Brian Sutherland

01/12/20 • 102 min

Every year, Songwriters festivals are happening all over the world, with a critical mass happening in around many of US's quote-unquote music cities. These are the dripping springs of Austin and the 30A Songwriter's fest which taked place every January in Florida's panhandle. These are meant to be different from a traditional music fest in that they focus on the story telling and attempt to create an environment for the focus to be on the song. The fall of 2019, in our market, we attended the first official Downtown St. Petersburg's songwriter's fest. Some of the venues need some coaching for year 2, but on the whole, the weekend was full of local and national songwriters showcasing their story telling. We saw previous Song Divers guests like Nashville's Lydia Luce, and St.Pete's Rebekah Pulley, and we saw a lot of other notable writers that we will likely see on the show in the coming months, and one in this episode.

Brian Sutherland is every bit of what Song Divers is about. The guys is a musical Swiss army knife. A trained cellist turned guitarist, turned band leader from the greater Tampa Bay area, now in Nashville, TN, Brian has spent time on tour playing alongside some really notable acts including... the Beach Boys. His resume is impressive, but it doesn't prepare you for the knock-your socks off songwriting that Brian is cranking out.

I wish we had done one of our video performances with him, because the way his fingers effortlessly float around the guitar neck was really fun to watch. I got to spend some time with Brian throughout the weekend prior to us sitting down with him, and they don't come better, more natural, or more fun than him.

When we recorded this episode, Brian had just finished his last slot at the songwriter's fest here in town, as well as a private gig and filling in for a festival no-show. To say his voice was raw is an understatement, and yet it sounds all the more full of feeling, emotion, and conviction. We wouldn't have had him tell us his story any other way. Divers, meet Brian Sutherland.

Previous Episode

Vintage Trouble

Born countries apart, and made in LA, the guys that make up the band Vintage Trouble are rock and roll incarnate. We were first introduced to Ty, Nalle, Richard, and Rick when they toured through a really cool and diverse Jazz Festival we have here in the Tampa/Clearwater area, which I realize is confusing considering they're an act with monster soul and blues swagger, and there aren't any jazz players in the group. Vocalist Ty Taylor is the poster child for the art of being a frontman. He's got a killer voice, he can jump about 7 feet in the air, and he makes it almost impossible not to get up and groove when they take the stage. And the band is stacked—as evidenced by the unplugged performance the whole group knocked out for us, and that you'll get to hear on the back half of this episode. I had come across these guys backstage at the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series, where they were polite, fun, and genuinely excited to be musicians—something you don't always see as clearly in bands of this level of fame and stature. From the fashion ads they appear in, to their newest music, Vintage Trouble is everything Rock 'n' Roll is supposed to be plus everything that it's missing.

The band was in a bit of a rush to get to soundcheck, but they gave us a little over an hour to hang and record with them backstage. We hope––actually we know–– you will enjoy their interview and performances. It's some of the coolest, best sounding stuff we've captured yet.

Next Episode

Liam Bauman

Our last episode was with songwriter Brian Sutherland, a Nashville based musician and standout at the 2019 Downtown St. Petersburg Songwriter's festival. The first night of the fest Brian, a veteran of these events and in his early 30's, shared the stage with Liam Bauman, a young songwriter in his early 20's who by contrast appeared ever the rookie. Any reticence that may have been visible was extinguished when Liam hit his first notes with the steady strum of a guy whose been doing this for years–– And he has, a few tours under his belt and his EP still warm from a late 2019 release, Liam has been on our wish list ever since we saw him busking with a vintage Gibson at Cage fest here in Florida last year. In person, Liam is polite and reserved with lady-killer blue eyes that probably net him a few extra tips when he's working as a barista in his down time. He has an innocent smile that's almost misleading, because his sense of humor gives way to a maturity and depth of guy that has a lot to say and is really good at using his pen and his guitar to say it. Liam's EP is really good and a very enjoyable listen, and the unreleased song he played us during this episode has been stuck in my head for weeks. Which has been a very pleasant experience. This episode was a lot of fun, and he we hope you will join us in becoming big fans of Liam Bauman.