Venue:
Cadogan Hall
Date: 12/01/2024
There’s a soubriquet in country music – the ‘triple threat’. This means someone who not only can sing beautifully, but can play their instrument (almost always the guitar) and – most rarefied of all – also write great songs that engage not only the heart but the postman’s whistling muscles. On a YouTube trawl last year, I came across Molly Tuttle, a fantastic bluegrass flatpicker, playing with fellow youngster Billy Strings on a clip that has reached over 6 million views. A deeper dive uncovered Molly’s own songs and her lovely singing voice, mainly with her band Golden Highway. Best of the lot was her song Crooked Tree, a touching ode to growing up physically different (as she did) – the straight trees go to the sawmill to be turned into ‘toothpicks and twenty dollar bills’, the crooked trees don’t fit into the mill machine and live ‘wild and free’. I became a bit of a fan of this new triple threat and when I saw she was supporting Tommy Emmanuel on his UK tour, I snagged a sole ticket.
The Cadogan Hall is usually a classical venue and, what with its Sloane Square address and snobby neighbours, employs an early curfew. This makes it a Heppo and Ellen-friendly experience, starting early and finishing by 10. Molly appears just after 7:30 to a half-full venue, wearing a flouncy pink top paired with a pair of expensive looking black bellbottoms. There is no Golden Highway to back her up, just a sunburst Martin but, as she kicks off with the frantic ‘She’ll Change’, I consider this just fine and dandy. The song has space to breathe, you can hear all the words and her dizzying technique shows what you can do with a nice guitar and voice – if you’re very talented. The songs from her two albums sail by, a bit of honky-tonk fingerpicking on ‘More like a River’ and flailing clawhammer on set-closer ‘Take the Journey’. The best reaction is probably for her version of a song ‘by a band from around here’ – The Stones’ She’s A Rainbow. But, bah, no Crooked Tree.
The portly gents who arrive for Molly’s last few songs nudged each other and said ‘she’s a bit good, isn’t she?’ but have clearly only come for the main attraction. Tommy Emmanuel is a mainstay in the guitar magazines I buy – a white-quiffed Aussie who is widely known as the acoustic guitarist’s acoustic guitarist but not someone I’d ever gone out of my way to hear. My (fairly) preconception-free experience commences.
Tommy Emmanuel is, undisputedly, very good at playing the guitar. He has an easy charm and a stage patter honed from years at the musical coalface. However, the truth of it is, Tommy Emmanuel is not a triple threat. He sings a little bit. He writes some of his material but relies heavily on covers. He does, however, play amazing guitar in a variety of styles, causing you to wonder if there’s a loop pedal involved (there isn’t) or if he has done some kind of crossroads-located diabolical transaction (no again, just a massive amount of practice every day). But after a bit, with the pyrotechnics outwrestling the tune on occasions, one is reminded of the old adage about the dog that dances on its hind legs – we are marvelling at the ability, not the art. A (long) drum solo played on the body of an acoustic guitar is still a drum solo. Not that the sold-out audience minds at all, each song earning louder cheers. With his set coming to a close, Tommy brings Molly Tuttle on for a few numbers and my patience is rewarded: A lickety-split take on Townes Van Zandt’s Freightliner Blues and, to close, one of Tommy’s favourites – Crooked Tree, thus proving he really is a nice chap. I skip the encore and am home delightfully early, glad that I took the punt. I won’t be buying any Tommy Emmanuel albums – I’m guessing this is low down on his revenue stream anyway – but look forward to the return of Ms. Tuttle.
The audience:
More women and younger people than I had expected, but largely predictable: men in their forties and above with a large percentage of slavering guitarists shaking their heads in wonder.
It made me think..
There’s nothing like a good tune, sung and played well and this was largely provided by the support act. Tommy and Molly are on tour til the end of January if this sounds like your thing.
A nice review @TrypF, I’ve not a clue who Tommy Emmanuel is but fair play to him having Molly Tuttle on the bill.
I agree with everything you say about Molly Tuttle, I’ve really enjoyed her last 2 albums and I reckon there’s going to me much more fine material in the future.
I bought a Tommy Emsnuel album after seeing a video of him dueting with Mark Knopfler. Technically great but a cold fish.
Molly Tuttle is a great singer and live she was impressive when I saw her a couple of years ago just as her star was rising.
The problem I have is I can only take a little Bluegrass at a time. I haven’t heard her albums- are they entirely Bluegrass?
I would like to hear a more Americana sound and I would be a convert.
It’s definitely bluegrass-based, but there’s more range in styles and subjects – songs like Side Saddle is a duet with Gillian Welch and wouldn’t be out of place on one of her albums.
In my opinion, that’s the album to buy first, if you’re exploring her back catalogue with the excellent Golden Highway team.
I thought Crooked Tree was quite superb, but was a tad disappointed by their follow-up, which I played once and felt underwhelmed. Time for another spin I think, to see if a little time away has improved my ability to enjoy their music.
There are some great live performances to enjoy on Youtube.
Her covers album has some moments. Can’t remember the name offhand…..
No need to worry on that score @SteveT – grab a copy of the Crooked Tree album without fear. It’s a good one.
Spot on on both counts, @TrypF. Thanks for the review.
Agreed. Tommy leaves me cold. He had a brother Phil who I preferred.
Another fan of Molly Tuttle here and what I’ve heard of Tommy F. I quite like.
Tuttle is a wonderful talent. Good to see Mr Strings get a mention in your opening para. Both offer a future for acoustic backwoods music for when the Emmanuels have shuffled off. Still annoyed I had to miss a Strings show I had tickets for in November.
