A Picker's Paradise

Not Too Far From The Tree:
A Collection of Guitar Duets With Heroes & Friends
Bryan Sutton
(Sugar Hill)

Give Bryan Sutton credit. Though only in his early 30s, he's a top Nashville session player, is fluent in multiple guitar styles and can flatpick the bejesus out of a flattop. Most impressive, though, is that it hasn't gone to his head. That humility informed his latest project, "Not Too Far From the Tree: A Collection of Guitar Duets With Heroes & Friends."

Sutton undoubtedly worked hard to reach the top tier of flatpickers. Couple that effort with these influences, and it's no wonder he developed such a dynamic style. Among Sutton's heroes (and guests on this disc) are a who's who of flatpicking guitar: George Shuffler, Jack Lawrence, David Grier, Russ Barenberg, Jerry Douglas, Earl Scruggs, Ricky Skaggs, Dan Crary, Norman Blake, Doc Watson and Tony Rice. Of the greatest flatpickers in guitar history, the late Clarence White is one of the few not present on this collection, but his spirit is all over it. The result is 14 tracks of dazzling guitar interplay.

Sutton's stated goal on these duets was to "record songs that I felt would highlight each players' style and demonstrate my interpretation of these styles and their influence on me." He did so with three mics and a portable 8-track, traveling to most of these players' homes and recording the tunes in a few takes. It is a testament to the teachers and the pupil that it often is hard to determine who is playing which part (with the exception of "Bonaparte's Retreat," which features Douglas on dobro).

With such a lineup, it's also hard to distinguish highlights. The players are so gifted that every track is a gem. Finding a favorite is difficult because the tunes are outstanding from top to bottom, a problem too few albums have.

A couple of cuts are noteworthy, though. "Forked Deer" with Crary is a return of sorts to where the journey started for Sutton, who as a youngster learned the tune from one of Crary's instructional tapes.

Also notable is "Dusty Miller" with Rice, for two reasons: Sutton holds his own with possibly the greatest flatpicker of all time, a man whose own hero was none other than White, and it's a too-infrequent showcase for Rice's ferocious rhythm playing, which is as prodigious as his lead work.

Some of the finest moments on "Not Too Far From the Tree" are a product of the sentiment behind them. Sutton's other collaboration with Rice is on "Lonesome Fiddle Blues," by Vassar Clements, who died last year. In the notes, Sutton says that Rice told Clements they had recorded the tune and that "I was glad it brought him a little happiness in his final days."

Also touching is Sutton's collaboration with his first guitar teacher, father Jerry Sutton, on "Billy in the Lowground." Jerry deserves as much credit as any of the players on this list for putting a guitar in his son's hands and accompanying the boy during "hundreds of practice hours through the years."

"Not Too Far From the Tree" is a candidate for immediate inclusion in the canon of great flatpicking albums. It's a textbook study of the style expertly and lovingly compiled by giants of the genre and a boy with big dreams who grew up to be their peer.