Local musician Shelby Means and her band Golden Highway bring home a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album
by Miranda Steadman | Contributing Writer
Folly Beach resident Shelby Means flew out to Los Angeles last month to attend the 66th annual Grammy Awards ceremony. Means plays upright bass with Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway and she and her bandmates were nominated for Best Bluegrass Album.
The band’s critically-acclaimed 2023 album City of Gold was up against legendary country musician Willie Nelson, bluegrass royalty Sam Bush, newcomers Mighty Poplar, renowned fiddle player Michael Cleveland, and bluegrass “it” kid Billy Strings. Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway took home the Grammy for their City of Gold. It was a back-to-back win for the band who also won the award the previous year for their album Crooked Tree, beating out bluegrass stalwarts The Infamous Stringdusters, Del McCoury Band, Peter Rowan, and Yonder Mountain String Band.
Means recorded City of Gold along with the five-piece band at Sound Emporium Studio in Nashville last January.
“It was a total blast to make the album,” said Means. “To have Jerry Douglas producing us was surreal at times.”
Fiddle player Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show co-wrote every song on City of Gold along with bandleader Tuttle. The album features Means on bass, Tuttle on several guitars, Kyle Tuttle (no relation) on banjo, Dominic Leslie on mandolin, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes on fiddle. Douglas, widely considered the finest Dobro player in contemporary, acoustic music, co-produced the album with Tuttle and made a guest appearance on City of Gold.
“Working with Jerry Douglas was a high point in my career,” Means said.
A native of California, Tuttle has stated that she was inspired by the miners who came out to California to pan for gold during the Gold Rush when writing the track “El Dorado.” Dave Matthews collaborated with Tuttle on vocals.
Means co-wrote the tune “Next Rodeo” with Tuttle, about a working girl who won’t waste her time getting to know strangers in a new town because she must move on every night. Means wrote the song’s melody while Tuttle sings, “Ain’t got time to dosie-do, gotta get on to my next rodeo.”
The stoner anthem “Down Home Dispensary” urges legislators to “Legalize the southland and roll us a number.”
Means covers the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane live with Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway at Hulaween Music Festival at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL.
“I had this dream that the characters would be from Alice & Wonderland for the set,” Means said. In the upside-down, tea party-styled music video, Means plays bass dressed as the Mad Hatter while her husband wears a white rabbit costume behind the band. Tuttle, dressed as the Queen of Hearts, strums guitar, while fiddle player Keith-Hynes resembles Alice from the Lewis Carrol classic. Kyle Tuttle picks the banjo as the Cheshire Cat, and Leslie plays mandolin in a caterpillar suit. It’s a psychedelic music video born from a dream.
Golden Highway hit the road last month with a groovy tour schedule, which kicked off in Colorado and will take the asphalt highway all over the country. In April, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway will play Doc Watson’s festival Merlefest in Wilkesboro, N.C. Later this month they’ll travel to Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater in Albertville, AL to perform with Old Crow Medicine Show and then down to New Orleans to jam at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. In a bit of a homecoming for Means, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway will visit Charleston this coming fall to play The Refinery downtown.
“Being able to tour with this band that has become family to me and create something I’m really proud of validates what I’ve been working on for my whole life,” said Means.
When she was 13, Means said she saw a woman playing bass in an old-time music contest and decided to pick up the instrument up.
“I’d have so many blisters on my fingers in my teens while learning the bass,” said Means, whose father started playing guitar in his teens as well but wanted his daughter to play the fiddle because he enjoyed playing backup to Texas fiddle music. But when Means graduated from high school, he bought her a vintage Gibson J45 guitar from the 1960s. However, she would eventually make her mark as one of the best upright bass players in the game.
When home on Folly, Means said she enjoys walking on the beach with her dog, searching for shark teeth, practicing yoga seaside with Serenity Tree Yoga, and gardening. This January, she won Folly Beach Yard of The Month for her garden full of knockout roses, lemongrass, lavender, wintergreens and herbs in raised pink flower beds, peppers and Black-eyed Susan’s flourishing against her pink beach house.
“The community on Folly is just so warm and welcoming,” she said.
Means lives on Folly with her husband, Joel Timmons, who plays with the local rock band Sol Driven Train. The two enjoy jamming together at Folly’s funky beach bar Chico Feo.
“It’s so sweet to have George Fox hosting The Soapbox (at Chico Feo) and to be able to touch base with local artists up there every Monday,” Means said.
You can catch Means and Timmons playing bluegrass together on the marsh at Mosquito Beach Sunset Sessions on Tuesday, April 9.
“Being close to the ocean has its own power… it’s so vast and humbling,” Means said.
With a fresh Grammy and a Folly Beach Yard of The Month Award under her belt, Means means business. She’s ready to begin recording her new album at the Parlor Room in Nashville this month. The songs on Means’s solo album were inspired by where she grew up in Wyoming and her current home by the sea.
