Molly Tuttle is an award-winning American musician who plays guitar, banjo, and sings in the bluegrass tradition. She was born on January 14, 1993 in Santa Clara, California, and grew up in a musical family. She started playing guitar at age 8 and performed with her father and siblings as The Tuttles. She also recorded a duet album with her dad, The Old Apple Tree, when she was 13.
She attended the Berklee College of Music, where she met and joined the all-female bluegrass group The Goodbye Girls. She also recorded an EP with fiddler John Mailander. She graduated from Berklee in 2014 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue her solo career.
She released her debut solo EP, Rise, in 2017, which earned her critical acclaim and several nominations from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). She made history by becoming the first woman to win the IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award in 2017 and 2018. She also won the Americana Music Association's Instrumentalist of the Year award in 2018.
In 2020, she released her first full-length album, When You're Ready, which showcased her songwriting skills and expanded her musical horizons beyond bluegrass. She collaborated with producer Ryan Hewitt and co-writers such as Sarah Jarosz, Steve Poltz, and Jewel. The album received positive reviews and a nomination for Best Folk Album at the 63rd Grammy Awards.
She is also a respected teacher and has taught guitar workshops at various festivals and camps. She has a website where she offers online lessons and tabs for her songs. She is known for her virtuosic flatpicking, clawhammer, and crosspicking techniques, as well as her expressive vocals and original songs. She cites Laurie Lewis, Kathy Kallick, Alison Krauss, and Hazel Dickens as some of her role models.
She is currently working on her second album, which will be released in 2021. She has also been performing live streams and virtual concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is one of the most influential and innovative artists in the contemporary acoustic music scene.