What I’ve Been Listening to: Molly Tuttle/When You’re Ready

While I knew I had come across a remarkable young artist and featured her amazing rendition of Neil Young’s Helpless in my previous Best of What’s New installment, I hadn’t planned to follow up with dedicated post on Molly Tuttle so quickly. Things changed when a dear friend and music connoisseur from Germany whose opinion I highly value told me he was blown away by Tuttle (I had mentioned her name to him). So I guess I was, well, ready to take on When You’re Ready, the Americana and bluegrass singer-songwriter’s first full-length album from April 2019.

Before getting to that record, I’d like to recap some background on Tuttle, borrowing somewhat from the above post in case you didn’t get a chance to read it. Apart from writing original music and covering songs by others, Tuttle is an accomplished banjo and guitar player and teacher. The 27-year-old, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and has lived in Nashville since 2015, comes from a musical family. Her father Jack Tuttle is a bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and teacher. Her siblings Sullivan and Michael play guitar and mandolin, respectively.

Tuttle started playing guitar as an 8-year-old and three years later already performed on stage with her father. At age 13, she recorded her first album with him. In 2015, she joined the family band The Tuttles with AJ Lee, featuring her father and siblings, along with mandolist AJ Lee. Her debut EP Rise appeared in October 2017. That year, Tuttle also won Guitar Player of the Year from the  International Bluegrass Association, something she repeated in 2018. Among other accolades, she also won Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards.

This bring me to When You’re Ready, which appears to have put Tuttle on the map as a solo artist. According to her website, What followed were dates at Telluride, Newport Folk Fest, an appearance on CBS Saturday Morning, and an enthusiastic reception both by critics and her fellow musicians. Rightfully so, in my humble opinion. Time for some music.

Let’s kick it off with the opener Million Miles. The beautiful tune was written by Tuttle together with Jewel Kilcher and Steve Poltz, singer-songwriters from the U.S. and Canada, respectively. I really dig Tuttle’s singing and how about these lyrics: Called the cable man/’Cause my screen was blurry/Seems the more I rush/All I do is worry/I am too much like my mom/All she does is hurry/What’s a girl to do today…

Take the Journey has a very cool acoustically driven groove. The song was co-written by Tuttle and Sarah Siskind, an American folk singer-songwriter.

Light Came In (Power Went Out) shows Tuttle from a more pop-oriented side. Co-written by her, producer Ryan Hewitt and composers Stephony Smith and Maya Elizabeth de Vitry, the catchy track feels more produced with a full-fledged band.

Messed with My Mind is one of four tracks on the album solely written by Tuttle. Another great tune with good lyrics: Paid a quarter to the fortune teller/All she gave me was a bucket of lies/Had me thinkin’ it would all get better/If I could await around for you to be mine//I couldn’t hear my intuition/Blarin’ at me like a smoke alarm/Caughtin’ you lightin’ up a fire in my kitchen/Now you’re actin’ like you never meant me no harm…

The last track I’d like to highlight is another tune Tuttle wrote by herself: Sleepwalking. Her emotional vocals and words are the standouts to me in this song: If I drove into the sea/Float away with the fear/Be my anchor, please/’Cause your voice is all I need//Keep talking/Now we’re sleepwalking/Through a world that disappeared/Bad habits/Burn like TV static/But you’re comin’ in clear… That’s just beautiful!

Molly Tuttle’s first full-length album shows an incredibly talented young solo artist. Her next release will be a covers album scheduled for August 28. And, as Tuttle stated on her website, there’s more: “I have been working on writing for another original album and am still planning to record that this year…but in the meantime I wanted to share these covers that have lifted my spirits, in hopes that you’ll find some much-needed joy as well.” I’m looking forward to both!

Sources: Wikipedia; Molly Tuttle website; YouTube

Best of What’s New

A lot of cool new music I came across this week made it tough what to include in this latest installment of my recurring feature. That’s actually a nice problem to have, at least in my book. While you may not be a Bon Jovi fan, have you ever heard the Jersey rocker do an outright protest song? I certainly had not. Or how about a cool Byrds-ey-sounding psychedelic garage band called The Reverberations? Or young and amazingly talented bluegrass and Americana artist Molly Tuttle? These are just three of the artists I’m featuring this week. Do I have your attention?

Bon Jovi/American Reckoning

While a band that has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide has probably done more than one thing right, I realize opinions about Bon Jovi are divided. On most of their 14 studio albums that have come out so far over some 37 years, I can at find at least one or two songs I enjoy. American Reckoning, released July 10, will be on the band’s next album Bon Jovi 2020, which has been pushed back until December 31, 2020 due to you know what. Both the single and the album have something in common that’s new for Bon Jovi: Political lyrics. Written by Jon Bon Jovi, American Reckoning is a protest song reflecting on the death of George Floyd caused by reckless police action. “I was moved to write American Reckoning as a witness to history,” Bon Jovi said in a statement on the band’s website, “I believe the greatest gift of an artist is the ability to use their voice to speak to issues that move us.” All net proceeds from downloads of the song will support the Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative through December 31, 2020. Kudos!

