When You're Ready

Molly Tuttle came up the way generations of bluegrass pickers had before her—with a family band and fiddle camps—but her interest in acoustic virtuosity spans stylistic boundaries, and conservatory training further broadened her horizons. She moves between bluegrass, singer-songwriter, contemporary folk, jammy acoustic, and Americana scenes with an ease that’s reflected on her debut solo album When You’re Ready. It’s a showcase not only of her fleet innovations on her instrument (see: her percussive frailing approach to “Take the Journey”) but also of her delicate precision as a singer and her sparkling songwriting ideas. In “Make My Mind Up” and "Light Came In (Power Went Out)," Tuttle channels her grasp of tradition into airily expansive, pop-savvy forms.