It’s never easy to follow up a Grammy-winning album but arguably Molly Tuttle and her band, Golden Highway have done just that as City of Gold teems with terrific songs and a tad more energy than 2022’s winning Crooked Tree, which won Best Bluegrass Album. Established early on as picker par excellence (IBMA Guitar Player of the Year), Tuttle continues to grow her vocal and songwriting skills, the latter as she collaborated with Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show on all the songs. She’s smart enough not to mess with a winning formula as co-producer Jerry Douglas (dobro) returns as well as her band – Bronwyn Keith-Hynes (fiddle, harmony vocals), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), Shelby Means (bass, harmony vocals) and Kyle Tuttle (banjo, harmony vocals) as well as special guest Dave Matthews on “Yosemite.”
A field trip by the native northern Californian Tuttle as a kid learning about the gold rush, inspired the album. Bursting out with the breakneck “El Dorado” Tuttle sings of her guide on that field trip to Coloma, “I’m Gold Rush Kate from the Golden State/With a gold nugget around my neck” as the relentless picking and high lonesome harmonies bathe her animated lead vocal – bluegrass at its vibrant best. The intricate free form “Where Did All the Wild Things Go” bemoans the loss of the authentic to ever-increasing commercialism and gentrification as Tuttle sings with an agitated punkish attitude. Leslie’s mandolin shines here and again with his bandmates on “San Joaquin” where rapid-run bluegrass reaches a ridiculously blistering tempo. Hold on tight!
“Yosemite,” the duet with Matthews tells the true story of a cross-country “road-trip-from-hell” breakup with Tuttle’s ex, making clever metaphors where the car-like relationship is “running on fumes.” She continues the road theme in “Next Rodeo,” a feature for Keith-Hynes’ fiddle and the blissful group harmonies. Tempo finally recedes on the sixth track in, “When My Race Is Run,” a rather weird song idea where a lover is waiting for you on the other side once you’ve passed, musically imbued mostly by Douglas’ dobro, her own guitar picking, and the glorious sing-along harmonies. “Alice in Bluegrass” highlights the skills of her fine band while the haunting “Stranger Things” is both a vocal tour de force and a stunning dobro turn from Douglas. Tuttle is at her playful best, promoting marijuana legalization in the brief, upbeat “Down Home Dispensary.”
“More Like a River” plays to a swaying, seemingly familiar (but can’t quite place it) melody. And, as she does often in the second half of the album, she moves to another ballad with the mournful mountain elegy, “Goodbye Mary,” one that demonstrates her impressive vocal range. The rousing “Evergreen, OK” has her band at full throttle once again as crisp banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and guitar runs abound. The undulating closing “First Time I Fell In Love” is another of those “I feel like I’ve heard this before” songs.. Yet, as much as any, the song has that singalong quality Tuttle was after on the album, one that’s perfectly shaped for live performances.
