Criss-crossing America on their colossal “Down the Rabbit Hole” tour, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway chugged into Wilmington, North Carolina as if on a whistle stop political campaign for a show at Greenfield Lake and lit up the sold-out amphitheater. The 23-song, two-hour performance featured songs from her two Grammy-winning albums “Crooked Tree” and “City of Gold”, while slipping a handful of covers into the set, including Grace Slick’s surrealistic tale of the ‘White Rabbit.’
Tuttle has assembled her dream band for the latest album, and on tour the cohesiveness is readily apparent. Golden Highway features Dominick Leslie on mandolin and dobro, Shelby Means on bass, Kyle Tuttle on banjo and fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, who informed the crowd that the difference between her instrument and a violin is “you can spill beer on a fiddle.” These are formidable talents as is Tuttle, who is equally adept on acoustic guitar, electric guitar or banjo. The five musicians often played off each other, exchanging knowing looks and wide grins when the time came for each one to deliver blistering solo breaks.
Molly Tuttle knows how to spin a tale as well as turn heads with her guitar virtuosity, and she touched on her favorite causes in between songs. She’s a feminist stumping for both abortion rights and the legalization of marijuana in her adopted home state of Tennessee. I’ll give her this. If she partakes of the devil’s weed, it certainly doesn’t prevent her fingers from fingering the frets with a magician’s flourish.
The band appeared on stage to whooping and hollering and dove right in to rootsy progressive bluegrass tunes ‘El Dorado,’ ‘Evergreen, OK’ and the Texas swing ‘Side Saddle,’ which she introduced by asking: “Are there any Carolina cowgirls in the house tonight?” Tuttle paused to pay homage to reefer before driving her point home over a throw-back bluegrass tempo on ‘Down Home Dispensary’. Next came the wistful but cathartic break-up song ‘Yosemite’ that Dave Matthews sung with Molly on the latest album. Kyle Tuttle substituted for Matthews, first clearing up any confusion over whether the two Tuttles were siblings, cousins or married (none of the above).
After a splendid rendition of the traditional instrumental ‘Shady Grove’, murmurs grew louder from the antsy crowd, impatient to hear the Jefferson Airplane classic that has become her most requested song. The chanting lowered as Tuttle spoke over the trippy drone of Keith-Hynes’ fiddle to say, “Y’all have been asking for this one all day long, since I came into Yellow Dog Discs this morning.” Asked and they received a journey down a sonic rabbit hole via the spectral, foreboding ballad ‘Stranger Things’ seguing into ‘Alice in the Bluegrass’ with Tuttle eerily intoning “Come gather around folks for a story I’ll tell / About a girl who tripped through the boom of a well / Woke up in a dream with a curious habit / (pause for the crowd to chime in) Chasing a little white rabbit.”
And they were off in a roaring cacophony of sizzling instrumentation from the ominous, gothic strumming by Leslie on mandolin to Kyle Tuttle distorting his banjo like Jimi Hendrix cranking his Strat. Keith-Hynes fed the frenzied tempo with her scratchy fiddle. Then the volume slowly descended until all you could hear was Means plucking the first notes of ‘White Rabbit’ on upright bass. The rest of the band gradually joined in until the music reached a crescendo with the crowd wildly singing along, “Feed your head.”
Tuttle then gave Golden Highway and probably the crowd as well a break from the frantic pace by playing a solo acoustic rendition of ‘The First Time I Fell in Love,’ a lilting confessional on the uncertainty of holding on to your identity when the seas of romance become choppy. The band returned and Tuttle raised the question, “Y’all want to hear a fiddle tune. Here’s one for ya I learned from Kenny Baker and Bill Monroe,” sending Golden Highway off like a comet streaking through the night sky on ‘Bluegrass in the Backwoods’, leaving behind whispers of awe. Once again, people in the crowd were shouting song titles. Tuttle extended her arms with palms downward to quiet the throng. “Okay, okay, I’m hearing two standout songs. It’s between ‘Dire Wolf’ and ‘Helpless’. You guys cheer as I say each song title and whichever one gets the loudest response; I’ll play that one.” The winner by a few ear-splitting decibels over the Grateful Dead song was the Neil Young chestnut, and unlike the divided country, the two sides came together, swaying back and forth in rhythm to the wind stirring the tall pines surrounding the venue.
Tuttle has a knack for developing a rapport with the audience, her engaging observations sprinkled with patter like toppings on a glazed donut. But she turned serious for a moment, informing everyone: “This month is Alopecia Awareness Month. Looking out in the crowd, I see myself, this little bald kid running around, kind of sticking out in the crowd, and a lot of times it made me feel self-conscious. It took me years to embrace who I was and see this insecurity as really something that made me stronger and made me who I am. We all have things that are hard that we deal with and struggle with, but we overcome them eventually.”
To a rousing ovation, she boldly removed her long brown-haired wig and dedicated the song ‘Crooked Tree’ to “All the crooked trees in the audience.” Keith-Hynes’ fiddle created an atmosphere thick with emotion while the stoic Means added a layer of depth on upright bass. Tuttle flatpicked her way down the road less travelled, singing, “Who am I to wish I wasn’t the way I am.”
The five musicians gathered around the mic for the gorgeous ‘More Like a River,’ voices blended in harmony as Leslie’s mandolin serenaded the song’s charm. “Step on in, feel your whole body shiver / We got love more like a river”. The emotional tide lifted when Austin and Sarah McCombie of openers The Chatham Rabbits joined in on the Ola Belle Reed classic ‘I’ve Endured.’ Then Kyle Tuttle asked if the crowd was “ready to get wild.” The answer was a resounding yes, the signal for the band to launch ‘Into the Wild,’ then pivot to ‘Dooley’s Farm,’ a barn-burner about illicit weed farming as a cottage industry.
Throughout the evening, Tuttle built on her incredible flatpicking technique, confessional songwriting and the light-hearted air of a free spirit to mesmerize the audience as well as any other performer seen this year. She’s at the forefront of a bluegrass renaissance, one that embraces every nook and cranny of this music, savored by both traditionalists and progressives. The encore was the message within ‘Big Backyard.’ And some folks say to stake your claim / And fence it in, but I see it different / Come on out to the big backyard / It ain’t mine, it ain’t yours, it’s all of ours.
