Two-time Grammy Award winner Molly Tuttle has a new EP, "Into the Wild," out Sept. 20 on Nonesuch Records. (Bobbi Rich)
Molly Tuttle won Grammy Awards for her past two albums, but she’s far from complacent. The progressive bluegrass guitarist is ready to prove it with a new six-song EP, “Into the Wild,” due Sept. 20 on Nonesuch Records.
Tuttle, 31, and her backing band, Golden Highway, won Best Bluegrass Album for 2022’s “Crooked Tree” and 2023’s “City of Gold.” Touring has helped them to further coalesce, which has Tuttle enthusiastic about this release and the future.
“I feel like we take more risks in our live shows,” Tuttle said during a call from her Nashville home in August. “I feel like we have continued to become a more and more cohesive musical unit, which is exciting.”
“Into the Wild” features three new songs, an alternate version of the “City of Gold” track “Stranger Things” and previously released covers of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u.”
Tuttle and Golden Highway, comprising Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Shelby Means (bass) and Kyle Tuttle (no relation; banjo), added new colors to the “City of Gold” songs as they continued to play them on the road.
Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, from left: Dominick Leslie, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Tuttle, Shelby Means and Kyle Tuttle. (Chelsea Rochelle)
As the arrangements evolved, Tuttle found herself with more to express about the album’s themes of the West and exploration. She also wanted to give fans the opportunity to obtain the streaming tracks “White Rabbit” and “good 4 u,” which they play at shows, on a physical release.
Tuttle, who counts Gillian Welch, John Hartford, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan as some of her greatest songwriting influences, continued working on songs that were part of the “City of Gold” writing cycle.
“I think of (‘Into the Wild’) as a continuation of the ‘City of Gold’ album,” she said. “The two new original songs were songs I had been working on in hopes that maybe they would make the album, but they weren’t totally finished yet.”
The title track, about “getting lost in the wilderness even if it’s just in the forest of your mind,” was written with Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor. “Getaway Girl,” which Tuttle describes as “kind of like Carrie Bradshaw meets bluegrass,” features the virtuoso playing that made her the first woman to win Guitar Player of the Year at the International Bluegrass Music Awards. “Stranger Things (Down the Rabbit Hole Version)” strips back the “City of Gold” track from a full band to a trio playing an ethereal version of the song.
Tuttle, a native Californian who moved to Nashville nearly a decade ago, also covered a song by one of her creative forebears: “Here in California,” by the late Kate Wolf.
“I felt like it really fit with the themes that I had been exploring in my own writing,” Tuttle said. “And she’s one of my big heroes and has inspired a lot of my songs, so (I) wanted to pay tribute to her, as one of my favorite California singer-songwriters of all time.”
Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic rock classic “White Rabbit” is a song that Tuttle and Golden Highway often pair with their own “Alice in the Bluegrass” in concert. The songs are spiritual sisters, as both draw from the works of author Lewis Carroll.
Rodrigo’s “good 4 u” might seem to be an illogical choice for those new to Tuttle or progressive bluegrass. Her cover features different instrumentation than the original take, but the same defiant attitude. It fits with Tuttle’s writing, which often features themes more modern, and less patriarchal, than your grandfather’s bluegrass. On “City of Gold” alone, she touches on nontraditional themes such as legalized marijuana (“Down Home Dispensary”), gentrification (“Where Did All the Wild Things Go?”) and reproductive rights (“Goodbye Mary”). Tuttle’s work is just the latest step in an evolution begun in the 1970s, when artists started to bring music from rock artists and singer-songwriters into bluegrass.
“Molly’s the new class,” legendary dobro player Jerry Douglas said during a call from Nashville in late August. He also cited Billy Strings, Sierra Hull and Sierra Ferrell as part of that class “that are gonna give (bluegrass) another bump. They’re bringing in another audience as well.”
Douglas should know. He did it, too, as a progressive bluegrass pioneer in a Hall of Fame career. He’s also had a hand in Tuttle’s development as a mentor and a co-producer on “Crooked Tree” and “City of Gold.”
Tuttle and Golden Highway could soon have more to celebrate than a new EP. They are nominated for eight International Bluegrass Music Awards, which will be presented Sept. 26 in Raleigh, N.C.: Entertainer of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, Instrumental Group of the Year and Album of the Year for “City of Gold”; Tuttle (female vocalist, guitarist) and Keith-Hynes (fiddle player, new artist) each have two solo nominations. Douglas is up for Resophonic Guitar (also known as dobro) Player of the Year and will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.
Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, from left: Kyle Tuttle, Molly Tuttle, Shelby Means, Dominick Leslie and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes. (Chelsea Rochelle)
No matter how the IBMAs turn out, the band will continue to hone its sound on U.S. tour dates into late November. Just as surely, Tuttle will keep exploring. She expressed an interest to break out of bluegrass on her next release, which would give her a chance to explore other styles of playing guitar and writing.
“I have a bunch of songs that didn’t really fit on the last couple records that I’m still sitting on,” she said. “There’s so many albums I want to make still and so many different styles still to explore, but it all for me starts with the songwriting. … It’s all just kind of guided by what happens with the songs.”
