Molly Tuttle - ...But I'd Rather Be With You

In March 2020 a tornado tore through East Nashville. Weeks later the pandemic shut everything down. Molly Tuttle's response was to start playing songs she loved, on her own, to remind herself why she did this at all. She taught herself Pro Tools, recorded and engineered every one of her own parts at home, and sent the files to producer Tony Berg two thousand miles away in Los Angeles, who called in session players to add their pieces from their own houses. What came out in August 2020 is one of the better records the lockdown produced.

The song choices are the thing. The National's "Fake Empire" opens it, the Rolling Stones' "She's A Rainbow" follows, and after that she goes wherever she likes: Arthur Russell's "A Little Lost," Karen Dalton's "Something On Your Mind," FKA twigs' "Mirrored Heart," Rancid's "Olympia, WA," the Grateful Dead's "Standing On The Moon," Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Zero," Harry Styles' "Sunflower, Vol. 6" and Cat Stevens' "How Can I Tell You." Almost none of it is bluegrass, and her flatpicking recontextualises all of it without ever turning the exercise into novelty. Matt Chamberlain drums, Rich Hinman plays pedal steel, with Z Berg and Ketch Secor guesting.

Made two years before Crooked Tree, it is the record where Tuttle's taste and range are laid out plainly, and it explains a lot about where she went next.

Limited translucent pink vinyl reissue on Compass Records.