Molly Tuttle

Biography

Molly Tuttle is the flatpicking phenomenon who broke one of bluegrass music's oldest barriers. In 2017 she became the first woman ever named Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, then won it again in 2018, the same year the Americana Music Association named her Instrumentalist of the Year. She was born January 14, 1993, in Santa Clara, California, and raised in Palo Alto, the daughter of Jack Tuttle, a bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and teacher. She started guitar at eight, was on stage with her dad by eleven, and at thirteen recorded an album of duets with him, The Old Apple Tree.

Bluegrass was a family business. As a teenager she played in The Tuttles with AJ Lee alongside her brothers Sullivan and Michael, and before she was twenty she had appeared with her father on A Prairie Home Companion, won the songwriting contest at MerleFest and received the first Hazel Dickens Memorial Scholarship. She went to Berklee College of Music on merit scholarships, played in the all-female group the Goodbye Girls, and in 2015 moved to Nashville. Her crowdfunded EP Rise (2017) and her Compass Records albums When You're Ready (2019) and But I'd Rather Be with You (2020) established her as a songwriter as well as a picker.

Here is the gem. When Molly was a kid, her dad made her a deal: save up $2,000 and she could buy her first Martin guitar. She did, and the guitar was still waiting at the shop when she came back with the money. It went with her to Berklee and onto her first studio sessions and tours. Years later she found a wartime 1943 Martin D-18, and Martin's team measured it to build her signature D-18 Molly Tuttle, unveiled at the 2026 NAMM Show with moon-phase inlays and a vintage sunburst top, alongside a more affordable D-X2E Molly Tuttle.

In 2021 she formed her dream band, Golden Highway, and their Nonesuch albums Crooked Tree (2022) and City of Gold (2023) both won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. Crooked Tree also took IBMA Album and Song of the Year, she was named IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year, and she was nominated for the all-genre Best New Artist Grammy in 2023. She has played and recorded with Billy Strings, Béla Fleck, Old Crow Medicine Show, Orville Peck and even Ringo Starr. In 2025 she launched a new all-female touring band and the Jay Joyce produced album So Long Little Miss Sunshine, pushing her sound toward pop and rock while keeping that lightning-fast right hand at the center.

Legendary Performance

First Ladies of Bluegrass Debut, RockyGrass

July 27, 2018 · Planet Bluegrass Ranch, Lyons, Colorado

On July 27, 2018, at the RockyGrass festival in Lyons, Colorado, Molly Tuttle stepped on stage with Alison Brown on banjo, Missy Raines on bass, Sierra Hull on mandolin and Becky Buller on fiddle. First billed as the Julia Belles, the quintet soon became known as the First Ladies of Bluegrass, a name with real weight behind it: these were women who had broken through as award-winning instrumentalists in a genre that had celebrated mostly male pickers for decades, and Molly was the first woman to be named IBMA Guitar Player of the Year.

The set was a celebration and a statement at the same time. Each player traded hot breaks and harmony vocals, and Molly's crosspicking and flatpicked solos held the guitar chair with the drive of the great bluegrass rhythm players. The group went on to play Analog at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville and the IBMA's Wide Open Bluegrass festival in Raleigh that September, and recorded together on Missy Raines's album Royal Traveler.

The First Ladies of Bluegrass helped change how the bluegrass world saw its instrumental stars. For Molly, then only 25, it confirmed her place among the genre's elite, and it came just months before she won her second straight IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award, cementing a run that opened the door for a new generation of women pickers.

Gear

1943 Martin D-18 and the D-18 Molly Tuttle signature (1943)

Known for: the wartime mahogany dreadnought behind her 2026 signature model

Molly Tuttle is a Martin player through and through. Her first Martin was the guitar she saved $2,000 to buy as a kid, and it carried her through Berklee and her first tours. Her prized instrument is a 1943 Martin D-18, a wartime all-mahogany dreadnought whose dry, punchy, focused tone is the classic bluegrass rhythm and lead sound. Mahogany dreadnoughts cut through a band without the heavy bass boom of rosewood, which is perfect for fast single-note breaks and the percussive rhythm chop that drives a bluegrass band.

Martin measured that guitar to create her signature D-18 Molly Tuttle, unveiled at the 2026 NAMM Show. It has an all-solid mahogany build, a 1 11/16 inch nut with an authentic 1940s neck profile (which she says is super comfortable for her hands), rear-shifted scalloped bracing, a vintage sunburst top, moon-phase inlays and oval tuners inspired by her original guitar. The companion D-X2E Molly Tuttle brings the same 40s neck to a more affordable model with built-in Martin E1 electronics, ready to plug in at any gig.

Signature Technique

Crosspicking, Rest-Stroke Flatpicking and Clawhammer Guitar

Molly Tuttle's right hand is one of the most admired in acoustic music. Her flatpicking is fast, clean and powerful, built on alternate picking for rapid eighth-note lines and on rest strokes, where the pick lands on the next string after a downstroke. She uses rest strokes for bass runs, G runs and slower melodies because they give each note more volume and help the guitar cut through a band.

Crosspicking is her signature. It means rolling across three strings, usually the fourth, third and second, over a held chord shape, a pattern she compares to a banjo roll. Played in groups of three against a 4/4 beat, it creates a shimmering, syncopated cascade. She switches between strict alternate picking for a more defined sound and down-down-up patterns for a smoother one, and you can hear it on songs like "When You're Ready" and on classic tunes in the tradition of the Stanley Brothers' guitarist George Shuffler.

She is also one of the few guitarists who plays clawhammer guitar, adapting the banjo's down-picking style. Inspired by Gillian Welch and her own banjo playing, she strikes down with her fingernail and adds the thumb on the low string, often in a banjo-like open G tuning with the B string raised to C, on songs like "Little Sadie" and "Take the Journey." Three-finger banjo-style picking appears in her music too.

Her influence has been profound. By winning IBMA Guitar Player of the Year twice and leading Grammy-winning bands, she proved a woman could be the hottest flatpicker in bluegrass, inspiring a wave of young players, and her mix of tradition with modern songwriting has helped bring bluegrass guitar to a wider audience.