Biography

It’s sometimes said that if history doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes, and so it’s no surprise that the new single from Mountain Home Music Company recording artist Thomm Jutz — a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and instrumentalist known for his immersion in the history of the American South — looks back at one event seared into Music City’s memory to find a measure of hope and inspiration, not just for Nashville, but for us all.

Originally written in anticipation of the 10th anniversary, “The Flood of 2010” recalls the devastation that ensued when the city endured a “thousand year flood” at the beginning of May.

Released simultaneously in two forms — one, a quintessentially bluegrass version featuring Mike Compton, Mark Fain, Justin Moses and Tammy Rogers, the other an intimate rendition by Jutz alone — “The Flood of 2010” is the first offering from his forthcoming autumn release, To Live In Two Worlds, Volume 2.

As Jutz recalls, “I was playing guitar for Nanci Griffith in 2010. We were stuck in an airport hotel in Oakland when the flood ravaged Music City — no flights were going in or out of Nashville. I was anxiously watching the news from my hotel room given that our house is less than two miles from Percy Priest Lake, but luckily our home was spared. My old friend and co-writer, Charley Stefl, picked me up a couple of days after I finally made it back home and we went to the West Side of town to help some people knock out rotted drywall. It was the right thing to do. The streets were lined with debris, thousands of people showed up and helped complete strangers — we’d never seen anything like it.”

“People used to get news and preserve history through song,” he notes. “To me, that era has never ended; it’s more real to me than anything on TV. In that tradition, Charley, Jon Weisberger and I wanted to write about the flood — from the book of Genesis to the Mississippi flood of 1927 to the Nashville flood of 2010.”

“One day there’ll be songs about the plague that is upon us now,” Jutz continues. “One that doesn’t just affect Nashville, Middle Tennessee or America but the whole world. This time the best we can do is to not show up, to stay at home and wait for Noah’s dove to come back again one day — as surely it will.”