Premiere: Colin Cutler seeks answers from the great beyond with ‘Run to the River’

With half the song in his back pocket, Colin Cutler was driving down 421 to Pittsboro for a gig, along with Jonathan Byrd and Khallori, when it struck him. He needed to finish the song so he could play it that night (and then record it the next day). Born out of that drive, “Run to the River” draws stylistic influences from such songs as “Down to the River to Pray,” famously recorded by Alison Krauss for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Rihannon Giddens’ “We Could Fly.” He proceeded to funnel in John Prine and Michael Hurley for “some unexpectedly bizarre images,” as Cutler puts it.