A celestial collaboration just in time for a Spring celebration, Molly x Marty: Guitars on Fire: The Cosmic Twang Tour features illustrious singer/songwriter/guitarist Molly Tuttle accompanying universally renowned country and bluegrass stalwart Marty Stuart & His Famous Superlatives. The joint tour brings together honky-tonk country, contemporary bluegrass and spacey jams in a funky fusion of stellar songwriting and instrumental prowess.

Full of flatpicking and vibrato, Tuttle and Stuart started their tour on April 2, at the Smith Opera House in Geneva, NY a reschedule from February due to Stuart fracturing his wrist.

All has been mended for Stuart, who brought the psychedelic and bucolic together in an intoxicating blend of stellar songwriting, country picking, and high energy hillbilly blues.

Tuttle opened the evening with a solo set that was defined by her ability to operate a one woman show and illustrated her wide-ranging approaches on the guitar as well her earnest showmanship. She rolled out her opening set with “The Highway Knows,” a delightful single from her 2025 album So Long Little Miss Sunshine, a complex and lyrical evolution from her previous recordings, and a song that provides a wide view of her flatpicking panache and vocal melodicism.

She carried the musical load throughout her hour-long opening set delivering sophisticated guitar lines, interweaving vocal melodies and emitting an addictive buoyancy that translated to the audience. Her bluegrass foundation informed a resplendent reading of The Rolling Stones, “She’s a Rainbow,” where Tuttle’s guitar picking took the songs signature piano part into a new realm of musical dramaticism. Her clearstory backing providing new breadth and width to a well-known story.

A perfectly coordinated segue between Tuttle’s “Alice in the Bluegrass,” and Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” was beautifully disorienting with Tuttle’s recitation of Grace Slick’s vocals properly affecting.

Tuttle’s, “popabilly,” vibe combined rhythmic acumen with classic bluegrass technique. Her set showcased her innate ability to craft wonderfully written songs built from a multitude of influences while still remaining uniquely her own.

Marty Stuart joined Tuttle on stage for a huff and puff reading of Townes Van Zant’s “White Freight Liner Blues,” that streaked by in a virtuosic blur of dreadnaught riffing and mandolin scrubs.

After, Tuttle played an atmospheric reading of the Garcia/Hunter song “Standing on the Moon,” before she closed her set with her own inspired composition “Crooked Tree,” setting the perfect table for Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives to join.

Stuart and his band are comprised of Kenny Vaughan (guitar), Harry Stinson (drums/vocals), and Chris Scruggs (bass/steel guitar) are a consummate group of rockin’, stompin’, cosmic country gentleman. Brimming with silvery sparkles and rhinestones, these cats are experts in the dissemination of musical white line fever and barstool banter.

Stuart and his Nudie deckled compatriots opened the show with “La Tingo Tango,” a song featured on their new instrumental record Space Junk, 20 Superlative Instrumentals and continued to “Memphis Wiggle,” their way through a starry cross-section of Stuart’s special brand of song.

“Tear the Wood Pile Down,” smoldered with dual Telecasters and watery B-bender harmonies. A special note: Stuart was armed with the late great Clarence White’s famed Telecaster guitar and its recognizable tone cut through the room in the able and legendary hands of Stuart.

An acoustic based interlude featured drummer Stinson who brought a snare to the microphone for three-part harmonies and emotive run throughs of “Matches,” and “Come Back Home to Me.” Stuart even threw in a quote of “Folsom Prison Blues,” for good measure. Here, both Stuart and Vaughn’s taffy twang pulled on the heart’s strings elasticizing the arrangements into twilight grooves that defied gravity.

“Silver Tomahawk,” was a centerpiece of the show, with big vibrato courtesy of Cousin Kenny who accurately hit the bullseye before Stuart led the band into a slippery instrumental tribute to Herb Alpert.

The “Truck Drivers National Anthem,” “Six Days on the Road,” got a wide-eyed reading with two wheels up on the corners and summed up the set with some slapping bass and high tempo boogie-choogling’.

At the peak of the performance, each band member received a honky-tonk spotlight moment to share their wares which included Molly Tuttle; who joined the group for a delicately rendered version of the traditional murder ballad, “Cold Rain and Snow,” later made famous by the Grateful Dead.

After a breathless sock hop swing through straight shots of rock and roll with no chaser, Stuart and his band closed the evening with and extended performance of “Time Don’t Wait,” from the album Way Out West. A perfect folk-rock confection, “Time Don’t Wait,” was a proper singalong send off and a message that we can all take to heart.

The Marty and Molly show is a dual mono collaboration that came together on stage in glorious hi-fi stereo. These respective legends provide stoic bookends the long forms of rock, bluegrass, folk and traditional songwriting. By mixing classicism with a contemporary bent, Marty and Molly share a spectrum of songs the touch tradition, innovation, collaboration and joy.