Q&A: Molly Tuttle
By Bella Butler EBS CONTRIBUTOR
This article was originally published by Mountain Outlaw. Read this story and others at mtoutlaw.com.
If hope is the thing with feathers, then Molly Tuttle’s music is an eagle soaring over the vast wild lands of an Earth in peril, each wingbeat a promise to recall our intrinsic human connection to them. Take her song “Into the Wild,” the title track to the EP released by the Grammy-winning bluegrass artist in 2024. Co-written with Ketch Secor of the Old Crow Medicine Show after a week spent in the redwoods, Tuttle’s song is draped in the melancholy of the loss of wild places, and the longing that comes with remembering them as they were:
Childhood melodies echo in the backwoods of my mind
Free as the wind, the sun upon my skin
Fairy dust falling from the sky
But 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
Still we want it all
Yet eulogistic as it is, Tuttle’s words feel backdropped by a whispered beckoning to return ourselves to a relationship with these lands, that it’s not too late. It’s a tone matched by the Wildlands live music event, where she’ll perform in Big Sky, Montana, this August: an honest reckoning of the danger our wild lands face, but even more so a soulful reminder of why we must unite around efforts to protect them. This year’s show, featuring headliner Dave Matthews as well as Lukas Nelson and Tuttle, will raise funds for American Rivers and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. Since its first year, Wildlands has raised nearly $1 million for conservation organizations in the Greater Yellowstone area.
In preparation for her Wildlands performance, Mountain Outlaw spoke with Tuttle about her sense of home, her connection to wild lands, and how music can be a force for change.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Mountain Outlaw: This issue of Mountain Outlaw is about home. Where or what do you consider home, and how has that concept changed for you throughout your life?
Molly Tuttle: As a touring musician, I’m constantly away from home, so I really value being home. I kind of feel like where I grew up is home, California. I grew up in the Bay Area. That’s where all my family is still so I go back out there pretty often because I feel like, if I stay away for too long, I do feel really homesick for where I grew up. But I’ve made my home in Nashville now for 10 years, so that’s kind of my other home … I think [home to me is] a relaxed feeling. Like [when] you’re with your people who you don’t have to try to be someone else around.
M.O. Is there a kind of music you associate with the idea of home?
M.T.: I grew up listening to bluegrass music around the house. My dad plays bluegrass, so it was just always on around the house … And other than that, I don’t know, kind of rootsy music, like I love going to jam sessions, and that was a big part of my family life growing up was playing music with brothers and my dad, and then I’ll go to a bluegrass jam and meet friends there. I guess Bluegrass or American roots music for me builds community.
M.O. Although your career has shown that your work expands beyond any one genre, I’d like to talk about bluegrass. It’s a kind of music originally associated with Appalachia, but it found you at a young age growing up in California. Can you tell me about your relationship to bluegrass?
M.T.: I grew up playing bluegrass, because that’s what my dad was into. He’d take me to bluegrass festivals. There’s actually a really big bluegrass scene in California. They have a whole California bluegrass association that puts on lots of festivals and shows, and a lot of the most kind of, you know, iconic bluegrass records were recorded in California: Tony Rice records, David Chrisman records, Peter Rowan, the list kind of goes on and on. And, of course, Jerry Garcia played bluegrass, and that brought a lot of people into the genre through the Grateful Dead, especially in Northern California. So that’s kind of the scene I grew up in. It’s a really big, big scene in California, sort of like it here in Colorado, where I am today. Even though you don’t associate this state with where bluegrass began, it’s kind of taken on a new life here. And then in Montana, I feel like bluegrass is really big, too. So I don’t think it’s still really a genre that is in a specific region. It’s kind of like a music no matter where you are. It’s sort of like folk music in a way, where you can find a bluegrass jam all over the world.
M.O.: What is bluegrass to you? What defines it in the way that you embrace it?
M.T.: I think, to me, it’s really just like the music that Bill Monroe sort of started the genre and so his original band, the Bluegrass Boys, that’s kind of what I think of as bluegrass. And then people can take it in so many different directions. I think probably the instrumentation is a big part of it, like having banjo and mandolin and fiddle and guitar and bass, that’s like the core; you can add in the Dobro if you want, [and] some bluegrass bands have drums. But to me, it just comes down to where it began with the first couple bluegrass bands, Bill Monroe and then Flatt and Scruggs, and then anything past that is sort of like people taking it and making their own which is awesome, and it’s gone in so many different cool directions over the years.
M.O.: Obviously, you have such deep roots within the genre, but is there something about the sound or the history of it that really draws you to it?
M.T.: I think to me, it’s like the community aspect of it, that you can go to a festival and like, find a lot of the people who are on stage, are out in the campgrounds late at night, jamming and then vice versa, people in the crowd are also usually bluegrass musicians themselves. So, it’s a really community oriented music, and that’s kind of what initially drew me to it as a kid. It was a way to make friends, and it was a fun activity to do on the weekends and during the summer. I always look forward to going to those shows and festivals.
M.O.: What is your relationship to wild places and to nature, and how have those places shaped you?
M.T.: I think growing up in Northern California, there’s so many different beautiful landscapes to explore. You have the redwoods and the ocean and so many great national parks. So that was a big thing to me growing up. I sort of almost took it for granted in a way, that I went on so many camping trips, and I really developed this big appreciation for the natural world. I think that’s a gift that I’ve taken with me as an adult. Now I get to explore so many different unique parts of the country. And I do love getting out into nature. I had the day off yesterday, and I went on a 10-mile hike here in Colorado. So that’s my favorite thing, to just recharge and connect with nature.
M.O.: How do those places and your connection to those places find their way into your art?
M.T.: I think a lot of my songs that I’ve written, I have some that are about appreciating the natural world. One of the songs off our EP that came out last fall is called “Into the Wild,” and that’s a song that I wrote when I was staying in the redwoods and just feeling inspired by the natural world. So, I think it directly inspires my songwriting, especially since I do spend time staying near parks or going on hikes on tour while I’m writing songs. So, it kind of seeps in that way.
M.O.: You’re playing at Wildlands in Big Sky this August, which is a celebration and a fundraiser for wild lands in the Greater Yellowstone. We’ve seen in so many instances throughout history music’s ability to bring people together, especially around a cause. What are your insights on music being a powerful force in some of these efforts to galvanize people around these efforts?
M.T.: I think music always has the power to bring people together. Great music really gets people energized to make changes in the world that they want to see. I feel like so many great movements throughout history have had songs accompanying them that people can rally behind. And, it can be really uplifting to hear a song that makes you want to do something good for the world, or good for your community. I hope that these shows can bring people together around this cause because it’s super important.
M.O.: Can you elaborate on music’s capacity to inspire joy even when we’re in times of hardship or peril? In this case, we’re focusing on the loss of wild lands and threats to our natural world, and yet we can come together and feel so much joy and celebration for them with music.
M.T.: I think it can get kind of depressing to be reading the news and seeing that the national parks are under threat and wild lands are under threat. I think people need music and people need art in general to make sense of the world and give some hope that it can get better in the future. If you’re just constantly getting downtrodden about these issues, it can just make you not want to do anything. So having something like a music festival to uplift people around a cause is really important.
