Molly Tuttle interview on Mile High Stash

Colorado writer and musician Adam Perry hosts a weekly podcast called Mile High Stash. Each Monday he drops a new episode featuring an interview with a notable musician or artist.

Recently, Mile High Stash interviewed bluegrass/Americana artist Molly Tuttle. Molly hails from California, but she has a strong following here in Colorado (in fact, she’s performing in Fort Collins and Denver this fall). Earlier this year Molly won her first Grammy (her 2022 album Crooked Tree was named Best Bluegrass Album), and just this month she and her band Golden Highway released their latest album titled City of Gold.

During their interview, Adam and Molly talk about the Grateful Dead, playing bluegrass in California, her love of the ocean, her upcoming gigs in Colorado, and her new album City of Gold.

Below are some highlights from the interview:

On the Grateful Dead:

“I think about them a lot because I’m from Palo Alto [California], and my first show ever was in at a pizza store down the road from my house. It wasn’t the same one they played in, but yeah, I think that’s just really cool because when I think about, like, ‘How do I have any sort of place in this music that people associate with Kentucky and the South when I’m from California,’ I think how so many great bluegrass records were made out in California. You have like [the band] Old and In the Way with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman and Peter Rowan, and so many of the albums that I grew up listening to, and that kind of taught me about this music. I do think about the Grateful Dead a lot, and I’ve gotten to meet Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann recently, and it’s been really cool to kind of talk Bay Area with them. Bill Kreutzmann went to the same high school that I did in Palo Alto.”

On being a bluegrass musician from California:

“I think the ocean has been something that’s always felt inspiring to me. I love that my happy place is going to the beach, especially in Northern California, where it feels so wild still, and you can just drive along the coast and find all these little hidden-away beaches where there might not be any other people. It kind of has this mysterious quality to it, to me, where you can look out and it seems to go on forever. So that’s like something that it makes me feel creative, and I get excited about using ocean as a metaphor in songs. I’m sure there’s lots of bluegrass songs that reference the sea, but it’s not the most common topic.”

On Colorado:

“I feel like the best bluegrass fans are out here. I love coming to Colorado and playing music, and it feels kind of like home to me because I grew up out west in California and it’s just kind of like, you have the beauty of the mountains, which I miss about my home state, and everyone really loves nature, which I resonate with. Anytime we play a show [in Colorado] people are just so into it, and I feel like there’s just an audience that really appreciates the music that I play.”

Listen to the full Mile High Stash interview with Molly Tuttle here or on your favorite streaming service. You can also visit Mile High Stash for past episodes and more information on the show and host Adam Perry.

The Colorado Sound presents Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway Oct. 20 at the Aggie Theatre in Fort Collins, Colo. Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway also perform Oct. 21 at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom & Other Side in Denver.