By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring the post-hype Americana brilliance of Molly Tuttle’s SO LONG LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and the Pink Stones’ swirling cosmic country on THANK THE LORD… IT’S THE PINK STONES!
Molly Tuttle – SO LONG LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Genre: Americana, Folk Pop, Bluegrass
Favorite Tracks: “The Highway Knows,” “Golden State of Mind,” “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark”
If there’s one central idea antithetical to the mindset of good music criticism, it might best be summed up as “go pop, make slop.” Try as we might to cast aside the prejudice of labeling musicians as sellouts, it still pervades a ton of online discourse. Call me simple, but some of my favorite albums of the past decade or so have been ones which would historically be seen as “selling out:” Paramore’s self-titled album, Steven Wilson’s HAND. CANNOT. ERASE., Sarah Jarosz’s POLAROID LOVERS, etc. And while Molly Tuttle’s SO LONG LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE doesn’t quite belong to that echelon of releases, it certainly represents an electrifying transformation for her career.
What precisely paints SO LONG LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE as a “slop target?” It’s still largely based in the earthy, acoustic textures that have come to signify Molly Tuttle’s brand of bluegrass. Hell, album opener “Everything Burns” wouldn’t be too out of place on any of her previous releases with its bluesy opening lick and frenetic strumming and guitar runs (though its overt political messaging might raise alarm bells for conservative diehards). It’s on the breezy “The Highway Knows” that listeners are first clued into the change. Put simply, it’s the songwriting. The typical elements of bluegrass, its musicality and technical showmanship just aren’t present for much of the track. Instead, Tuttle paints an earnest picture of her love and devotion for co-writer Ketch Secor (of Old Crow Medicine Show) atop a mellow folk-pop groove. It’s a very direct bit of writing, though it doesn’t completely shy away from Tuttle’s natural talents on the guitar (just listen to that bridge). The song then bleeds into “Golden State of Mind,” which further confirms the shift in Tuttle’s sensibilities given its meditative melody and restraint.
Elsewhere, Tuttle delves even further into pop songwriting, with the two most exciting songs being “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark,” a cheeky bit of cooing that pre-COVID Taylor Swift could have written and “Easy,” which could’ve slotted onto Kacey Musgrave’s GOLDEN HOUR. It’s “Summer of Love” which takes the cake for the song best slotted to be a chart smash. It has all the hallmarks of a country pop hit, yet it strips away all the insufferable production choices that blot the industry in favor of something far more stripped-down, in turn letting the composition endear itself to listeners rather than repulse them.
If there’s any fault to be had with SO LONG LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, the overall product feels like a rather slight affair. It doesn’t feel like as big of a career statement/proclamation as one might imagine (perhaps an issue that could be resolved by resequencing the tracks), but perhaps that’s for the better. We all know Molly Tuttle is an incredibly gifted musician, so any additional boasting would probably just come across as insufferable and undercut the ethos of the album. If you haven’t already, give SO LONG LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE a listen on Bandcamp! [Connor Shelton]
The Pink Stones – THANK THE LORD… IT’S THE PINK STONES
Genre: Cosmic Country, Folk, Psychedelic Rock
Favorite Tracks: “Too Busy,” “Hometown Hotel,” “Start With Your Name”
I’ve never been abandoned in a cowboy bar, but I can picture how it would go very clearly. The cheap mirrorball would lazily spin and reflect across the scuffed hardwood floor. A neon sign for Miller Lite would flicker over the bar where I’m sitting. The “E” would be out in “Lite” so it would say “Miller Lit.” I would think that was funny before I got abandoned by a date or whatever. I would stir a Jack and Diet in a plastic cup with a straw, head propped up on my hand. I would spin around in my barstool to watch the last dancers on the floor, and the Pink Stones’ “Too Busy” would leak out of the speakers.
THANK THE LORD… IT’S THE PINK STONES is the latest LP from Athens, Georgia’s premiere psych-bluegrass outfit, the Pink Stones. While their last record, 2023’s YOU KNOW WHO, bent and warped around the pedal steel’s whine, THANK THE LORD… IT’S THE PINK STONES perfects straightforward, honky-tonk grooves that keep one boot firmly in their inspirations, and one boot stepping into the future.
On THANK THE LORD… IT’S THE PINK STONES, the Pink Stones have captured just how trance-y fiddles and drum brushes can get and use it to their advantage to conjure electric lovesick lyricism—but electric like a glowing incandescent bulb. On songs like “Real Sad Movies, Big Jet Planes,” Hunter Pinkston sings lyrics like, “Now that you’re gone, when I drive it always rains,” but little twinges like a slight distortion to his croon pulls the record from the days of Merle and Earl to setting a new country standard now.
This album will leave you thinking one thing: Thank the Lord, it’s the Pink Stones. Check them out on Bandcamp. [Caroline Alt]
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