photo by Hunter McRae

Art and design by Fetzer Designs

CHARLESTON, SC –– Today, GRAMMY and IBMA Award winning bluegrass bassist Shelby Means has released her solo debut, a traditional, burning original song, "Streets of Boulder." Previewed by The Bluegrass Situation, the track is full of heartbreak, longing, and the propulsive magnetic energy Means has become known for as an instrumentalist, songwriter, and vocalist across her lauded career in roots music. STREAM HERE. 

"I wrote this song in college," Means tells BGS. "It was my first attempt to write a heartbreak song and it became the first original song I performed in a band. ... I really wanted [my brother,] Jacob Means, to play mandolin on this recording ... with Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, Ron Block, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes. I invited Molly Tuttle and Kyle Tuttle to sing harmonies with me and we spent one afternoon in a hotel room recording [them]..."

The resulting track certainly doesn't sound like the first original song Means has released, finding her in 2025 with a confidence and ease moving from her many experiences as a sidewoman and band member to center stage. After multiple decades performing with some of the buzziest names in bluegrass and Americana – Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Della Mae, Sally & George, and more – Means shines out front with her piercing and singular voice, thoughtful (and effortlessly bluegrass) lyrics, and her assertive bass playing. 

With more solo releases slated for later in 2025, Shelby Means will continue to demonstrate the full depth and breadth of her musical talents for the first time under her own name. 

Stream "Streets of Boulder" (Feat. Molly Tuttle, Kyle Tuttle) here.

(Downloadable WAV and MP3 files available for press / radio upon request.) 

WRITER: Stratton Lawrence

PHOTOGRAPHER:  Hunter McRae Lawrence

Shelby Means wasn’t quite sure about this e-mail attachment. She’d met Joel Timmons in 2012, at a music festival in Bristol, Tennessee, where he seemed to go out of his way to hear her perform, and again when she visited Charleston to play at Awendaw Green in fall 2013. But what was this MP3 file? She pressed play.

I saw her on State Street, on the Tennessee side
And I knew in an instant, someday she’d be mine
I went to her concert; I wore a disguise
And I couldn’t hold steady when she flashed them bright eyes
My heart was a’ pounding as I emptied my glass
Struck blind by a vision of things that would pass

Shelby and her bluegrass band, Della Mae, called Nashville home but spent most of the year on tour. With her tall frame, blonde hair, and classic beauty, it wasn’t the first lovestruck fan the upright bassist had encountered. Not to mention, she had a boyfriend, and she’d told this guy about him back in Awendaw. Still, she listened as Joel’s prophecy continued:

Our courtship was torment, with us both on the road
Long Mondays and red eyes and tears on the phone
So I moved to Nashville and became a side man
Got to play at the Opry, but I still missed the sand
She taught me to horse ride, we took trips to the sea
And on Cumberland Island, I got
down on one knee

Whoa, she thought, the boyfriend definitely shouldn’t hear this. Shelby played it for her mom and for her brother. What she didn’t do—for two anguishing weeks—was reply…

Click for the full story

In Shelby Means’ childhood home, weekends were for bluegrass. The best pickers in Laramie, Wyoming, gathered at her house, where she anchored jam sessions on the upright bass while her father and brother played guitar and mandolin. Another constant? Chocolate Bundt cake in the oven and a pot of chili on the stove.

“The motto around my house was, ‘If you eat good, you play good,’” Means recalls. As the bassist in Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, it’s a mantra she still lives by. After winning the Grammy for best bluegrass album earlier this year (besting fellow nominees like Willie Nelson and Sam Bush), she and the band splurged on
a bottle of champagne (“You can’t drink prosecco to celebrate a Grammy,” Means laughs) and dinner at L.A.’s Musso and Frank Grill...

https://southernflavormagazine.com/a-musicians-taste-blog/shelby-means-bake-to-bass-ics62024

Shelby Means, who grew up in Laramie, won a Grammy in mid-February for her work with the band Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway on their album “City of Gold.” The group received the win in the best bluegrass album category. ..

https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/ultimate-honor-laramies-own-shelby-means-wins-grammy/article_edd06fc2-d814-11ee-8fe9-d7681a0bc158.html

Growing up, Shelby Means' dad would wake her up by playing the banjo. But now, the Laramie woman is waking up the world with her bass fiddle. Means is part of Molly Tuttle’s Golden Highway Band which just won a Grammy for best bluegrass album.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/02/18/wyomings-shelby-means-wins-grammy-for-best-bluegrass-album/

https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/calendar/musician-spotlight-shelby-means-091822

BY: CAROL ANTMAN published in the Daniel Island News

Even before she was born, Shelby Means was a musician. “My dad would invite guys over to jam and I was rockin’ out in my mother’s womb,” Means said. “He would play this raucous kind of guitar and I would move and when he stopped I would settle down, so they knew I had something going on.”

Means’ first instrument was the fiddle. At the age of 5, she placed second in Wyoming’s peewee division. In grade school, she learned viola and guitar and sang in choirs. But when she was 14 years old, she had a revelation. “I saw a woman playing the bass and I said, ‘Oh my gosh! That’s my instrument,’” Means said. “I haven’t been able to put it down since.” Means has schlepped her 50-pound folding bass to over 30 countries and will appear at Spoleto on June 9 as part of Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway.

When she’s not touring, Means lives with her husband, Joel Timmons, on Folly Beach.Known for his popular band Sol Driven Train, he’s currently on tour with Sam Rae. They also have two bands together, Lover’s Leap and Sally and George, so it’s a juggling act to find time together. Somehow they manage to meet in various places and play gigs together. Meanwhile she’s a cultural ambassador, a role she finds tremendously gratifying. “It’s been one of the highlights of my musical career to travel the world, experience musical culture and share the universal language of music,” Means said.

