Year in Review

As another year is winding down without a new full-length record, let me breakdown all my music that HAS been released this year. In January, I released a cover of Lana Del Rey’s “Ride,” the first in a series of covers. Nashville Scene called it “a rad little bit of Americana-stalgia, and to be perfectly honest, I vastly prefer Tutmarc’s version of “Ride” over Del Rey’s.” The series continued in March, with my take on Rilo Kiley’s “Portions for Foxes,” and concluded in May with my reworking of Nirvana’s “Aneurysm.”

This year I also did more co-writing than ever. Releases with co-writes from this year will continue to be released well into 2014, but what’s been released so far is Star Anna‘s incredible Go to Hell album, which features “Let Me Be,” which I co-wrote with Star, and “Mean Kind of Love” which I co-wrote with Nashville singer-songwriters Derek Hoke and Zach Broocke. I collaborated with my multi-talented buddy Ethan Luck on “The Drug Has a Voice,” the closing track to his debut EP. Last year I met Dan Koch, formally of Sherwood, who is now doing an interesting project taking ancient hymnal lyrics and writing new music around them. I’ve co-written about 7 or 8 songs with him over the last year, including their single, “Sweet Rivers of Redeeming Love“, which allowed me to dig into my love of Brian Wilson chord changes for one of the first times since my Dolour days.

And although these aren’t new songs, there were a couple things that happened this year that shined some light on some older tunes. In July, the feature film Assassins Tale prominently featured “Idle Hands” over the opening credits (and on the DVD menu). And in October, Kenny Rogers released a debut with Dolly Parton called You Can’t Make Old Friends… which has been bringing A LOT of new people to my old Dolour song, You Can’t Make New Old Friends.” Thanks Kenny ;)

Without going into detail about what derailed the release of my full-length, I will say that I am already looking into beginning a new record. It may take form as a series of singles or EPs, but one thing I can promise is – more music in 2014!

Summertime is Finally Here

Hey y’all – so again, a lot has happened since I’ve set aside the time to write on here. Hopefully you are all connected with our facebook music page, so you can see the more bite-sized updates on the reg. Since my NW tour with Star Anna in March/April, I’ve released the third (and probably final) installment of my cover series. I dug back into one of my initial inspirations, Nirvana. After discovering Elvis at 10, the Beatles at 11, it was really Nirvana at 12 that really brought it all together for me. “I can do that!” was my 12-year old response. Well here we are decades later, and I still haven’t done “that,” but it definitely got me started on my own musical journey. So it was with great pleasure that I dug into “Aneurysm,” which I first heard from 1992′s Incestide. I really wanted to stretch the arrangement as far from the original as I could. There’s musical references to Angelo Badalamenti’s work with David Lynch (Twin Peaks), Bernard Herrmann’s work with Hitchcock (Vertigo), as well as a little Michael Jackson Thriller vibes, which I couldn’t help but include. I always found it interesting that the background vocals on “Aneurysm” screamed “Beat it, beat it!” Again, I utilized the video editing skills of my brother and long-time right-hand-man, Brandon Tutmarc, this time using Jan Svankmajer’s claymation masterpiece “Darkness Light Darkness” as the visual backdrop to the song. Check out the video here…


Some of you may be wondering, “whatever happened to the next full-length album?” That is a very fair question, since I posted that we finished the album last September. Well, long story short, after some change-ups in our management team, we have now begun re-mixing the album which I promise will make it worth the wait. I am so pleased with the new mixes I am getting from Nathan Thomas (another long-time collaborator). He’s really bringing out the magic of the performances that Jason Miller so beautifully engineered. While a release date is still a ways off, the record should be in a much better place by the end of the month. As always, I will keep you up-to-date here. And keep checking our tour dates, we are focusing mainly on out of town dates this summer, with another trip to the NW this fall. See y’all at the shows!

New Single + NW Tour with Star Anna!

On Tuesday, the 2nd installment of my “cover series” was released. With Aaron Tosti on drums, Justin Ward (of Scotty McCreery’s band) on pedal steel, and long-time collaborator Nathan Thomas doing the mixing, we took on Rilo Kiley‘s modern classic, Portions for Foxes. Nashville Scene named it one of their weekly “Fresh Tracks,” as well as saying “Cover master Shane Tutmarc… and a couple of his pals covered RK’s “Portions for Foxes,” and I’d say they did a nice job of it.” See the full feature: HERE. You can download it via iTunes, Amazon, or CD Baby. And while Portions for Foxes was being released digitally, I was on a plane returning to Seattle for a series of shows with my long-time friend and NW sensation, Star Anna. Check out the banner above, and the show listings to the right to see if we are playing near you! As the shows progress, I will share more with you along the way. If you live around the NW, i will be seeing you soon!

RIDE goes digitial & Nashville Scene Photo Contest!

Just wanted to keep you up-to-date with some cool stuff happening..

Our cover of Lana Del Rey‘s Ride, which has enjoyed near-”viral” status on YouTube garnering 2K views in less than 2 weeks, is now available for digital download! Nathan Thomas did a fresh mix/master for the download version, which has a much improved sound over the unmastered mix that’s been on YouTube. Featuring a cover photograph by Lauren Napier and a design by my brother Brandon Tutmarc, Ride is currently available via iTunes and CDBaby, but will be available thru Amazon and other digital outlets within 48 hours. Preview/buy: RIDE via iTunes, RIDE via CDBaby.

Also – my good friend, Mary-Beth Blankenship has a photo of me is currently in the top 10 (out of 30+ photos) for Nashville Scene’s Photo Contest… but there is some stiff competition, so please share the link via email and social media to help out! The winner, apparently, gets the cover of Nashville Scene! How cool would that be?? See photo/vote: Nashville Scene Photo Contest.

Our second cover, in this series begun with Lana Del Rey’s Ride, has been sent to Nathan Thomas to be mixed. And look out for a special guest on this upcoming track!

Been Trying Hard Not to Get Into Trouble…

After falling in love with Lana del Rey’s song and video for Ride, I decided to tackle my own version. I mostly recorded it at home by myself, but I brought in my longtime buddy and collaborator Aaron Tosti to provide the drums. Another longtime collaborator, Nathan Thomas mixed and mastered the song. We will have a digital release very soon! Check out the video for now…

EPK for Upcoming Album

Take a look at the EPK for our upcoming album. There’s interviews, photos and live footage that tells the story of the making of the album and the personal growths that came with it. Keep checking the sidebar for upcoming shows. There’s some Nashville stuff coming up as well as some more NW dates in late March/early April! More soon…