RockyGrass Festival 2025’s Best Things We Saw: Molly Tuttle

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway played their final Golden Highway gig until further notice this past weekend at the RockyGrass festival in Lyons, Colorado. And the quintet went out full throttle.

“With this show we’re saying goodbye for now, as we each get ready to focus on other exciting musical endeavors,” Tuttle tells Rolling Stone. “We hope you’ll follow along and know that this isn’t the end of the journey, just switching lanes.”

Around for about three-and-a-half years, Golden Highway — with their crossover appeal and scorching stage presence — quickly became one of the most successful and innovative bluegrass ensembles of the 21st century, earning a pair of Grammys and IBMA awards along the way and making Tuttle a star.

“From the very beginning, the first tour, we were [playing] the songs really fast ’cause we had so much adrenaline. We were just freaking out and having a lot of fun,” says Golden Highway standup bassist Shelby Means. “Molly [brought] these people together and something about the dynamic, the chemistry clicked.”

For Tuttle, who grew up coming to RockyGrass as a kid, being a headliner at the bluegrass festival was a full-circle moment, especially when put into the context of her journey from guitar virtuoso to a marquee act.

“When I started working on my first bluegrass record Crooked Tree four years ago, a big dream was to headline RockyGrass,” Tuttle says. “It is such an honor to close out Friday night as we celebrate the past three years we’ve spent touring and making music together.”

The 53rd annual event hosted some of the biggest names in bluegrass music, including Sam Bush, Infamous Stringdusters, Del McCoury Band, Peter Rowan & Sam Grisman Project, and Rhonda Vincent & the Rage. It also featured rising stars from Lindsay Lou and AJ Lee & Blue Summit to Mason Via and the Fretliners.

“I’m known for progressive or ‘newgrass,’ but here is where we play more [traditional] bluegrass style stuff than other places,” Bush says. “Bluegrass really is the common denominator here, even though people can play progressively or old-time.”

Surrounded by the high-desert peaks and grassland valleys of the Rocky Mountains’ Front Range, the gathering is known for its laidback, easygoing environment. That’s coupled with a keen sense of musicianship and fellowship, often witnessed in late-night campground jams or daytime jaunts on inflatable tubes along the North Saint Vrain Creek bordering the venue.

“This is the friendliest, most family-oriented festival I can think of,” Bush says.

Along with Golden Highway’s set, here’s the best of what we saw.

East Nash Grass
Taking the main stage Friday evening, East Nash Grass rumbled through a rowdy set of high-octane bluegrass numbers. The group itself is a rapidly-rising force on the national touring scene, which was solidified with an IBMA honor for New Artist of the Year in 2024.

“We just draw from music on a wide scale,” says mandolinist Harry Clark. “But, at the same time, we’re all rooted in going to lawn chair bluegrass festivals, staying up late and picking in circles where everyone knows the same tunes — the community is a big part of it.”

What started as an impromptu group of professional side musicians in Nashville jamming weekly at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in nearby Madison has morphed into a hardscrabble touring act of its own that made a headlining appearance at the Ryman Auditorium earlier this month.

“[This band] ended up being a great source for us all to put our creative input or output into,” Clark says. “It was a chance for us to get to have a say in the songs we wanted to try to write and how we wanted to run our show.”

Sam Bush
With the hot summer sun fading behind nearby Longs Peak, a cool breeze rolled into the festival grounds while the Sam Bush Bluegrass Band closed the main stage Saturday.

“There’s a pathway of darkness, there’s a pathway of bright,” Bush rang out during a take of “Dancing With the Angels,” written by Peter Rowan, and recorded by Bush’s former band, the genre-bending New Grass Revival. “And they meet at the old crossroad/the angels are calling if your spirit with hearken/all is forgiven, lay down your weary load.”

