hillbilly band.

If it ended at the three-minute mark - which is tough to make it to - “High Note” would be a total loss. But at this point, the electric guitar is unplugged and the sextet get to jamming; the following 2:45 is a, pardon the pun, highlight - no matter the listener’s sobriety level.

It should be a stand-alone instrumental.

Grade card: Dierks Bentley feat. Billy Strings - “High Note” - C

Song Review: My Bluegrass Heart and the Punch Brothers - “Holiday Medley” (Live, Dec. 15, 2022)

Serious musicians are sometimes playful.

Take Béla Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart and the Punch Brothers, for instance. The bands joined forces Dec. 15 in Indiana to act out and play what they call “Holiday Medley.”

The hilarity begins with the best Chipmunk imitation this side of a burrow as Chris Thile, Chris Eldridge and Sierra Hull channel Alvin and the gang on “Christmas Don’t be Late.”

Emcee/banjoist/straight man Noam Pikelny then reads letters to Santa in which the band members ask for fewer dudes on stage (Hull), equal pay (Paul Kowert) and a mantle strong enough to hold multiple Grammys (Fleck). Pikelny keeps it up until a subpoena arrives with his name on it.

When the jokes are done, the combined bands burst forth in a red-hot, bluegrass Christmas, taking the audience on a “Sleigh Ride” of dueling mandolins, banjos, double basses and guitars. And a single Dobro.

Oh, and “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” makes a brief appearance. But you have to listen closely.

Grade card: My Bluegrass Heart and the Punch Brothers - “Holiday Medley” (Live 12/15/22) - A