Chris Sharp

Chris Sharp is a Grammy-nominated producer, guitarist, and co-founder of The Nashville Collective. His career spans more than three decades of making records that balance clarity with feel, precision with soul. His work is rooted in bluegrass but reaches far beyond genre, shaped by a commitment to tone, honesty, and the full arc of the recording process.

Raised in North Carolina, Sharp started on fiddle and banjo before finding his voice on rhythm guitar. In his mid-twenties, he joined John Hartford’s band and became a core member of the John Hartford Stringband, performing at the Grand Ole Opry and contributing to the albums Good Old Boys and Hamilton Ironworks. During that time, Sharp also released Good Fa’air Side, a record that brought together John Hartford, Earl Scruggs, Kenny Baker, Josh Graves, Gene Libbea, Mike Compton, Matt Combs, Terry Eldridge, Laura Weber, and Larry Perkins. It set the tone for his production style — live energy, sharp ears, and no wasted movement.

Sharp’s production credits reflect range, not repetition. Working It Out paired him again with George Buckner and Kevin Sluder of the Tipton Hill Boys, with Mike Compton and Stuart Duncan joining. Lucky and Songs We Like kept the Tipton Hill catalog moving forward. One Hand on the Radio, his collaboration with David Long, was described as “timeless” and “sounding 50 years old and brand-new at the same time.” With Someday, featuring Yoshie Sakamoto, Sharp produced a cross-genre country and jazz fusion record that expanded both style and vocabulary. His production of Till We Meet Again for the Ozaki Brothers was honored by the International Bluegrass Music Museum and added to its permanent collection. So Far From Forgetting, a 2014 album with Brooke and George Buckner, showed Sharp’s ability to hold space for quiet, emotional performances with no distractions.

A decade after Hartford’s passing, Sharp produced Memories of John, a Grammy-nominated tribute that featured some members from the 90s era Hartford recordings and touring band. The album included performances by Bela Fleck, Tim O’Brien, and others. It remains one of the most respected posthumous projects in modern bluegrass.

As a player, Sharp contributed to the Grammy-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and appeared in the companion documentary Down from the Mountain. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Constitution Hall, and the Ryman Auditorium, among others. Even at the peak of his touring life, he stayed grounded in the work of making records — start to finish, all the way through.

In 2025, Sharp and longtime collaborator Matt Combs opened a production house called The Nashville Collective. It is not a service menu. It is not a facility. It is a studio model built for full-album thinking — live tracking, overdubs, re-amping, and mix work shaped in collaboration by two producers who listen and decide together. There are no handoffs, no roles, no tiers. The process stays whole.

Sharp continues to work on projects he believes in and maintains a YouTube channel, Studio607Productions, where he teaches traditional rhythm guitar. His playing has been called the finest in bluegrass by Bob Piekiel. Willie Nelson simply called him the cream of the crop.