A virtuosic, award-winning guitarist with a gift for insightful songwriting, Molly Tuttle established herself as a new artist to watch with her boundary-breaking debut album, WHEN YOU’RE READY. What followed were dates at Telluride, Newport Folk Fest, an appearance on CBS Saturday Morning, and an enthusiastic reception both by critics and her fellow musicians.

In March 2020, the Nashville-based artist experienced the devastating tornado that tore through much of East Nashville, followed by the global pandemic. Tuttle, who grew up in California and has toured as a solo artist for years, suddenly found herself—along with the rest of the musician community—sheltering at home. She found solace in revisiting favorite songs from throughout her life in an attempt to “remind myself why I love music.” She conceptualized an idea for a record with renowned LA producer Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Andrew Bird) to be recorded over 2,000 miles apart.

Tuttle taught herself how to use ProTools, recorded and engineered all of her parts alone before sending them to Berg in Los Angeles. The result is 10 tracks that cross the musical spectrum and the decades, from FKA Twigs to Cat Stevens, from Rancid to Karen Dalton, that will be released as …but i’d rather be with you on Compass Records. The songs range from a shimmering version of The National’s “Fake Empire,” to her version of The Rolling Stones “She’s a Rainbow,” all united by Tuttle’s clear, true voice, astonishing range and incredible musicianship. “I love so many types of music, and it’s exciting to be a part of different musical worlds,” she says, “but when I’m creating, I don’t think about genres or how it will fit into any particular format—it’s just music.”

That pursuit of freedom continues to be explored and developed on …but i’d rather be with you, which conveys a further progression of her distinctive talent and musical ambition and gives an indication of the broad scope of her talent.