Every family has its own unique history, a timeline fleshed out by memorable characters, milestone events, and the stories passed on through the decades that bind it all together. For the Garrett Boys, a family trio from Overton County in east Tennessee, their history just happens to lend itself to some excellent Appalachian folk music. 

Made up of brothers Stephen and Russell Garrett, and Stephen’s son Carter, the Garrett Boys are rooted, both musically and physically, in 500 hilly, wooded acres that have had a magnetic pull over their family for generations. The men refer to it simply as “The Land,” and it’s the setting for nearly every one of the 11 songs on It Runs Deep, the trio’s debut album.

“About 200 years ago, some Garrett boys came from North Carolina and settled in that area,” says Stephen, who plays acoustic guitar and sings lead in the band. “Some old records say that they acquired land between Mill Creek and Mitchell Creek, and that's the property that Russell and I grew up on. Carter will be the ninth generation to own it.”

Says Carter: “There is just something that you feel when you're on that property that’s connected to all these songs.”

But while the land is specific to the Garrett Boys, the album the group wrote about it is universal. Produced by Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams), It Runs Deep contains elements of bluegrass, folk, and country, but refuses to play it safe. It nods to their varied influences, from Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell to Chris Knight and Hank Williams Jr., in its tales of enduring love (“The Ballad of Ed & Peg”), dangerous livelihoods (“Ride the Timber Down”), mysterious murders (“Pond Ridge”), and hard-earned self-discovery (“Who I Am”). “We wanted a record that was acoustic-driven, but still had balls,” says Stephen. 

Opening track “Back Home” features Steve Earle on vocals and celebrates the feeling of coming back to where you were raised after time spent away. For the Garretts, that was Nashville, where Stephen worked in a studio; Russell, the trio’s upright bass player, toured as a guitar tech; and Carter, who plays mandolin in the group, attended Nashville School of the Arts.

“‘Back Home’ was the song that spurred this whole thing,” says Russell. “Just this year, we all returned to Overton County to live on and maintain the land. Just like my and Stephen’s grandfather did. He was a real storyteller and he loved the oral tradition as an art. We want to carry that on in our songs.”

Both Stephen and Russell’s grandfather, Edwin, and their father, Marty, were musicians, and the Garrett Boys honor them on It Runs Deeps by recording songs they’d each written: Marty’s “Ride the Timber Down” and Edwin’s “Drag in the River.” They also pull from family stories told every Christmas, like the one about their great-grandfather’s whiskey still in “Wildcat Whiskey.” 

“It was tradition,” Stephen says. “And even though we’d heard them a thousand times, we’d beg our grandfather to tell us to them again.”

With It Runs Deep, the Garrett Boys memorialize those family stories — for themselves, for their descendants, and now for fans of classic American folk music.

“Our music is about the importance and depth of family and community,” Stephen says. “It’s a mix of what we have been versus what we can become, and how we can take the good from all that and build a future.”