Molly Tuttle Returns to Bluegrass in “She’ll Change”

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“One woman, many wonders. One road, many ways.
Just when you think you know her, she’ll change.”

And that’s is exactly what Molly Tuttle is doing—keeping us on our toes and implementing a shift in approach back to her bluegrass roots in her new song “She’ll Change.” It’s the first taste of new music from Molly ahead of a debut album on Nonesuch Records that she promises will be heading our way 2022.

All this talk of the superpowers of Billy Strings lately, one can foolishly shoot their gaze over the other superpicker of our generation, who came up trading flatpicking licks with Billy, and competing for the IBMA’s Guitarist of the Year—an honor Molly beat out Billy for twice before Billy nabbed it this year.

But if we’re being honest, little of that instrumental prowess was on display on Molly’s 2019 album When You’re Ready, which eschewed much of her bluegrass raising for more singer/songwriter material. Not necessarily a bad decision. When You’re Ready received pretty rave reviews. It was just, different. She also released a pandemic covers record in 2020 …But I’d Rather Be With You.

When it comes to these maestros like Molly, they’ve often mastered their instrument by the time they hit puberty, and are sometimes rendered bored with the discipline by age 17. So they find other avenues in music to engage them creatively.

Now though, Molly seems to be looking to lean into bluegrass hard, at least for now. She’s assembled an all-star bluegrass band called Golden Highway, manned by Dominick Leslie on mandolin, Kyle Tuttle on banjo, fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and bassist Shelby Means. “She’ll Change” was co-written with Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, and co-produced by Jerry Douglas who also appears on the track.

“I’ve always loved the rare bluegrass songs that are sung by women about women,” says Tuttle about the track. “Songs like ‘It’s Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song’ by Hazel Dickens, and ‘Ellie’ by Kathy Kallick. I wanted to write my own bluegrass song about a badass woman who lives by her own rules. ‘She’ll Change’ is my homage to the strong musical women who helped me find my own voice.”

If we get Molly Tuttle out there playing more traditional bluegrass right beside Billy Strings, we could really be in store for a resurgence of the genre with a new generation of fans invigorated by the blazing instrumentation these two feature.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway Tour Dates:

January 21—Seattle, WA—Tractor Tavern
January 22—Portland, OR—Mississippi Studios
January 25—Grass Valley, CA—Center for the Arts
January 26—Sacramento, CA—Goldfields
January 27—Mill Valley, CA—Sweet Water Music Hall
January 28—Morro Bay, CA—The Siren
January 31—Santa Barbara, CA—Soho
February 1—San Juan Capistrano, CA—The Coach House
February 2—Los Angeles, CA—The Roxy
February 24—Salt Lake City, UT—The State Room
February 25—Fort Collins, CO—Aggie Theatre
February 26—Steamboat Springs, CO—WinterWonderGrass
February 27—Boulder, CO—Fox Theatre
March 2—Omaha, NE—Slowdown
March 3—Lawrence, KS—Bottleneck
March 4—St. Louis, MO—Old Rock House
March 5—Indianapolis, IN—Hi-Fi Indy
March 6—Louisville, KY—Zanzabar
March 10—Nashville, TN—Station Inn
March 11—Asheville, NC—The Grey Eagle
March 13—Chattanooga, TN—Songbirds North

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