This past Friday evening, bluegrass sensation Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway swung through Boston on their “Next Rodeo” Tour in support of their latest album, “City of Gold”. The event took place inside Berklee’s flagship room, the Berklee Performance Center to a nearly sold-out crowd.
The evening was opened up by young singer-songwriter and class of 2020 Berklee alum Jobi Ricco. From the get-go, she had the room captivated with nothing but her and an acoustic guitar. Playing songs from her debut album “Whiplash”, she wove in and out of ballads and more upbeat tunes, with the crowd hanging out to every word.
Next up, of course, was Molly Tuttle and her “new-ish” band Golden Highway. Molly made a name for herself a number of years ago in the bluegrass scene, but this iteration of Golden Highway has only been together for the past few. Even still, this band was as tight as ever and plays together like a band that’s been doing this forever. The chemistry is spot on, and I selfishly hope they’re together for a long, long time.
Their set opened up with ‘Evergreen, OK’ from their newest album, ‘City of Gold’, giving each member of Golden Highway to show their chops. Molly noted after the opening number that she and most of the band had all spent some time at Berklee College of Music, so it felt like coming home in a sense.
Later on, the crowd was treated to ‘Down Home Dispensary’, including a full breakdown from each highly acclaimed member of the band. Molly herself has many International Bluegrass Music Awards, including the 2017 guitar player of the year. Fiddle player Bronwyn is a two-time winner, banjo player Kyle Tuttle (no relation) is an International Banjo Champion, bass player Shelby is a Grammy nominated singer, and mandolin player Dominick is a Grammy winner himself. Needless to say, the crowd was delighted to see these masters of their craft.
Later on in the set, the band played an original ‘Alice in the Bluegrass’ which led directly into the crowd favorite cover ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane.
Towards the end of the show, the band played ‘Crooked Tree’, the title track from their Grammy award winning album. Before the song, Molly dedicated the song to all the ‘crooked trees’ in the audience, or those that may have felt alone, or special for being unique in their own ways. This also gave Molly a chance to speak about her journey with Alopecia Areata, while removing her wig, which got quite a cheer from the crowd.
After a standing ovation and brief encore, the band came out and treated the audience to ‘More Like a River’ and the old Molly classic ‘Take the Journey’.
The ‘Next Rodeo’ has one more east coast stop in DC this week, before heading to California in December.
CATCH MOLLY TUTTLE TOUR HERE!
LISTEN TO MOLLY TUTTLE HERE!
