Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway pay respect to Tuttle's Californian heritage on "Into The Wild," creating their own Olivia Rodrigo hit.

Two-time Grammy winner and first-ever female guitar player of the year (having won in both 2017 and 2018), Molly Tuttle has established herself as a stalwart in the bluegrass scene and one of Nashville's most sought-after musicians.

However, by fusing bluegrass with a variety of genres, Tuttle and her band Golden Highway have also veered more toward musical troubadours than ardent traditionalists. The group's new, diverse EP Into The Wild, which is available on Nonesuch Records on September 20, carries on that philosophy.

However, the six-song EP also pays homage to Tuttle's northern California heritage, where she spent a large portion of her childhood studying guitar and going to bluegrass and folk music festivals. Tuttle was born in Santa Clara. The EP follows the group's 2023 Grammy-winning City of Gold. She recorded The Old Apple Tree, a set of duets with her father, when she was thirteen years old. By the age of fifteen, she and her buddy A.J. Lee had joined their family band, The Tuttles.

After spending a week in California's Redwood National Forest, she and her companion Ketch Secor (of Old Crow Medicine Show) were inspired to write the title track for the new EP. With words like "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," "Into the Wild" is anything but a conventional hymn to the timeless quality of beauty.

"The song is about the effect humans have on nature and how we need to protect these wild spaces, but we were also really inspired by the natural setting," Tuttle explains.

Thus, "Into the Wild" has a connection to another song on the record, which is a performance of "Here in California," a 1981 song by the late California folk singer Kate Wolf.

Tuttle describes Wolf as "someone who writes a lot about the natural world, and she's one of my absolute favorite songwriters," adding the impact of the Kate Wolf Music Festival, which took place in northern California between 1996 and 2022. Her songs were frequently jammed out, and her music had a sort of reverberating effect on the Bay Area music scene. Simply put, she is adored there.

Tuttle goes on, "I remember writing emails to the festival every year asking them to book me, but I never got to go to that festival." "However, I got to know a lot of her bandmates, like Nina Gerber, a female lead guitarist and one of my first mentors."

Tuttle thought about including a couple of Wolf songs on the record, but as she started thinking about the song "Here in California" and looking up other renditions, she realized how much of an impact Wolf had on her own musical background.

"I sent the band a few different songs and said, 'I want to cover a Kate Wolf song on this album.'" I discovered a video of myself performing ['Here in California'] live when I was fifteen years old. I had forgotten that I had ever performed the song live until I saw the film, which featured AJ Lee, my dad, and me. I had covered this Kate Wolf song before, even though I felt I had a fresh idea at the time. Seeing a video of me playing it was a little unsettling. However, I thought this version was fantastic. We've revived the classic family band harmonies, and A.J. is belting out a verse that sounds fantastic.

Along with versions of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," Into The Wild's varied mix includes a shimmering pop punk-meets-bluegrass version of Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U," featuring Sierra Hull on mandolin. Tuttle previously recorded this song for the Spotify Singles campaign. The EP also includes a different version of "Stranger Things" as an homage to City of Gold. Nathaniel Smith, a cellist and synthesizer musician, and Dominick Leslie, a mandolinist, join Tuttle in this simplified rendition.

After attending those first bluegrass festivals, Tuttle traveled to Boston to major in guitar performance at Berklee College of Music. In 2015, she relocated to Nashville. Before collaborating with bluegrass great Jerry Douglas, who co-produced the group's albums Crooked Tree and City of Gold (which won Grammy awards for best bluegrass album), she had published two pop-tilted records.

Just one week before Douglas Douglas' induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame on September 26 in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards, Into the Wild will be released.

"I am incredibly honored to have collaborated with him and simply regard him as a friend and mentor who I greatly admire," Tuttle declares. "I consider myself fortunate to have collaborated with him on so many songs, and he truly deserves this success." I'm overjoyed to see his name there.

Prior to the ceremony this year, Tuttle and her Golden Highway bandmates—banjo player Kyle Tuttle (not related to her), bassist Shelby Means, fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Leslie, and banjo player Kyle Tuttle—are also among the top nominees. They have won awards such as album of the year (City of Gold), vocal group of the year, instrumental group of the year, and entertainer of the year. Keith-Hynes, the bandmate, is nominated for new artist of the year and fiddle player of the year, while Tuttle is up for female vocalist and guitar player of the year.

"I don't think 'Oh, I hope this wins a bunch of awards' when I'm making an album," the artist says. "However, once it's out there, you do hope that people are connecting with it; a nomination for an IBMA Award is simply one form of confirmation that people are hearing and enjoying it. Growing up, I used to attend the IBMAs and witnessed a lot of my idols perform live. It will be an enjoyable evening, and we can't wait to perform a song from our most recent album. We're all dressed up, so it always feels like a family reunion meets prom night.

Tuttle has become a multi-award winner and in-demand collaborator due to her abilities as a writer, musician, and vocalist. She has recorded and/or performed with artists such as Jason Isbell, Lainey Wilson, Bela Fleck, Old Crow Medicine Show, Billy Strings, Yola, Bobby Osborne, and Emmylou Harris. Along with Missy Raines, Alison Brown, Sierra Hull, and Becky Buller, she was a member of the supergroup First Ladies of Bluegrass in 2018. You may also read this: Diddy Files Motion To Dismiss Lil Rod Lawsuit, Attorney Calls Groomin

Still, Tuttle has a long list of musicians he wants to work with, especially considering how talented Nashville is. She says, "I feel lucky to have played with so many of my heroes." "Aliston Krauss is someone I've always wanted to sing with. That sounds like a lot of fun.

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

If she does release a new album the next year, she'll probably play some of it at the IBMA Awards, which will now take place in Chattanooga, Tennessee instead of Raleigh.

Tuttle remarks, "We were just in Chattanooga on Sunday and it's such a great city." Even though I adore Raleigh, I'm thrilled that it will be closer to Nashville. I simply felt that Raleigh would be a fantastic location for it. Raleigh was filled with fantastic locations for bands to perform, and the Street Fest was a lot of fun as well. Thus, I'm hoping that Chattanooga's situation is somewhat comparable. It seems like a great idea to have a few outdoor stages on the streets where people can stroll and listen to music. I hope Chattanooga will celebrate this important week that comes around every year and will embrace IBMA in a similar manner. However, I'm incredibly excited to visit the city for IBMA and watch it develop as a result.