Tag: primetime

Watch Molly Tuttle Perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Molly Tuttle kicked off the new year in style, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on January 5 to perform a GRAMMY-nominated song from her GRAMMY-nominated album. “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark” was released on So Long Little Miss Sunshine in August of 2025. The track was nominated for Best Americana Performance while the LP gained a nomination for Best Americana Album. Featuring her signature clawhammer guitar picking style and impassioned, heart-wrenching vocals, “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark” is a standout track from So Long Little Miss Sunshine, having held the No. 1 slot on the Americana radio charts for four weeks and having climbed to #13 on the AAA charts, as well.

On the Kimmel stage, Tuttle and her band – Ellen Angelico (guitar), Megan Jane (drums), Vanessa McGowan (bass), Mary Meyer (keys) – demonstrate the genre-blending style that’s also a hallmark of her most recent album. Clawhammer guitar builds a rich foundation for pop-steeped Americana, polish and grit combining in intricate and intriguing ways. Tuttle’s percussive right hand reminds of piano key strikes in similar singer-songwriter (but keys-centered), pop and adult contemporary styles. It may be surprising that old-timey and bluegrass textures could fit so well in this musical context, but this is an intersection of styles Tuttle has long been comfortable with.

Molly Tuttle will vie for the Best Americana Performance and Best Americana Album GRAMMYs on February 1, when the awards will be handed out in Los Angeles, before going on tour with Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives for Molly x Marty: Guitars on Fire — The Cosmic Twang Tour in the South and Northeast in February.

Photo Credit: Lead image courtesy of ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live!; alternate image courtesy of ABC, shot by Randy Holmes.

Watch Billy Strings Perform on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

On Thursday, November 20, 2025, Billy Strings and his band returned to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for another exciting bluegrass performance broadcast over the television airwaves. Strings’ 2024 album, Highway Prayers, was recently announced as a GRAMMY nominee for the Best Bluegrass Album award at the upcoming 2026 GRAMMY Awards, which will be held in early February. On Colbert, the group performed “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song” off the project to celebrate the LP’s nomination. (Watch above.) It’s Strings’ eighth GRAMMY nomination since 2020 and, if he wins in 2026, will be his third trophy for Best Bluegrass Album.

The band, which includes Jarrod Walker (mandolin), Royal Masat (bass), Billy Failing (banjo), and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle), were joined by fellow Best Bluegrass Album nominee Jason Carter for a twin-fiddle arrangement of “Leaning on a Travelin’ Song.” (Carter is GRAMMY-nominated with Michael Cleveland for their debut duo album, Carter & Cleveland.) Carter guested on the track on Highway Prayers, as well, supplying delicious twin fiddle and reprises his album role on the Colbert stage. The song begins with mournful a cappella three-part vocals and dramatic guitar strums before kicking into time with the lush, burning fiddling of Hargreaves and Carter.

As Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins put it in a comment on Instagram, “Yes sirs!! Nothing like some singin’ twin fiddles on National Television!” We and the many other commenters and viewers on the internet agree. Strings and his cohort sound excellent, offering warm, lively, and crisp, fresh-sounding bluegrass to millions over the television airwaves. The world could always use more twin fiddle, and it certainly always craves more Billy Strings.

We spoke to Billy Strings about Highway Prayers while celebrating the album’s release last fall when he was BGS Artist of the Month. Check out that interview here.

Photo Credit: Scott Kowalchyk for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.