After recently announcing a shift from touring with her longtime band Golden Highway to performing with a new ensemble, Molly Tuttle surprised fans on Tuesday with news of a new solo album, So Long Little Miss Sunshine, and shared the first single, “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark”.
Due out August 15th, Tuttle’s fifth full-length album marks a significant departure from her previous releases, the last two of which, Crooked Tree and City of Gold, each won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. The new collection was recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce (Orville Peck, Miranda Lambert, Lainey Wilson) and features eleven original songs blending pop, country, rock, and flat-picking, plus one murder ballad and a cover of Icona Pop and Charli XCX’s “I Love It”.
The album highlights Tuttle’s virtuosic guitar work more than ever before and serves as her first release to highlight her banjo abilities, as well. It was recorded with drummer/percussionists Jay Bellerose and Fred Eltringham, bassist Byron House, and Joyce on multiple instruments. Tuttle’s partner Ketch Secor (Old Crow Medicine Show) co-wrote much of the album and plays banjo, fiddle, and harmonica, as well as singing harmony. “We spend so much time together, we live together, and anytime I have a song idea, or he has one, it’s just so easy to transition from whatever we’re doing into writing a song,” Tuttle explained.
She added that she had “been wanting to make this record for such a long time,” noting, “Part of me was scared to do such a big departure, and that went into the album title.” Ultimately, she overcame her apprehension and decided, “‘You know what? I’m just not going to care what people think. I’m going to do what I want.’”
Tuttle takes an empowered stance on the cover of So Long Little Miss Sunshine, which she designed herself, appearing unapologetically bald surrounded by several Mollys, each in a different wig. Tuttle has lived with alopecia areata since age three and now serves as a spokesperson for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, using her platform to challenge beauty norms and inspire confidence in others facing the same condition.
Along with the album announcement, Tuttle gave fans a first taste with the spunky lead single “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark”.
“I wrote ‘That’s Gonna Leave a Mark’ with my friend Kevin Griffin,” she said. “He has such a brilliant pop sensibility. We reworked it a little bit last year. It’s fun, sort of sassy, and that guitar part is one of my favorites that I play on the record.”
Tuttle also announced plans to hit the road with her new live band this fall for The Highway Knows tour, which will kick off on September 10th at Chicago’s Thalia Hall and make stops at Brooklyn Steel in New York, The Fonda in Los Angeles, and more before concluding on December 13th at The Fillmore in San Francisco. Before then, she will embark on a run of summer tour dates starting June 6th in Vail, CO and including an intimate show at New York’s Mercury Lounge on June 24th. Tickets for most of the newly added dates are on-sale Friday, June 6th. Click below for a full list of tour dates and secure your tickets here.
Check out “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark” below or on your preferred streaming platform, and click here to pre-order/pre-save So Long Little Miss Sunshine.
Molly Tuttle – “That’s Gonna Leave A Mark”