Molly Tuttle Puts A Bluegrass Spin On The Jefferson Airplane Hit “White Rabbit”

Molly Tuttle country music

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway’s cover of Jefferson Airplane’s 1960s classic “White Rabbit,” originally recorded as an Amazon Music exclusive this past fall, can now be heard wherever you listen to music.

Written by Grace Slick during her days with a band called The Great Society, “White Rabbit” was first recorded in 1967 when Slick became the lead singer of the San Francisco-based psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane. The song contains several references to Lewis Carroll’s famous 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which is one of the reasons Tuttle has been drawn to the track, along with its roots in the San Francisco area of California that she has called home for the majority of her life.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway posted a live performance of the song from Suwanee Hulaween festival in Live Oak, FL on YouTube today, and provided some background on their decision to cover it in the comments.

“I have loved the story of Alice in Wonderland since I read the book as a kid and played the Queen of Hearts in my school play. I chose to cover ‘White Rabbit’ back in the fall of 2020 for a live stream of songs by San Francisco Bay Area artists.

Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane is from Palo Alto, CA, just like me, and this song gives me the nostalgic feeling of growing up, but recording it also pushed my band forward into new territory musically.

This is the first song I have arranged, produced and recorded from the ground up with the band members that I’ve been on the road with all year.

Golden Highway—aka Shelby Means, Dominick Leslie, Kyle Tuttle, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes—and I have formed a strong musical bond after playing almost 100 shows together this year. Each band member brought ideas to the table, making this a truly collaborative effort.”

For anyone who is not familiar, Jefferson Airplane was a well known band in the late 1960s and early 1970s, emerging from the same scene that produced legendary psychedelic and jam acts like the Grateful Dead. They played the original Woodstock festival in 1969, and their most popular song “White Rabbit,” allegedly written as Slick was coming down from an acid trip, has received tons of accolades.

Amassing over 230 million streams on Spotify to date, “White Rabbit” has been a mainstay a various “Greatest Songs of All Time” lists over the years.

Here is the original version of the song, for your reference.

The 2023 Grammy winner for Best Bluegrass Album, Tuttle has proved that she has a wide range of musical influences, and can channel them all impressively into her eclectic bluegrass sound.

Not too long ago, as part of her Grammy nominations, Tuttle released a bluegrass cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s angsty pop hit “Good 4 U.”

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway have been one of the hottest bands of late, traversing the bluegrass and jam band scenes and receiving high praise wherever they go. With a busy touring schedule, they can frequently be seen on massive festival lineups across the country, headlining venues everywhere, and opening for some of music’s biggest acts such as Dierks Bentley, Old Crow Medicine Show, Marcus King, and more.

And of course, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway’s breakthrough record, and one of my favorites of 2022, Crooked Tree.

“Dooley’s Farm”

“Crooked Tree”

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