“There’s a feeling that comes over me when it’s a bluegrass song, the whole band’s playing in time, and I get to play the backbeat,” the 73-year-old Bush says. “I can’t describe it. It isn’t in other music. Especially as I age, I try to keep embracing that feeling, to relax and play the things that excited me about bluegrass like when I was a kid.”

AJ Lee & Blue Summit
With recent nominations by the IBMA for Female Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year, AJ Lee & Blue Summit have found themselves on a rocket ride, especially heralded for their fiery live shows.

“We just want to have a good show,” Lee says. “And the most important thing is that we have a good time doing it. We don’t do it for any other reason except we like playing and seeing people enjoy that.”

The band can seamlessly weave from bluegrass to country to western swing to folk-rock, with the powerhouse vocals of Lee as the core. Her tone harnesses such an impressive sonic range that draws comparisons to Sheryl Crow and Alison Krauss.

“My mom always taught me, when I’m singing, to ‘let the song sing itself,’” Lee says. “So, I never really had the intention of becoming a very unique artist in that sort of way. I didn’t want to put my own ego too much into a style, but I think that’s what makes my own style.”

Del McCoury Band
In what was truly a family affair, 86-year-old Del McCoury strolled to the microphone alongside his two sons and longtime bandmates, mandolinist Ronnie McCoury and banjoist Rob McCoury, as well as two of Del’s grandsons, each on acoustic guitar.

“And I don’t mind dyin’, but for the love of you,” Del McCoury howled in his signature high-tenor voice during a rendition of Richard Thompson’s “1952 Vincent Black Lightning.”

“Well, I never take it for granted one bit, after all these years,” Ronnie McCoury says of playing next to his father. “He amazes the guys in the band with what he still does. The way he sings, the way he plays. And it’s at his age. He is 86 years young, I always say. It’s incredible to be able to do that.”

Shelby Means
The surprise set of the weekend came from Shelby Means on the Wildflower Stage. With Golden Highway now on the backburner, Means has been sliding into her own, bountiful solo project that straddles the line between bluegrass and Americana.

“I’ve been a side musician for most of my career,” Means says. “So, stepping forward under my own name, it feels like a foundation of something. It’s cool to have a little autonomy, and it’s exciting to think about my career in that way now.”

With a new self-titled album making waves on the bluegrass charts, the Laramie, Wyoming, native is proving she’s not only a talented musician, but a soothing, songbird vocalist and nuanced songwriter to boot.

“Who am I to leave you all alone/who are you to watch me walking out,” Means sang during “Streets of Boulder,” backed by Golden Highway bandmates Molly Tuttle and Kyle Tuttle. “How are we to know it won’t work out this time/who are we to know what love is all about.”

“There’s a lot of highs and a lot of lows in this job,” Means says. “And if you can reach one person at a show, that’s important. Sometimes when I get blue, I think maybe this song helped somebody, [and] I love seeing little kids, and especially women, coming and being inspired.”

Peter Rowan & Sam Grisman Project
Perhaps the most touching moment of RockyGrass came when the “Bluegrass Buddha” himself, Peter Rowan, emerged onto the main stage early Sunday evening alongside Sam Grisman Project.

Paying tribute to his groundbreaking 1970s bluegrass band Old & In the Way, Rowan meandered through several classic selections like “The Hobo Song,” “Panama Red,” and Vassar Clements’ “Kissimmee Kid.” But it was the seminal Rowan number “Midnight Moonlight” that conjured an audience singalong.

“And the ocean is howling/of things that might have been,” Rowan sang. “That last good morning sunrise/will be the brightest you’ve ever seen.”

At 83, Rowan is one of the elder statesmen of the “high, lonesome sound.” He remains an American musical institution — a living, melodic bridge between the “Father of Bluegrass,” the late Bill Monroe, and modern stars of the genre like Billy Strings, Tuttle, and Sierra Ferrell.

“That’s the whole thing with bluegrass,” Rowan says. “As slick as you may try to be, it’s challenging. There’s a smoothness to bluegrass that’s charming and very seductive — it’s the time in the music.”