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings/Hello in There

For some 28 years, country, folk, bluegrass and Americana singer-songwriter Gillian Welch has been writing and performing with her musical partner David Rawlings. The two first met during a music audition at Berklee College of Music in Boston where Welch majored in songwriting. Following her graduation in 1992, she moved to Nashville. Rawlings soon followed and they started to perform as a duo. After getting a record deal with Almo Sounds, they met T-Bone Burnett who had seen them perform. Burnett produced their debut album Revival, which like most of their records appeared under Welch’s name in April 1996. Welch and Rawlings have since released five additional studio albums. Hello in There is from their most recent release All the Good Times Are Past & Gone, a covers album that came out on July 10. The tune was written by John Prine and included on his 1971 eponymous debut album.

Will Hoge/Midway Hotel

Will Hoge is a singer-songwriter from Nashville, Tenn. According to Wikipedia, which characterizes his music as Americana and southern rock, Hoge grew up in a musical family that influenced him. After enrolling in Western Kentucky University with plans to become a high school history teacher and basketball coach, Hoge realized music was his calling. In 1997, he released an EP with his band at the time Spoonful, but it wasn’t successful and the group disbanded. After self-releasing a live CD and his first studio album Carousel, Hoge managed to get a deal with Atlantic Records in early 2002. While it was short-lived, it resulted in his major label debut Blackbird on a Lonely Wire in March 2003. Hoge has since released seven additional studio records, as well as various EPs and live albums. Midway Motel, co-written by Hoge and Ricky Young, is the opener to Hoge’s most recent studio album Tiny Little Movies that appeared on June 26. I can hear some John Mellencamp in here.

Grace Potter/Eachother (feat. Jackson Browne, Marcus King & Lucius)

Grace Potter is a 37-year-old bluesy, roots rock-oriented singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and actress, hailing from Waitsfield, Vt., who has released various albums solo and with her former band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals since the early 2000s. While studying theater at St. Laurence University, she met drummer Matt Burr. Together with bassist Courtright Beard, they formed the initial lineup of indie rock band Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. In 2004, they self-released their debut album Original Soul. Four additional albums followed. In 2015, Potter’s solo album Midnight appeared. Potter left the band in 2017, shortly after announcing her divorce from Burr with whom she had been married since 2013. Another solo album, Daylight, appeared in October 2019. Eachother is Potter’s latest single released on May 22. Written by her during the early days of the pandemic, the ballad features Jackson Browne, blues artist Marcus King and indie pop band Lucius. Check it out!

Molly Tuttle/Helpless (feat. Old Crow Medicine Show)

Based on what I’ve read and heard, it seems Molly Tuttle is what you could call a wunderkind. It’s virtually impossible to do full justice here to the 27-year-old singer-songwriter, banjo player and guitarist, who is focused on bluegrass and Americana. Tuttle is noted for her outstanding guitar skills, and she can definitely sing as well. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay area in a musical family. Her father Jack Tuttle is a bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and teacher. Her siblings Sullivan and Michael play guitar and mandolin, respectively. Molly started playing guitar as an 8-year-old and three years later already performed on stage with her dad. At age 13, she recorded her first album with Jack. In 2015, she joined the family band The Tuttles with AJ Lee, featuring her father and siblings, along with mandolist AJ Lee. Her debut EP Rise appeared in October 2017, followed by her first full-fledged album When You’re Ready in April 2019, which climbed to no. 5 and no. 11 on the U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers and Independent Albums charts. Her multiple accolades include Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2018 Americana Music Awards and Guitar Player of the Year from the International Bluegrass Association in 2017 and 2018. Molly who has lived in Nashville, Tenn. since 2015, has a new covers album scheduled for August 28, …but I’d rather be with you. It doesn’t include her beautiful rendition of Neil Young’s Helpless, which she released on May 22 and features Nashville-based Americana band Old Crow Medicine Show. The tune first appeared on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu album from March 1970.

The Reverberations/Under Your Spell

Let’s wrap things up with some really cool rock. The Reverberations are a five-piece from Portland, Ore. Their Bandcamp profile characterizes their music as “’60s influenced psychedelic jangle.” Based on what I’m hearing on their latest single Under Your Spell, that description hits the nail on the head. Unfortunately, the band has hardly published any information about themselves. Neither their Bandcamp nor their Facebook page provide any background – I don’t get it! Discogs lists two albums, Mess Up Your Mind (2016) and Changes (2019, along with various EPs and singles, dating back as far as 2015. Based on their photos on Facebook and Bandcamp, these guys don’t exactly look like high school kids, and with their Byrds-ey guitars, they certainly don’t sound like it. Whoever is familiar with my music taste knows that’s a sound I never get tired of. On Under Your Spell, which is the B-side of the band’s most recent single Palm Reader, I also love the keyboard work. And check out the lovely psychedelic cover art. Damn, now I feel I’m literally under their spell!

Sources: Wikipedia; Bon Jovi website; Apple Music; Grace Potter website; Molly Tuttle website; The Reverberations Facebook and Bandcamp pages; YouTube