Evan Martin & Molly Graham
Part 2: Molly
Evan Martin and Molly Graham are what you might call a “power couple”— both are deeply embedded behind the scenes in various New Orleans music outfits. Last month we featured Evan, and this month it’s Molly’s turn! —Ed.
When I met Molly Graham in a beer garden a few years ago, at our mutual musician friend Cally Cole’s birthday party, she was wearing a powder blue cropped t-shirt with bright yellow writing that read, “DUMP HIM.” Her easy smile, quick laugh, and face full of freckles made her instantly disarming, but Graham’s true strengths lie in being a master of multitasking, a fierce advocate for her family, friends, and co-workers, and a person who says, “I can do that!” no matter what the task is.
The second notable time we saw each other, Graham was running late for her own birthday party. She had left food simmering in the kitchen with the instructions, “I’m putting a pot of gumbo on the stove. I’m gonna leave to go to the Pels game to play the National Anthem real quick, and then I’m gonna come back. Can you make sure the house doesn’t burn down?” By the time she breezed back in, the party was already in full swing, and Graham began ladling out bowls for her guests, still in full performance regalia.
As a violinist, stage manager, band manager, model, assistant tour manager, sibling of seven, cat mom, amateur baker, and, most recently, actress, Graham rarely sits still. When I arrived at her and Evan Martin’s place for this feature, she was rinsing icing out of her hair, doing last minute costume prep for Muses, popping in and out of the room, and still finding time to bring me coffee, water, and a bowl of red beans, all while posing for our photoshoot and answering my questions.
You do a million things but your main gig is touring with Trombone Shorty, so let’s jump right into what that’s like.
I stage manage and assistant tour manage for him. So what a typical performance day looks like is: I direct getting all the gear on stage. The guys open up the truck [and], as the cases come rolling, I say where they need to go. I get them started on projects. I divide, disperse, and direct labor. Sometimes that’s more hands-on and means I’m setting up the lighting cubes. Sometimes I’m able to move on and keep things going from my BearCom [portable radio]. It’s the most essential piece of gear for my job. Once that’s settled, I put on my assistant tour manager hat. I submit the guest list, make guest passes, deal with anything the band doesn’t want to talk to the tour manager about, and then—when they invite me—I jump on stage and play the violin!
How do you transition from one hat to the next, especially when it’s going from behind the scenes to onstage?
I want to be fabulous. I’ve done this a couple times where I’ve played a gig and I was working all day, so I’m not feeling fabulous, but I’ll put on a skirt, throw in some hair tinsel and [put on some] lipstick, and then I’ll play. And then I’ll be done and I’ll put a sweatshirt on. After I sat in at Tip’s with Shorty one time, I had heels on and my feet hurt, so I took my shoes off after playing and was wearing banana socks and needed people to respect me, in my socks, while I said, “Let’s start breaking down hardware! Can we please pull up all these XLRs?”
Even when you talk about difficult things, you seem to be doing it with a baseline of jolliness. How do you keep that up on these long, exhausting tours?
Every experience is what you make it, so if you’re not having fun, that might be a you problem. I was raised by a single mom. My dad passed away when I was 11. I was one of seven kids. We didn’t have a lot of money. I was buying my own clothes by the time I was 14. I moved out and was living by myself, paying rent at 17. I worked in restaurants while I was full-time in school. I’ve been working a long time and I’ve been doing a lot of stuff I don’t want to do, so I’m always finding ways I can giggle my way through it and have fun, even if that’s just by bringing a baked good to work so I’ve got a sweet treat at a hard time.
Working Jazz Fest 2024 for Trombone Shorty. Photo by Kate LaRocca
You said that your portable radio was the most essential piece of gear for the job, but what else can you not live without? And how many people are on that radio at a time?
About six people? We’ve got a backline tech, monitors, front of house, tour manager, merch, and me. The artists aren’t on them but sometimes I do let them talk on my radio ‘cause it’s funny. I always like to have my radio nearby. I like to have a permanent marker nearby. It sounds funny but it’s so helpful. I need a printer. I have a portable one that I bring when I’m on the road [the Canon PIXMA TR160 Portable Wireless Printer], and I also have a box of my “fun things” like slappy hands and candy. They’re my HR tools. I try to lighten the mood. People get really stressed and so focused and I’m like, “Y’all, this is supposed to be fun!” Having a knife on you is also helpful. Do you have any idea how many cardboard boxes I cut?!
There’s an impressive picture of you having just triumphantly loaded in and set up a whole wall of light.
Those things are amazing. They’re called [Elation Lighting] CUEPIX panels. We can write words in them ‘cause each light is controllable and we can stack them in different ways. When I assemble them, I call it my “me time.” People know not to disturb me unless it’s important. I don’t load much gear, but just those lighting panels are heavy for me to lift out. I’m covered in bruises from pushing cases with my thighs ‘cause my legs are stronger than my arms. Keeping a ship going is exhausting. Everybody needs something all the time.
A while back, I was speaking with a member of Shorty’s band who said there was a tour where you became the senior tour manager almost by surprise. Is that something we can talk about in writing or is it an off-the-record level nightmare?
