Description

The Dark City Song Swap takes place once a month and focuses on the art and craft of singer-songwriters. Our featured artists are:

Milan Miller. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Milan often jokes that he first moved to Nashville in 1999 because he “heard they were running out of guitar players,” but with a wry southern wit and his trusty tenor voice, he has built a reputation as an adept artist, songwriter and collaborator. Traveling the world, Milan has made appearances at venues ranging from Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater to Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California, and from the Grand Ole Opry to Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

In addition to his standout solo recordings, Milan’s songs have been recorded by some of the biggest names in bluegrass, including Balsam Range, Lonesome River Band, Steep Canyon Rangers, Terry Baucom, Tim O’Brien, Buddy Melton, Sam Bush, Missy Armstrong, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, Unspoken Tradition, the Grascals and many others.  Along the way he has scored thirty-seven number one songs in the genre, over four dozen others that have graced the top twenty, two nominations for Song of the Year and was named the Songwriter of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2020.

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

Jutz (it’s pronounced “Yootz”) was a young, classically trained musician in Germany when he heard Outlaw legend Bobby 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, among many others.

Beloved by Grammy winners including 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.

His virtuosity, eloquence, and clarity of expression have made him a linchpin of Nashville’s creative community, and in 2020 his To Live in Two Worlds, Volume 1 was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Album Grammy, making him the first immigrant to receive a nomination in that category.

He’s earned four nominations and a 2021 win for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Songwriter of the Year award and is a current lecturer of songwriting at Belmont University. He has written numerous Bluegrass number ones, and his songs have been recorded by John Prine, Nanci Griffith, The SteelDrivers, Balsam Range, and more. He’s had over 250 film and TV placements of his music worldwide.

Jutz is working on a master’s degree in Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University, writing his thesis on Grammy-winner Norman Blake. Additional writings and essays have been published in American Songwriter and the IBMA Songwriter’s Newsletter.

Jutz is featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s American Currents exhibit, slated to run 2022-2023.

BETH LEE is the host and curator of this series and she invites other talented artists to join her on stage each month to share their artistry.