Molly Tuttle

Throughout the 21st century, we have seen droves of women take the reigns and pave their own way in just about every category of life. When it comes to women in bluegrass, though, Molly Tuttle has single handedly led the charge.

A third-generation musician, our California-born trailblazer was steeped in bluegrass music from a young age, first picking up the guitar at age eight. By the time she turned 11, Molly had started wielding the banjo and mandolin. and was playing onstage with her father, Jack, who was a bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and instructor in his own right.

At the age of 15 - about the time she started to play around with writing her own songs - Molly joined her family band, The Tuttles, self-releasing a pair of albums, including 2011's Introducing the Tuttles and 2013's Endless Ocean.

In her late teens, Molly was already starting to gain recognition for her guitar picking skills and roots artistry. In 2012 alone, she earned merit scholarships to the Berklee College of Music for music and composition, received the Foundation for Bluegrass Music's Hazel Dickens Memorial Scholarship, won the Chris Austin Songwriting Competition at Merlefest Music Festival and was named Best Female Vocalist and Best Guitar Player by the Northern California Bluegrass Society.

After studying at Berklee's American Roots Music Program with a focus on guitar performance and songwriting, Molly landed in Nashville in 2015 and began working with an array of characters in the Americana, folk and bluegrass communities.

Everything came to a head for Molly in 2017 after a crowdfunding campaign cleared the way for the release of her Rise EP and the launch of her solo career.

Later that year, thanks to her lauded flat-picking, clawhammer and crosspicking guitar prowess, she became the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association's Guitar Player of the Year award. The following year, she was awarded the honor again, as well as the Americana Music Association's Instrumentalist of the Year.

Her debut record, When You're Ready, came in 2019 via Compass Records, as well as a covers album in 2020 named ...but i’d rather be with you that ran the gamut from FKA Twigs to Karen Dalton.

2022 brought another breakthrough moment for Molly, who made her Nonesuch Records debut with the award-winning album, Crooked Tree. Honoring the bluegrass tradition while also pushing the genre into new lyrical directions, the album also features her bluegrass collective, Golden Highway - composed of Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Kyle Tuttle (banjo), Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle) and Shelby Means (bass).

Crooked Tree was awarded the Best Bluegrass Album award at the 2023 Grammys, which also saw Molly earn a nod for the all-genre Best New Artist award. And Molly has been on the fast-track to superstardom since, bolstered by her 2023 record, City of Gold.

From humble beginnings in her family band to becoming one of the most compelling voices in modern roots music, the virtuosic, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter and her trusty band have become one of the leading figures in the bluegrass and Americana genres in less than a decade.