There have been plenty of genres of music in Nashville -- country, bluegrass, pop, rock -- and Molly Tuttle has been known as a musician who likes to fuse all of them together into her playing and her songwriting.
Tuttle has been playing stringed instruments, mainly guitar, for her whole life thanks to her father who's a music teacher.
"I grew up hearing recordings being played all the time and hearing my dad playing guitar and fiddle and mandolin around the house," Tuttle said.
Tuttle was raised in California, but her sights were always set on Tennessee, the land of Bluegrass.
"It was always kind of in the back of my mind that Nashville would be a cool place to transition to after school," Tuttle explained.
After Tuttle wrapped up school at Berklee College of Music, she arrived in Music City and hit the ground running, playing Bluegrass with other musicians, and at the age of 24, Tuttle has released her first EP.
"It felt so good to get into the studio and just finally record these songs that I've been wanting to record for a long time," Tuttle said.
Titled "Rise," the seven-track EP covers multiple genres and is the culmination of Tuttle's experiences in moving from California to Boston to Nashville and the changes that came along the way, and the EP was made possible by supporters of Tuttle online through Pledge Music.
"A lot of them I had never even talked to before, but they were like, 'Oh, we've been following you for years,'" Tuttle said.
Nearly all of Tuttle's YouTube videos have tens of thousands of views, helping her gain that support, and she has hoped that through collaborating with other Nashville musicians on her EP, people will recognize and appreciate the musicianship all while hearing the stories.
"I hope people can relate to it if they're also going through transitions in life or remember times when they were," Tuttle said.
For Tuttle, the big question has been what transitions in life she'll face next, but she said she knows no matter where she goes, it'll involve music.
"There's endless creative possibilities, endless people to collaborate with and people to get to know. I'm just always excited to go out and meet new people," she said.
Tuttle's EP "Rise" has been made available through her website, and Tuttle will be playing an EP release show on Saturday, June 3 at 8:25 p.m.