Thanks for the review – I will check her out. As for Tommy Emmanuel, I know he is incredibly popular and he sold out the Exeter Corn Exchange for his recent gig in no time at all, but I find his music very uninvolving. Perhaps he is more of a live proposition.
Nice review. I was supposed to be at this gig but a diary cock-up meant I had to miss it at the last minute. I’d bought the ticket to see Molly Tuttle. Tommy Emmanuel leaves me cold for the reasons given in the OP.
I’m v fond of this old recording by Molly and Jack Tuttle of a song written by a pal of mine.
That’s terrific!
I went to a Tom concert once – I found it a huge bore.
I’ve never got through one of his YouTube videos.
I had thought about catching this in order to see Molly Tuttle, but decided not to, and that sounds right – hopefully she’ll be back before long with her band and headlining. I agree that Crooked Tree is the album to start with, and I liked When You’re Ready, which is the first time I heard her, as well. The most recent album, City of Gold, I didn’t enjoy as much. But she’s a talent who has the potential to break through to greater success, for sure.
Looks like the Guardian agrees – from reading this, you’d have almost thought she was the main draw.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/14/molly-tuttle-review-cadogan-hall-london
Molly Tuttle’s great. I first became aware of her thanks to her covers album and it’s fabulous take on my favourite Rancid song, Olympia WA. (pretty sure she is bit of an old punk – there’s a whole series of vids on YT of her and a friend doing Operation Ivy covers).
Tommy Emmanuel….not so much. Many years ago I took my dad to see Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, and Mr Emmanuel was the support. It’s a set which has stuck in my mind, not so much for the performance as for the utter gracelessness with which he approached the performance and the audience. He seemed most put out that we weren’t floored by the technical virtuosity (which achieved the feat of being impressive and boring at the same time) and wasn’t shy about letting us know about it. I filed him away in the corner of my mind reserved for arseholes, and he hasn’t left it yet.
Molly does some great covers
That’s immensely satisfying. Grace would have approved. Hot Tuna should have done this.
That’s excellent, Mousey…
Tommy Emmanuel and Molly Tuttle. Names more suited for couple of turns from a 1970s working mens club.
Yeah. Tommy would have a frilly-fronted satin shirt and belt out songs like Feelings and The Green Green Grass of Home while some bald geezer behind him laboured over a quavery Hammond . Molly would do some kind of novelty paper-cutting act with a commentary of obscene jokes.
Oddly enough, Tommy Emmanuel wore a rather incongruous ‘Bobby Chariot’-styled white shirt with a frilly front at the gig, worn untucked over skinny, distressed black jeans. Not the best look, especially when compared with Molly who clearly always makes the sartorial effort.
Perhaps he’s living in the Jag and is on pills for his neeeeeves.
She is no relation to Andrew Tuttle, the Australian banjo whiz.
Or indeed Harry Tuttle, heating engineer.
…or Amy Tuttle from Crossroads…
(Turtle? Tuttle? Oh, please yerselves…)
Another triple threat – Vince Gill. Fabulous singer, superb musician on a number of instruments, top notch even in Nashville, excellent songwriter with millions of albums sold. On top of that, lovely bloke by all accounts and no one has a bad word to say about him. Handsome bugger when he was younger too.
I had seen this gig advertised at Lytham St Annes a while back and thought it was pisstakingly expensive for 2 solists. However I was persuaded to go, mainly as I’ve never seen Molly live and also because I made her latest album my toppermost pick in the recent Afterword yearend poll. It has been sold out for a while so I guess his agent knew what he was doing when setting the price. So I went last night t the Lowther Pavilion. Tommy said he’d never played there before. I reckon it holds about 400. Sound and lights very good. In particular you can see why Tommy would need to travel with his own lighting guy as the cues were very precise.
Molly was great. She has a phenomenal right hand technique whereby without looking she knows exactly which string is going to get plucked next. She played quite a few off the new album. For those of you who don’t know, she suffers from alopecia and generally wears a wig. She’s chosen a brunette long one for this tour. She went down a storm and I think it’s been a good business choice for her. Next time she comes to the UK, hopefully with the excellent Golden Highway, a lot of people will recognise the name and buy tickets.
Like the OP I grew a tad weary of Tommy towards the end of his 1hr 50m set. I found myself thinking, probably unfairly, that there’s a fine line between being an absolutely brilliant instrumentalist and an insufferable showoff. I have to say he always comes across well in interviews and YouiTube vids. He works incredibly hard during his set and parts of it must be knackering for a chap of his age (he’s 68). I also appreciated the fact that he made a couple of attempts to explain how he did particular things on the guitar, rather than keeping up the mystique. Not that there’s much chance of any of us mere mortals ever coming close. About a year ago I watched a long interview / demo with him on the Anderton’s Music Shop YouTube channel and the next video lined up for me was him appearing a long time ago on the Australian Version of Dis is Yer Loife. From this I learned that in his younger days he was a full-on rocker with all the excesses that go with that lifestyle. To his credit he’s come a long way since then. As the OP points out, it’s a shame that he’s not a better singer or songwriter. But he’s doing just fine, and fair play to him.
A more generous take on Tommy , Vince. He toured for a long time with his brother Phil, another hot shot guitarist.
Cadogan Hall is a great venue. Saw Alison Moorer/Shelby Lynn there a few years ago. I’m a bit torn for June – Asleep At The Wheel, or Roseanne Cash? Given that it means a trip from Midlands, I’ll probably have to choose.
Tommy Emmanuel is a great player, but there’s only so much virtuosity one can take. Saw him many years ago in Birmingham with Pierre Bensusan (The “King of DADGAD”). I’m not rushing to repeat the experience (also Albert Lee, who I’ve seen many times, and Joe Bonamassa).