Molly Tuttle - Livestream Concert, Volume 1- Sounds of the Bay - The Basement, Nashville, TN, 11-19-2020

A couple of months ago, I discovered a relatively new musical artist that I'd previously missed, Molly Tuttle, and posted a couple albums of her performing songs in acoustic mode during the 2020 pandemic. I think she's a triple threat: talented singer, songwriter, and guitar player. Her guitar playing is especially impressive.

It turns out that in late 2020, she did three concerts at a Nashville club called the Basement, and these shows were livestreamed over the Internet. I've managed to belatedly find all three, and I'm posting them here. They're all interesting because they have different themes, which means that they have totally different set lists. Also, it appears the vast majority of the songs are songs that she's never done in public before or since, but were worked up specially for these shows.

She is generally known as a progressive bluegrass artist, mostly doing folky and/or country styles. But she's been diversifying her sound on her most recent albums (as I write this in 2021). She shows remarkable range here, and generally rocks. Let's just say not many bluegrass artists would perform songs by the likes of Green Day, Rancid, and Sly and the Family Stone! 

Each of the three concerts had a theme. This one, the first one chronologically, had the theme of "Sounds of the Bay," meaning the San Francisco Bay. Although the show took place in Nashville, Tuttle grew up in the Bay area, so I presume that explains the theme. Most of the songs are not about the Bay area (though a couple are). Instead, she generally did covers of songs by bands that were based in the Bay area. For instance, the song "Olympia, WA," initially feels out of place, since that's about a town in Washington state, but it was originally done by Rancid, which was a band based in the Bay area.

For the concert, Tuttle was accompanied by a bassist and drummer, just enough backing to give her a full band sound. However, there is a little acoustic section in the middle of the show, from tracks 10 to 14. Generally speaking, the concert's songs aren't ones that show off her singing or guitar playing to maximum effect. It's more like she just went through a bunch of songs she really enjoyed, and had fun playing them. In my opinion, she performed an interesting mix of well-known classics, such as "White Rabbit," and obscurities, such as "Disco Man," which is not a one-hit wonder from the late 1970s like I first guessed, but is a 2020 EP track by Bay area musician Remi Wolf, who has only put out one album so far. Tuttle snuck in two songs she wrote herself, both of which are about the Bay area in some way.

The one bummer for me with this concert is that the version I've managed to find included almost no banter between songs. Only two brief comments were kept. I'm 99% sure she talked a lot more, especially since she did so for the recording I have of the third concert in this series. If anyone has a fuller version that includes the banter, please let me know and I'll add that in.

This concert recording is 54 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
02 Didn't I - Darondo
03 Basket Case - Green Day
04 Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez
06 Take the Journey - Molly Tuttle
07 Golden State of Mind - Molly Tuttle
08 Olympia, WA - Rancid
09 The Joker - Steve Miller Band
10 Diamond Joe - Laurie Lewis
11 Broken Tie - Kathy Kallick
12 Across the Great Divide - Kate Wolf
14 Cabin on a Mountain - Vern Williams
15 San Francisco Days - Chris Isaak
16 Disco Man - Remi Wolf
17 Lodi - Creedence Clearwater Revival
18 Standing on the Moon - Grateful Dead
19 Everyday People - Sly and the Family Stone

And here's the usual song list:

01 White Rabbit (Molly Tuttle)
02 Didn't I (Molly Tuttle)
03 Basket Case (Molly Tuttle)
04 Diamonds and Rust (Molly Tuttle)
05 talk (Molly Tuttle)
06 Take the Journey (Molly Tuttle)
07 Golden State of Mind (Molly Tuttle)
08 Olympia, WA (Molly Tuttle)
09 The Joker (Molly Tuttle)
10 Diamond Joe (Molly Tuttle)
11 Broken Tie (Molly Tuttle)
12 Across the Great Divide (Molly Tuttle)
13 talk (Molly Tuttle)
14 Cabin on a Mountain (Molly Tuttle)
15 San Francisco Days (Molly Tuttle)
16 Disco Man (Molly Tuttle)
17 Lodi (Molly Tuttle)
18 Standing on the Moon (Molly Tuttle)
19 Everyday People (Molly Tuttle)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16463679/MOLLYTTL2020HmeConcrtsVol1NshvilleTN__1-6-2020_to_9-3-2020_atse.zip.html

I only found one of the exact performances here on YouTube, her version of "Didn't I." I took a screenshot of the video to make the album cover art. The quality is rather low-res, but I figure it was worth it to get something from the concert in question.