What we eagerly expected and got from the Molly Tuttle show at the Arlington on Sunday was a friendly thrill ride and a warm ‘n’ fuzzy continuation of the rise of the “newgrass” sensation, singer, and guitar flat picker extraordinaire. Tuttle’s Santa Barbara fanbase has been fortunate to watch her steadily upward career path, through virtually annual shows in the progressively larger venues of SOhO, the Lobero, Campbell Hall, and now the big dream factory of the Arlington, presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.
Last weekend, she easily packed the house, fueled by the popularity and now Grammy nominated — and yes, poppier — album Goodbye Little Miss Sunshine.
What we may not have expected is that Sunday’s many shades of country affair would also be a celebration of musical women of country. Not only is Tuttle’s strikingly fine band an all-female outfit, but the headliner also handpicked two impressive female singers to open the evening — the artists known as Meels and Kaitlin Butts. Remember those names. And get thee to a Google search.
Bold vocal powers and new spin traditionalist songwriting captured our attention in the warm-up portion of the evening (always wise to catch opening acts, usually carefully curated by the headliners). Both Meels, born as Amelia Einhorn and hailing from Mill Valley, California, and Butts, from Nashville by way of her hometown of Tulsa, blended big ol’ voices, sometimes in the Dolly Parton vein, with lyrical themes tinged by feminist fire and storytelling zeal.
And on the gender angle, Tuttle, who’s got flatpicking licks and she knows how to show them, long ago busted through the by-now tired gender stereotype that men have a monopoly on wizardly soloing chops. She continues to show it, even on the poppier fare on the new album — with her acoustic guitar playing hot in the mix — and from the outset at the Arlington, on the Billy Strings cover “Red Daisy.”
Compared to the more unplugged and more strictly (but not hardly) bluegrass energy of her past shows, she came on with a new show biz fire on the Arlington stage. Her band emerged with a blast of unshy volume, with a pumping bass and drum rhythm section, fiddle, and an electric guitar, and rock show-esque lights to boot. By contrast, a mellower section of the show (a highlight for this listener) found her, with just guitar and voice, giving a fresh take on the Grateful Dead’s classic “Dire Wolf,” and then joined in the circle around one microphone mode for “San Joaquin” and “Side Saddles.”
Some have balked at the “pop goes newgrass” aspect of Tuttle’s new album, which tilts in the direction of Taylor Swift at times, and has yielded a bonafide hit with “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark.” But she maintains roots and also sheds some “wigs.” Bald since the age of 3, because of the condition known as Alopecia Areata, Tuttle shows her clean scalp surrounded by bewigged portraits on her new album’s cover, and on the tune “Old Me (New Wig),” she ripped off her wig, mid-song, and proudly played without wig or pretense for the rest of the show.
Although Tuttle is breaking new ground this year, with her more commercially inclined and pop-hooky new album and new band, links to her dazzling former band Golden Highway remain strong, as heard in several Highway tunes. Starring vehicles from that songbook, such as “Where Did all the Wild Things Go?” and the fetching “Crooked Tree” (title track of her Grammy-nabbing album), perked up the set.
She also has an uncanny way of making covers her own, as on a rewired version of the Rolling Stones’s “She’s a Rainbow” (with teasing stop-start riffs), and a three-pack come encore time. It is a testament to her unique and natural ken for crossing genre borders that, unlike many other bluegrassers, Tuttle makes savory music of Townes Van Zandt’s “White Freight Liner Blues,” Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” and The Donnas’ “Dancing with Myself.”
Once again, Santa Barbara can confirm a central fact about this special artist: Tuttle has the music in her, whatever her stylistic shores or venues.
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