The combination of Grammy winners David Holt, Bryan Sutton and T. Michael Coleman as a new band called Deep River Rising is a natural evolution of their common bond, legendary guitarist Doc Watson.

They appeared first at MerleFest 2011, but their first full tour brings them through Western North Carolina for two shows in the region. First, they play Thursday night at the Isothermal Community College Foundation Performing Arts Center and then head to Canton for a Jan. 7 date at the Colonial Theatre.
“When we played at MerleFest last spring, it was as ‘at home’ as I’ve ever felt playing music in front of people,“ said Sutton, a Candler native based in Nashville.
“It was so comfortable and so natural, I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a more comfortable situation. Playing with them at MerleFest was like going home.”
Deep River Rising is a little about going home; their focus is the musical legacy of Doc Watson.
“We all come from the same musical cloth,” said Sutton. “The musical scene in Western North Carolina is so rich. That is the spirit of Deep River Rising, how we are influenced by both Doc and the music here. We appreciate and want to honor both he and the music.”
Along with Watson’s music, Sutton is playing tunes learned from some of the fiddlers around Asheville like Tommy Hunter, Tommy Bell, Marvin Faulkner and his grandfather Grover Sutton.
“That’s the music that influenced me and that I come back to — the Carroll Best string band, the Stoney Creek Boys,” Sutton said. He compares Watson’s influence to legendary bluegrass musician Bill Monroe’s.
“Monroe did bluegrass, Doc did the songs and styles of Western North Carolina,” said Sutton, who has been voted Guitar player of the Year five times by the International Bluegrass Music Association . “We want to carry that spirit forward, that is what is enticing about the musical direction. It’s similar to when Bill Monroe started something and people got wind of it. Doc started a sound, too.”
Sutton hopes they will carry the tradition forward, adding their own imprint to the mix.
We bend the tradition, but we don’t break it,” said Holt. “We are not copying, we’re using Doc as a guidepost. T. Michael and I know so much of his music. All three of us have won a Grammy with Doc, but not together.” Holt has toured with Watson for the last 14 years, and in 2002, their CD “Legacy” won a Grammy for best folk recording.
“I haven’t ever really spent a whole lot of time with him (Watson), but I’ve played with him on stages here and there,” said Sutton. “The one recording I have with him won the Grammy a few years ago for country instrumental recording.”
Coleman toured the world with Doc and Merle Watson for 15 years, later playing with groups like the Seldom Scene and Chesapeake.
“The thing I remember most was the power of just those three instruments coming off the stage,” Coleman said. “They played with such intensity and confidence.”
An award-winning filmmaker, Coleman is currently on tour with Watson and Holt, but those tours are slowing down to accommodate Watson’s age: He turns 89 in March.
It is not a cover band.
“We’ll play everything from Doc’s songs to mountain music, Richard Thompson, my original music or music from other singer songwriters,” said Holt, who created Deep River Rising.
“Each of us have a relationship and a respect for Doc and his music, and want to express that through the music we play,” said Coleman. “We all love the early songs Doc recorded and will try to relate the feelings we experienced when we first heard those songs.”

Written by
Carol Rifkin | take5 correspondent

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011312300014

Photo by: Donated photo Deep River Rising, a new project by three mountain music veterans, will play Balsam Range's Winter Concert Series in Canton on Saturday, Dec. 7. The group — each member of which has won a Grammy for play with Doc Watson — is David Holt, left, T. Michael Coleman, center, and Bryan Sutton.

"David Holt, like all of the men of Deep River Rising, has played and won a Grammy with mounain music legend Doc Watson. Above, Holt, left, plays with Watson at one on their many live shows over the years.

For decades, David Holt and millions of other mountain music lovers have been awed by Doc Watson.
It’s not hard to be. At nearly 89, the North Carolina native still sets the standard for straightforward and heartfelt folk tunes, the kind of music that really speaks to people b telling the truth. Holt explained that while some musicians will throw out a bunch of “fancy notes” or do little tricks with their voice, Watson doesn’t. His music, while spontaneous and creative, is more honest than that.
“He really finds the heart of the thing — and makes it beat,” Holt said, laughing.
That’s the very heart that Holt, T. Michael Coleman and Bryan Sutton hope to bring to Canton’s Colonial Theatre this Saturday night. This trio of famed musicians, known as Deep River Rising, will do a combination of old Watson songs, traditional tunes and a few mountain-inspired originals in the January edition of Balsam Range’s Winter Concert Series. Though Watson won’t be at the show, his influence will be seen throughout it. Each member of Deep River Rising has not only played with Watson but won a Grammy with him, too.
In Holt’s words, Watson is their “meeting point.”
“We all really love Doc’s music and we really admire Doc’s ability to make an old song sound new and a new song sound old,” said Holt, who has been playing with Watson for 14 years.
He added that he, Coleman and Sutton aren’t interested in doing covers of Watson’s (or anyone else’s) music. Sure, they delve into Watson’s repertoire, especially those older songs he doesn’t much do anymore, but they’re not out to copy this living legend. They want catch the spirit of these songs, while making them feel new.
“That makes it fresh and alive. We see it as living music, not as a museum piece or anything,” Holt said. “This group is trying to carry it forward a step — to the 21st century.”
Simply, this is music that the trio wants to see continue. More than anything, that’s why they’re on this tour. Though they all have busy schedules and their own recording and tours to worry about, they know that this music, and this man, needs to be celebrated.
“This is a group that is full of energy and full of creativity, and musically very challenging,” Holt said.
It’s been this way since the beginning, since these guys performed together at MerleFest in 2010. Even at their very first appearance at the folk music festival, the men of Deep River Rising knew they had something that mattered.
Sutton, a guitar player who grew up about mile beyond the Haywood County line, described how special that first show was to him.
“Being on stage and singing those songs with that trio was maybe the most natural I’ve ever felt playing,” said the Candler native.
A well-known player who now makes his home in Nashville, Sutton added that he’s glad that this tour takes him back to his roots a bit. In addition to playing a venue so close to his boyhood home, he gets to do the kinds of songs on which he grew up. Though he’s made music with the likes of the Dixie Chicks, Béla Fleck and the Infamous Stringdusters, he knows that Watson’s tunes are in a class all their own.
“This really feels like I’m playing something that’s part of who I am at my core, so being able to do that is really, really nice,” Sutton said.
Coleman, who has played alongside Watson for 15 years, surely feels the same. The bassist said that Watson has always had a way of breaking down that invisible but often impenetrable barrier that often separates an audience and a band.
“People felt as though, think, they were sitting in his living room and he was a friend and he was just playing for them,” Coleman said, describing a typical Watson show.
He hopes that Saturday’s audience feels the same. Watson always said that if he had to be normal, he’d go home, Coleman remembered. That’s how he and rest of Deep River Rising think on the matter. Though their show will be devoid of bells and whistles, electronics and fancy lights, it will filled with genuine heart.
He explained that they want their audience to be entertained and to absorb this magnificent music. They want them to hear old songs infused with new blood and to be reminded how rich the deep river of mountain music really is in this little corner of Appalachia.
“Mostly, we want them to feel the respect for music that we do, and the respect for Doc,” Coleman said.
To hear Holt tell it, Saturday’s performance won’t be your typical Coleman, Sutton or Holt show. This show, this tour, is in essence bigger than all of them. It showcases music and a musician that will be with them forever — and they can only hope will also live on with their audiences.
Playing with and learning from Watson has been “one of the great highlights of my life” Holt said, adding just a moment later, “It just can’t get any better than that for me.”