Her passion was ignited during college when she was tapped to represent American folk music at Akademicka Nitra in Slovakia. It grew when she played with the Grammy-nominated band Della Mae and they traveled on three state department tours to Asia, the Middle East and Brazil. A trip to Pakistan where cultural differences were so startling was particularly memorable. “We were an all-girl band and performed for a few all-women colleges,” Means said. “We couldn’t speak the same language, but we could share songs together and connect through music.”

Molly Tuttle was the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association’s guitar player of the year award. Twice actually. She’s known for her flatpicking, clawhammer and crosspicking guitar prowess. Means added her pitch-perfect harmony and bass wizardry to Molly’s band in January and they’ve been playing to sell out crowds across the country. “It’s really nice to be in a band run by a woman,” Means said. “It’s powerful and it’s time, especially for Bluegrass music.”

Tuttle stings from encounters with egotistical male musicians such as a jam session where it was her turn to solo and the leader ”leaned right in front of me and pointed to the guy next to me and… just completely skipped over me.” But now “I have my own band, so there’s no one who’s going to make me feel like that guy did.” Several of Tuttle’s songs are written from a woman’s perspective making her an outlier in the male-dominated genre. The band’s latest recording, “Crooked Tree,” features songs about strong women and a cowgirl duet with Gillian Welch.

As the June 9 Spoleto date approaches, Means is envisioning playing for her growing local fanbase. It’s particularly gratifying for Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway to be among the stellar acts that span genres and cultures and to represent the finest of Bluegrass music. Means is anticipating the electric vibe, the beautiful darkened Cistern, the crowd reveling in live music. “The Spanish moss draping down… it feels like it’s going to be magical,” Means added.

Excerpt from the article:

What is your definition of tone and how has it changed over the years?

Tone is life; it is my fingers on the string, my breath, and intention on my vocal cords, my hand on the bow, the weight of my shoulder, and the resonance of energy that creates sound waves in time. Tone is all encompassing and all about our perception… it can be pleasing or harsh, popping with attack or sweet and gentle. 

Read more at the Guitar Girl website below.

https://guitargirlmag.com/interviews/tone-talk/tone-talk-with-shelby-means/?fbclid=IwAR2mMXfazJPdxNitZ49Rzl3qaXiKtTDe12r-Js6JI3-Y8EfPFX_scc3JPZUhttps://guitargirlmag.com/interviews/tone-talk/tone-talk-with-shelby-means/?fbclid=IwAR2mMXfazJPdxNitZ49Rzl3qaXiKtTDe12r-Js6JI3-Y8EfPFX_scc3JPZU

Set to be released April 19, 2019, the eponymous collection of songs is a healthy mix of all four member’s backgrounds

BASS MAGAZINE

FEB 6, 2019

“Set to be released April 19, 2019, the eponymous collection of songs is a healthy mix of all four member’s backgrounds; beautiful, tight three-part harmony, dobro acrobatics, easy groove, and galloping bluegrass. Over the course of a year, Lovers Leap was recorded one or two days at a time, dancing around band members’ hectic schedules, in both touring and everyday life.”

https://bassmagazine.com/artists/shelby-means-and-lovers-leap-announce-self-titled-debut-ep?fbclid=IwAR3TvDh7__71q0FbQVCaE43XUqqucqyPJIyP6CNHhuJGfmOpcuq2LXfPigo

Sally & George had their first tour in the Virgin Islands Jan 27-Feb 2. We played 5 shows on St. Thomas and St. John and it was a great experience. We took advantage of the beautiful scenery to film an application for the Tiny Desk Concert contest.

George managed to catch a LOT of waves... 50 in one day! He is tan and happy from the sun, sand, waves, and music. I got the chance to finish reading The Heart of Yoga and also soaked up some vitamin D. The Sally & George show is coming along swell! It's exciting to work on music and performing and we can't wait to bring the show to you sometime soon! 

xo

Sally aka Shelby

Welcome

live. love. light.

breathe right.

groove to the bass beats.

xo

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Meet my amazing gold sparkle bass custom made by Italia Guitars! I'm a girl in love, for sure.

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Do you ever write lists and add things that you've already done to the list, just so you can check it off? Like most people, I have a bucket list. Paddling down the grand canyon with my boyfriend and his family, occasionally wearing a Bat Girl costume was not actually on it. I'm gonna give myself a checkmark anyway. Here's an abridged story(I'm working on the novel but it may take a few years)... 

I'd been on about two dates with my boyfriend and co conspirator George when he asked me if I would paddle the Grand Canyon with him. I was amazed that he would ask me so soon into our courtship. With my free spirited track record, he would be lucky if we were still together over a year down the road! I laughed and said sure, not truly understanding what I agreed to do. 

chocolate milk colorado river August 2015

I don't like camping in a tent. Fish freak me out. I'm addicted to chapstick. And I admit, although I love to go down the rapids, rafting as a whole had always been pretty boring for me. Slowly the minor (cough. cough) details leaked out of George. "Everything you pack in, you pack out," he casually mentioned at Christmas last year. That doesn't sound too bad until you start thinking about the food. And then the food that has been digested... Yes.

Of course scorpions, snakes, and ringtailed cats were potential dangers along the way. Then there's the fact that cell phones don't work at all in the canyon and we would be totally cut off from civilization for 16 days. Our best chance of contacting help was from a sattelite phone, and the chances that we would contact extraterrestrial beings was greater than reaching a plane flying overhead. So all of these small details began to line up before me and I decided not to go. I sat on the decision for about two months and then the reality of what I would be missing out on hit me. I woke up one day and knew what I had to do. 

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