Molly Tuttle Nods to Her California Roots, Heads ‘Into the Wild’ on New EP

Molly Tuttle, a two-time Grammy winner and the first woman to win the IBMA’s guitar player of the year honor (she won in both 2017 and 2018), has become one of Nashville’s most coveted musicians and a mainstay in the bluegrass scene.

But Tuttle and her band Golden Highway have also leaned closer to musical troubadours rather than devout traditionalists, melding bluegrass with a range of styles. The group continues that ethos on the wide-ranging new EP Into The Wild, out Sept. 20 on Nonesuch Records.

“It’s a reflection of the last few years and what we’ve worked on as a band,” Tuttle tells Billboard.

But the six-song EP, which follows the group’s 2023 Grammy-winning City of Gold, also nods to Tuttle’s northern California roots, where the Santa Clara-born Tuttle spent much of her youth practicing guitar and attending bluegrass and folk music festivals. At age 13, she recorded The Old Apple Tree, a collection of duets with her father. By 15, she had joined her family band The Tuttles, along with friend A.J. Lee.

She was inspired to write the new EP’s title track with her partner Ketch Secor (of Old Crow Medicine Show), after spending a week in California’s Redwood National Forest. Far from a typical ode to the enduring nature of beauty, “Into the Wild” also offers a searing message, on the lines, “Times ain’t like they used to be/ The wilderness is hard to find at all/ The magic slipped way and the fires start in May/ Making way for another shopping mall.”

“We felt really inspired by the natural setting, but the song is also about the effect humans have on nature and how we need to protect these wild spaces,” Tuttle says.

Thus, “Into the Wild” also connects to another song on the project: a rendition of the late California folk singer Kate Wolf’s 1981 song “Here in California.”

“She’s someone who writes a lot about the natural world, and she’s one of my absolute favorite songwriters,” Tuttle says of Wolf, noting also the influence of the Kate Wolf Music Festival, held from 1996-2022 in northern California. “Her music kind of echoed throughout the Bay Area music scene and people were always jamming on her songs. She’s just very beloved in that area.

“I never got to go to that festival, and I remember writing emails to the festival every year asking them to book me,” Tuttle continues. “But I met a lot of people who played with her, like Nina Gerber, who was one of my first mentors who was a female lead guitarist.”

Tuttle considered a few Wolf songs to include on the album, but when she thought of “Here in California” and began researching versions of the song, she realized just how deep Wolf’s influence is embedded in her own musical history.

“I was like, ‘I want to cover a Kate Wolf song on this album,’ and I sent a few different songs to the band. When I Googled to find some live versions of [‘Here in California’], I actually found a video of myself playing it at age 15 and I forgot that I ever played it live before — but it was a video of me, my dad and AJ Lee performing it. Here I thought I had this new idea about covering this Kate Wolf song, but I had already covered it. It was kind of uncanny to see a video of myself playing it. But I loved how this version turned out. We got the old family band harmonies going again and A.J. is singing a verse, and it sounds amazing.”

Into The Wild’s eclectic set also spans covers of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” and a glistening pop punk-meets-bluegrass rendering of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U,” (which features Sierra Hull on mandolin) — a song Tuttle previously recorded as part of the Spotify Singles campaign. The EP also nods to City of Gold with an alternate version of “Stranger Things.” The new version is pared back, with Tuttle joined by mandolin player Dominick Leslie and cello/synth player Nathaniel Smith.

From those early bluegrass festivals, Tuttle’s journey has taken her to Boston, where she majored in guitar performance at Berklee College of Music, before moving to Nashville in 2015. She had released two projects of pop-tilted music before teaming with bluegrass legend Jerry Douglas, who co-produced the group’s albums Crooked Tree and City of Gold (both sets earned Grammy accolades for best bluegrass album).

Into the Wild releases just a week prior to this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards, set for Sept. 26 in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Douglas will be inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame.

“I am so proud to have worked with him and just count him as a mentor and a friend, and someone who I really look up to,” Tuttle says. ‘I feel lucky to have made so much music with him, and he’s so deserving of this achievement. I’m really happy to see his name up there.”

Leading into this year’s ceremony, Tuttle and her Golden Highway bandmates — fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Leslie, bass player Shelby Means and banjo player Kyle Tuttle (no relation)– are also foremost nominees, up accolades including entertainer of the year, vocal group of the year, instrumental group of the year and album of the year (City of Gold). Tuttle is up for female vocalist of the year and guitar player of the year, while bandmate Keith-Hynes is up for fiddle player of the year and new artist of the year.

“For me, when I’m making an album, I’m not thinking ‘Oh, I hope this wins a bunch of awards,’” she explains. “But then, when it’s out there in the world, you do hope people are resonating with it — and something like being nominated for the IBMA Awards is just that kind of affirmation that people are listening to it and liking it. I grew up going to the IBMAs and seeing so many of my heroes on stage there. So we’re excited to play a song off our latest record and it’s going to be a fun night. It always feels like a family reunion-meets-prom night, since we’re all dressed up.”

Thanks to Tuttle’s skills as a writer, musician and vocalist, she has become not only a multi-award winner, but an in-demand collaborator, recording and/or performing with artists including Jason Isbell, Lainey Wilson, Bela Fleck, Old Crow Medicine Show, Billy Strings, Yola, Bobby Osborne and Emmylou Harris. In 2018, she also teamed with Missy Raines, Alison Brown, Sierra Hull and Becky Buller for the supergroup First Ladies of Bluegrass.

But given the ample talent in Nashville, there are still plenty of artists on Tuttle’s bucket list. “I feel fortunate to have gotten to play with so many of my heroes,” she says. “One person who I’ve always wanted to sing with is Alison Krauss. That would be super fun.”

Ahead, in addition to a slate of tour dates, Tuttle says she’s in the “writing phase” of her next record. “I’m not sure what it will turn into yet, but I’m always working on new stuff and looking to go into the studio soon and hopefully have something out next year,” she says.

If she does release a new project next year, she’ll likely be performing some of that new music at next year’s IBMA Awards, which will relocate from Raleigh to a new venue in Chattanooga, Tenn.

“We were just in Chattanooga on Sunday and it’s such a great city,” Tuttle says. “I’m really excited that it’s going to be closer to Nashville, although I do love Raleigh. I just thought Raleigh was a great place for it to be. There were such great venues for bands to get to play all throughout Raleigh and then the Street Fest was really fun. So I hope that Chattanooga has kind of a similar setup. I think that works really well to have a few stages outdoors on the streets so that people can just walk around and enjoy music. Hopefully Chattanooga’s going to embrace IBMA in the same way and celebrate this big week that we have every year. But as a city, I’m really looking forward to spending time there for IBMA and seeing what it turns into.”