Trailblazing Bay Area artist follows Grammy win with big homecoming shows
Molly Tuttle returns home a conquering hero, settling into the Guild Theatre in Menlo Park for a highly anticipated concert stand this weekend after having recently captured the 2023 Grammy Award for best bluegrass album with “Crooked Tree.”
“I’m so excited. I love the Guild,” says the Palo Alto native, who was also nominated for a best new artist Grammy. “We played there last year and it was one of my favorite shows of the year.”
The singer-songwriter — who absolutely shreds on guitar — will be performing with her band Golden Highway April 1 and 2 at the newly renovated and reimagined venue, which Tuttle points out is “like 10 minutes from where I grew up.”
Showtime is 8 p.m. and tickets for both shows are sold out, but fans can sign up for the waitlist at guildtheatre.com.
A few months after the Guild gigs, Tuttle and Golden Highway will return to Northern California to headline the 48th annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, which runs June 15-18 at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley. Single day tickets are $20–$80 and full-festival passes are $65–$195, fathersdayfestival.com.
I recently had the chance to chat with the Palo Alto High School graduate about growing up in the Bay Area, her big Grammy night and her efforts to educate others about alopecia areata, an autoimmune skin disease that causes hair loss.
Q: I know it’s probably exciting to play a concert pretty much anywhere. Yet, there’s got to be a little extra meaning when you get to do a hometown show, right?
A: I get to tell stories about, like, where I went to school and everyone knows what I am talking about. It just makes the show feel more personal. It feels more like an intimate show where I can be myself. There’s nothing like playing in your hometown. That’s always so much fun.
I am so glad that the Guild exists now, because there wasn’t an obvious venue for me to play like right where I grew up before that.
Q: Did you see movies at the Guild? Because it was a movie theater when you were growing up.
A: Yes, I did. I had a cousin who worked there, actually. I thought it was such a cool place.
Q: Talk to me about growing up in the Bay Area and how it would factor into the music that would steal your heart.
A: My dad has taught music at Gryphon Stringed Instruments (in Palo Alto), starting in the ‘80s. Growing up as a kid, there was just music around the house all the time. My dad would host bluegrass jams at the house.
I would go to Gryphon and try out guitars. We would go to music festivals like Hardly Strictly and Father’s Day Bluegrass festival in Grass Valley and Strawberry Music Festival in Yosemite. It was a great place to grow up.
Q: Sounds like it.
A: Now that I live in Nashville, people are often like, “How did you get into bluegrass living in the Bay Area?” But there’s actually such a great scene, and it was cool place to grow up because there were so many people around me like Laurie Lewis and Kathy Kallick, who were these really strong supportive women who led their own bluegrass bands.
Q: I don’t think the Bay Area — in particular, the twin towers of Palo Alto and Berkeley — get enough credit when it comes to bluegrass.
A: Yeah, totally. I love the music history of Palo Alto. Someone gave me a book recently and it’s like the rock history of Palo Alto. It’s just cool all the connections with the Grateful Dead. And I didn’t realize that Stevie Nicks went to Menlo-Atherton and Joan Baez went to Palo Alto High, I think.
Q: Speaking of the Grateful Dead, didn’t you play with Bob Weir at the Guild last year?
A: Yes! It was the coolest thing ever. I was so excited and just wanted to be like, “This is so cool playing with you in Menlo Park.” I know he went to school there and had roots there.
Q: Yeah, the Grateful Dead’s first show was actually played right around the corner from the Guild — at the old Magoo’s Pizza Parlor. But the band was going by the name of the Warlocks then.
A: I didn’t know that. That’s so cool. I actually played my first show at a pizza parlor in Palo Alto. It was called Fandango Pizza. I don’t know if it was around very long.
Q: It’s so awesome that you were nominated for the 2023 best new artist Grammy. Yet, given that your first EP came out five years ago, did you feel like, “Hey, I’m not that new!”
A: I saw people online were commenting, “You’re not new. You’ve been doing this for so long.” For me, I’m like, “Well, I actually do kind of still feel new.” Because I made this record “Crooked Tree” and it was my first real bluegrass album. And I came up with this concept for my band Golden Highway. It felt almost like a refresh in a way.
Also, I feel like people don’t see how many years and how much work goes into being a “new artist.” Most of the artists in that category have been doing it for a long time. To be recognized in a category in that way, it takes years and years and so much hard work.
I do feel like I’m just getting started and have so much more I want to do. But I do see how people who have been following my career for years would think, “you are not a new artist” — and I appreciate them for being along on the ride with me.
Q: Samara Joy ended up winning best new artist, but just being nominated has to be a huge game-changer.
A: Yeah, it really was. Just being in that category opened so many doors. It was instantly like, “Oh, man, we are going to go do Jimmy Kimmel now. We are going to go out to L.A. early and do all these cool parties and shows.” Yeah, it was kind of a game-changer. It was really cool to do all these Grammy Week things and get to meet some of the other best new artist nominees.
Q: While on the subject of awards, what was it like for you to be named guitar player of the year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2017. You were the first woman to win the award — and you ended up winning it in back-to-back years.
A: That was kind of the first time in my career that something like that happened and I instantly saw these doors opening. I mean, awards definitely aren’t everything. I don’t think most musicians would say that they are doing music because they want to win awards.
But having recognition like that from the community does kind of change things, in a way, and it opens doors. And people who haven’t heard your music before, they can see, “Oh, she was recognized in this way, so I would be interested in checking out her playing.”
Yeah, being the first woman to win was cool because I think that kind of added some extra weight to the award and just made me think about, like, what do I want my legacy to be for other women who want to play bluegrass guitar.
Q: Cruising around mollytuttlemusic.com, I came across your enlightening article “My Journey with Alopecia Areata,” which was originally published in 2019 by No Depression magazine.
A: I keep that on my website because I just want to raise awareness and educate people about it. It’s a really important thing to me. I do have a platform. And I do think that it can not only help other people with alopecia to feel more seen and understood in general but it can help me to have that connection with my fans where they know this part of who I am.
So, when I write a song like “Crooked Tree” — which was inspired by my growing up feeling different from the other kids — people understand my music a little better as well.”