Live Music Returns–Gloriously–To Arden

What a joyous event.  The great Molly Tuttle and the wonderful singer/songwriter/instrumentalist Rachel Baiman wowed the crowd in the Shady Grove yesterday. The weather was gorgeous and everybody was stoked.  The rules were simple: You didn’t need to wear a mask except when you got up to go somewhere (beer table, merch table, Port-A-Potty).  We had initially planned to do the pod circles, but decided not to thanks to the Governor’s order.  Nobody complained.  We did limit the ticket sales, as we certainly could have sold a lot more. What started out as a cautious experiment turned into a full-blown success.

Rachel opened.  It turns out that she and Molly are road buddies and have toured together quite a bit.  In fact, Rachel played several songs with Molly later that night. Accompanied her on fiddle, banjo, and vocals.

Her politics are definitely in tune with most of the readers of this blog.  She has a new album coming out in June, and she played some excellent songs from it last night.  Here is one of her better-known songs from her 2017 album:

Having grown up in the midwest and having traveled to many of the small factory towns there, this song, which she covers on her new album, spoke to her:

Because Molly Tuttle is such a great instrumentalist, what sometimes gets overlooked is that she’s one of the best damn songwriters around.  During her generous set, she played two new songs that were so indelible that I just can’t wait for her next album.  This one’s from her most recent album, and it gave me chills:

Don’t mess with Molly’s mind:

Admit it. When you think of songs for Molly to cover, the first name that comes to mind is…Rancid. Amirite?:

I know that some of our readers were at the show yesterday.  Feel free to share your media and your thoughts with us.

I don’t want to let go of this experience. It was exhilarating.