Molly Tuttle shares details and title track from new album Crooked Tree

Molly Tuttle has announced her new album will be titled Crooked Tree and is due for release on April 1.

The news follows the arrival of Tuttle’s November single (and the first taster of the album), She’ll Change, which was co-written by Old Crow Medicine Show frontman, Ketch Secor.

Today’s announcement confirms that Secor and band are just one part of a larger list of guest talent that will also include Billy Strings, Margo Price, Dan Tyminski and Gillian Welch. 

Those songs aren't available yet, but Tuttle has shared a new single in the form of title track, Crooked Tree – which uses nature as a folksy metaphor for individuality, interspersing the vocals with some killer instrumental breaks.

The new record was co-produced by Tuttle and Jerry Douglas at Oceanway Studios in Nashville and, in contrast to the musician’s previous covers album 2020’s …but I’d rather be with you, is set to feature all-original material.

It‘s also being pitched as a return to the bluegrass world in which Tuttle was raised (and where she first honed her formidable picking style) – and, as previously reported, features members of her new bluegrass collective Golden Highway.

“I always knew I wanted to make a bluegrass record someday,” says Tuttle. 

“Once I started writing, everything flowed so easily: sometimes I’ve felt an internal pressure to come up with a sound no one’s heard before, but this time my intention was just to make an album that reflected the music that’s been passed down through generations in my family.  

“I found a way to do that while writing songs that feel true to who I am, and it really helped me to grow as a songwriter.”

Tuttle also seems to have captured something of the bluegrass community spirit in the recordings, too, incorporating a huge list of players across the sessions.

Alongside the names previously mentioned, other musicians involved in the recordings include producer Douglas (dobro), plus Golden Highway members Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle) and Dominick Leslie (mandolin).

Then there’s Darol Anger (fiddle), Ron Block (banjo), Mike Bub (upright bass), Jason Carter (fiddle), Viktor Krauss (upright bass), Todd Phillips (upright bass) and Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle), with Tina Adair, Lindsay Lou and Melody Walker on vocal harmony duties.

Check out the cover art and full tracklist below, and remember you can also catch Tuttle on tour around the US with Golden Highway right now.

Crooked Tree track list

1. She’ll Change
2. Flatland Girl (feat. Margo Price)      
3. Dooley's Farm (feat. Billy Strings)   
4. Big Backyard (feat. Old Crow Medicine Show)         
5. Crooked Tree
6. Castilleja
7. The River Knows
8. Over the Line         
9. Nashville Mess Around
10. San Francisco Blues (feat. Dan Tyminski)
11. Goodbye Girl
12. Side Saddle (feat. Gillian Welch)
13. Grass Valley

Fans can preorder or pre-save Crooked Tree and head to Molly Tuttle’s official site to buy tickets for her current Golden Highway shows.