A compelling new voice in the roots music world, Molly Tuttle is a virtuosic multi instrumentalist and singer-songwriter with a lifelong love of bluegrass, a genre the Northern California-bred artist first discovered thanks to her father (a music teacher and multi-instrumentalist) and grandfather (a banjo player whose Illinois farm she visited often throughout her childhood). On her new, Grammy-winning album, Crooked Tree, Tuttle joyfully explores that rich history with bluegrass, bringing her imagination to tales of free spirits and outlaws, weed farmers and cowgirls, resulting in a record that is both forward-thinking and steeped in bluegrass heritage, and which has earned her the 2022 International Bluegrass Music Association award for Female Vocalist of The Year as well as a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Crooked Tree won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.

Tuttle’s accolades also include Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards, and consecutive trophies for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Guitar Player of the Year; she was the first woman in the history of the IBMA to win that honor. 

Of her album Crooked Tree “I always knew I wanted to make a bluegrass record someday,” says the Nashville-based Tuttle, who began attending bluegrass jams at age eleven. “Once I started writing, everything flowed so easily: sometimes I’ve felt an internal pressure to come up with a sound no one’s heard before, but this time my intention was just to make an album that reflected the music that’s been passed down through generations in my family.”

Support: Chad Verbeck