Asheville, NC · est. 1973
Chris Sharp
Guitar for whatever the song needs — the driving pulse behind John Hartford, Willie Nelson, and the Grammy-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? Guitarist, producer, and teacher.
01 Featured · Now Playing
New Release · with Matt Combs
Fifty Years of
Clown School
Chris's biggest project right now — a new Matt Combs single he plays on and co-produced, shot as a full music video and cut live at Radio Enterprise Studio. Chris also designed and built the record's home at mattcombs.com.
02 Listen
Playlist
The Chris Sharp playlist
Rhythm guitar and close harmony from across the years — the Tipton Hill Boys, the Ozaki Brothers, sessions with Stuart Duncan and David Long, and everything Chris keeps coming back to.
03 Selected Work
The record · produced by Chris Sharp
Memories of John
The one Chris points to first. He produced the John Hartford Stringband's reunion tribute to Hartford — Bob Carlin, Matt Combs, Mike Compton, Mark Schatz and Chris on guitar and vocals — and it earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album. It grew out of his years touring with Hartford from 1997 on — the Grand Ole Opry, Good Old Boys (1999), and Hamilton Ironworks (2001).
About the record →
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Guitar on the soundtrack that reshaped American roots music, and the Down from the Mountain tour — Carnegie Hall to Radio City.
The Ozaki Brothers — Till We Meet Again
Producing “the pioneers of bluegrass music” at Studio 607 — a full album and video series, out on Chris's channel.
Willie Nelson — Country Music
Rhythm guitar on Willie's T Bone Burnett–produced roots record. Willie counts Chris among “the cream of the crop.”
Tipton Hill Boys — Lucky
The band Chris founded back home in North Carolina, plus One Hand on the Radio with the Chris Sharp & David Long Band.
Josh Graves — Memories of Foggy Mountain
Playing alongside the dobro master who defined the Foggy Mountain sound with Flatt & Scruggs.
04 About
“The cream of the crop.” — Willie Nelson
Chris Sharp was born in 1973 in Asheville, North Carolina, and picked up the fiddle and banjo around the age of eleven. As a teenager he met George Buckner and joined The Tarheel Bluegrass Boys, moving to Nashville in 1995 before returning home to found the Tipton Hill Boys.
In 1997 he began touring with John Hartford as guitarist in the John Hartford Stringband, on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. Those years led to the Grammy-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, the Down from the Mountain documentary, and a tour through Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.
Since then Chris has recorded with Josh Graves and Willie Nelson, released his own records, and produced the Grammy-nominated Memories of John. An Asheville native, he's based in Nashville these days — writing, recording, producing, and teaching the next generation of pickers.
Today Chris is a part of The Nashville Collective — a high-end recording studio built around live feel, analog depth, and emotional truth, where the band breathes and the sound is shaped by ear, not presets. Depending on the session, he's setting up mics, capturing, playing, editing, mixing, mastering, producing — any of it, all of it, or none of it. He also designed and built the studio's website.
That second craft has become its own thing: when players like Matt Combs need a home for their music online, Chris is the one who builds it — a musician who speaks both languages.
05 Teaching
Learn the right hand.
A free video series breaking down Lester Flatt's rhythm guitar — tuning, chord shapes, the thumbpick-and-fingers pattern, and those famous G runs — in short lessons, ten minutes or less. All up on YouTube.
Watch the series on YouTubeNew lessons added regularly — more on the way.