Over the years Brother Trouble’s Jason and Mark Sutton have forged their way as an on-the-verge country music duo by taking several sure-footed leaps of faith. In 2002, the self-described “big fish in a small pond” left their South Carolina hometown for Nashville, where they earned their keep playing guitar and singing for tips on the honky-tonk circuit. Their first big break came two years ago, when the shaggy-haired brothers entered, and ended up winning, Kenny Chesney’s ‘Next Big Star’ contest. Chesney himself proclaimed Brother Trouble “by far the best” of all the entrants and awarded the band the opening spot on the last three dates of his Poets & Pirates tour, as well as $25,000. Today, the guys have a growing collection of Gibson guitars, a new album in the works and a clutch of radio-ready songs that cover the gamut from raising hell to romancing girls. In an interview with Gibson.com this week, singer/guitarist Jason Sutton said Brother Trouble has earned its success the old-fashioned way: one fan at a time, one gig at a time. “The best compliment we get is when people come up and say, ‘I don’t really like country music but after seeing you guys do your thing, and the way you approach country music, I like it now’,” says Sutton.
How important was the move to Nashville to Brother Trouble’s success?
Oh, 100 percent. We thought, ‘We want to see if we can compare to the big boys,’ and we got a reality check when we got here, that’s for sure. Lots of great players all over the town. It’s been all about persistence, and the writers we work with have always given us top-shelf stuff. It always starts with a song.
Has it been helpful to have a regular gig at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon?
The Wildhorse has been really good to us, and they give us a chance to showcase our original music in front of people instead of having to play all the Hank Jr. covers.
We’re one of the few bands they actually let do that. It’s one of the big tourist spots in town. It’s kind of like playing a casino; you’re going to have different people there every weekend so you get to play your original material for people, and then they take it back to Texas or Illinois or wherever they came from.
What’s the biggest compliment a fan can pay you?
I love it so much when they say, ‘You’re my biggest fan.’ Because that means they got a little nervous when they came up to talk to you. It cracks me up.
Two years ago you guys won the grand prize in Kenny Chesney’s ‘Next Big Star’ competition. Did you actually get to spend time with Kenny?
A little bit. He’s pretty guarded — not his personality but physically, with all the people around him. He was very cordial to us while we were out on the road. We talked to him a few times. They had this pre-show ritual that they’d do before every show and they invited us to it, to get everyone pumped up to go out on-stage. We didn’t get much one on one time with him, but that’s pretty expected. He’s one of the biggest stars in the world.
What was Chesney’s pre-show ritual?
They have all these little bars set up backstage so you can’t go 30 feet without bumping into somebody with a grille cooking hot dogs and beer being served. It’s really a cool vibe. He would get everyone together, and he had this horn player come in there, and they’d play some really jazzy, New Orleans-style party music and just really have their own little Mardi Gras right there before going on. Right before you go on, everybody just throws their hands in like a ‘Go Team’ kind of thing. Then you run out there like you’re about to play the championship game.
How much pressure did you feel opening up for someone like Kenny Chesney, performing for all those thousands of people?
Really none, just because I’ve found it’s easier to play in front of 20,000 people than it is to play in front of 20 people at a songwriter’s night. [At a songwriter’s night] you feel like everyone kind of hones in on you more, and you can see too many faces that stick out. With a big crowd, you ask them a simple question and they respond with a lot of enthusiasm, whereas with 20 people it’s kind of hard to get it going. We’re a party band so the more people that are there the better chance that the party’s going to go on.
How has your relationship with the guitar evolved over the years?
I was in the fifth or sixth grade when I first started playing. The G chord was the first chord I ever played, which I liked because you could hit all the strings. Mark was a little bit younger when he started. Our parents got us lessons with this old rocker guy who would tell us to bring in our favorite song and we’d just learn it. He taught us but he also showed us how to use our ear to figure it out. Guitar to me was like a 15 minute a day instrument. If I can sleep on it even one night I’m better exponentially the next day.
You guys are playing Gibsons exclusively these days?
Yes, we’ve always been big Gibson fans. My Dad has a Les Paul that he bought back in the early ’80s, and we used to get in trouble because we’d go in his bedroom when he wasn’t home and pull it out from under the bed and just beat on it. He’d come home and there’d be little kid fingerprints all over it. It was when I moved to Nashville that I got my first Gibson acoustic.
We’re big fans of Joe Walsh and of ZZ Top, and they both play the Les Paul. That’s kind of the dream right there. Mark’s playing a Goldtop Les Paul, and I’ve got an Advanced Jumbo. Hopefully I’ll get my hands on a couple new ones; I’d love to get a Les Paul Jr. but I love the Hummingbirds, the Doves, all of them. Even the Epiphones — I owned an Epiphone Masterbilt and that was just one of the best sounding guitars I’ve ever put my hands on.
You’ve been cutting your first album on Blaster Records. How’s it sounding so far?
Yes, we’re coming out with a new EP with six songs that we’re going to sell with the intention of dropping a couple of tracks and adding six more to make a full record at the beginning of the year. The EP should be out before June, and people can find it on BrotherTrouble.com. Actually the first four tracks that are going to be on the record are already streaming on our homepage.