Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - Crooked Tree

Molly Tuttle had already built a reputation as one of the fastest and cleanest flatpickers of her generation. Crooked Tree, released in April 2022, is where she proved she was a songwriter first. Thirteen originals co-produced with Jerry Douglas, a new band called Golden Highway behind her, and a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album at the end of it. She was also nominated for Best New Artist that year, which says something about how far outside bluegrass the record reached.

The title track is the key. Tuttle writes plainly about alopecia and about being different, and once you have heard it the rest of the album reads differently: these are songs about not fitting the shape you were supposed to. "She'll Change" and "Nashville Mess Around" are where the picking takes over, both of them frighteningly fast without ever feeling like a demonstration. The guest list is a who's who and none of it feels like padding: Billy Strings on "Dooley's Farm," Sierra Hull on "Over The Line," Gillian Welch on "Side Saddle," Old Crow Medicine Show on "Big Backyard," Margo Price on "Flatland Girl." Douglas plays the Dobro solo on "Dooley's Farm" himself.

Recorded at Ocean Way Nashville and mixed by Sean Sullivan, it also took Album of the Year at the 2023 International Folk Music Awards and helped Tuttle win Female Vocalist of the Year at the IBMAs. The record that started her run, and still the one to hear first.