Oh, that tour was terrible. I will say, on the record, that it was Murphy’s Law level bad. It was planned well, everybody did their jobs well, but all of the external factors that you can’t control happened. We were bookended by hurricanes. There was a hurricane on the way there and there was a hurricane on the way back and when we got there, we didn’t have a bus driver because nobody could get there because of the hurricanes, so we had to rebook hotel rooms for 22 people, which was crazy. I’m 26, I was only allowed to rent an Airbnb last year. Our bus ended up breaking down at one point at a casino in Tampa. The hurricane was coming to Florida. The casino called me and was like, “Can you move your bus?” And I was like, “I literally can’t. There’s no alternator.” I didn’t want to call the tour manager ‘cause he was getting married, so I was like, “I’m not calling him… I can handle this… it’s fine.”
You are the main tour manager for some smaller productions?
I tour manage for David Shaw and I assistant tour manage for The Revivalists. The Revivalists is such a New Orleans group. Everyone’s friends with everybody. The green rooms get so crowded, so crazy. Everyone’s welcome. It’s warm and inviting and I love it. As one of seven kids, I’m used to a million and one people in my space. I didn’t have my own room ‘til I was 16. I do really well on tour—it’s more privacy than I’m used to. I’m like, “I get my own bunk?!” My family jokes around and says I tour manage them. My brother asked me to “tour manage” his proposal. He was like, “Can you tell me where I need to park and can you be the photographer?”
We’ve barely talked about you as a performer, which is a large part of your identity, so let’s shift gears: What type of violin do you play?
My original violin is a Jay Haide [4/4 Guarneri L’ancienne] violin: four string, acoustic. It’s no Stradivarius but it’s what my single mom generously afforded for me when I was in high school, so I am grateful and I still play it. It’s an extension of me. I did recently start using my five-string electric violin, [a Yamaha YEV-105] that I bought at Keller’s, which has an additional string so it’s kinda like a viola and a violin. I have a pedal board now that’s got a delay pedal, a freeze pedal, a tuner, a distortion pedal, a reverb pedal, and a harmony pedal, which are all things that Evan [Martin] and Carter Wilkinson put together for me.
What did you tell them your goals were, with building you a board?
I really wanted a reverb pedal and to just get used to working with pedals and try to experiment with the sound ‘cause it’s not something I’ve done too much of. I’ve been using it with my band, Cally Cole & The Cosmos. I’m trying new things. I wanted my board to be simple. I didn’t want anything that I had to program. I wanted something that I could just click with my foot and call it a day. I’m at a rudimentary level with my pedals right now.
You have a very distinctive look and body language when you play.
Like a willow tree? Or one of those inflatable [waving arm] dolls? Or Bambi on Ice? My brother was like, “Molly is fun to watch ‘cause she’s like a Tim Burton character that does ballet.” Maybe as I grow as a musician, I’ll start using pedals that are more complicated but, for now, just let me cook.
You mentioned Cally Cole’s band. I know you’re a founding member but what’s your exact role? Are you the music director of that band?
The title we set was music director, but I’ve kind of taken on more of a band director role where Cally and I are really partners. We meet every week and joke around that she’s got the ideas and the creativity and I’ve got the drive and the type A personality to where we really complement one another. We both work on it all. I manage TikTok, she manages Instagram. She reaches out to festivals, I reach out to venues. We tag team everything.
And you also sing in this project!
I do! I sing. I love to sing. When I was in high school my teachers used to tell me I sing better than I play, which is a really mean thing to say when you’re trying to play violin. I’m not a [professional] singer but the band is really encouraging and helps me try new things with harmonizing. I’m actually going to be in a musical in June! Le Petit Theatre reached out to me and asked if I could come audition and I was like, “I’m not an actor. You don’t want me to audition.” And they were like, “Please, we need violinists. Come give it a shot.” I had to sing. I had to dance. I had to speak in a Czech accent, play my violin, and read lines—
Czech? Is it Once?
It is! Do you know it?
My mom represented the emcee character who doubled as the music director in the original Broadway cast, so I got to go to the opening. That’s a great show and role for you. I assume you’re the ex-girlfriend?
I am! I’m excited! It’s 12 shows. I hope you can come.
Speaking of daring new performances, there are really cool pictures of you, way up in the air in an impossibly long formal dress, playing your instrument. What can you tell me about being a Towering Violinist? How high up are you?
There’s a couple different towers that we use but, ultimately, the top of my head is about 20 feet in the air. It’s very tall. It’s about two stories.
Is it terrifying, being that far up in the air on a tiny pedestal? How much are you allowed to reveal?
Well, it’s not my intellectual property. It’s Amanda Thompson’s. But I can confidently say that I do feel safe because that was a priority for her. It’s kinda scary any time you’re that high up but she made sure I felt comfortable. I move pretty freely and I’m only up there for 40 minutes to an hour, ‘cause they want to make sure I feel hydrated and can use the bathroom and all of that. I’ve been doing it since October of 2024. I’m the first call, but there are other amazing musicians who do step up (pun intended) and take the gig for me when I’m out of town and they do such a good job.
With all that you’ve accomplished, you’re still only 26, smiley, and model-pretty. Is it sometimes impossible to get people to follow your lead?
It is. It’s really hard to get people to take me seriously, I say, covered in tassles and in a wig. People assume that they know more than me. When they have more experience and time put in than I do, I recognize that power. However, I also have a lot of perspective to offer and, on the flip side, being a young, attractive female can get a lot of stuff done. I’m disarming.
Do you ever find yourself convincing people that your ideas are their ideas?
Always. I taught Troy [“Trombone Shorty” Andrews] that it’s not manipulation—it’s strategic communication. I am constantly having to gentle parent people. There was one time when the way I look made all of our lives easier. I was with the Shorty tour coming back from Canada. There were about 11 of us in my camp. I was on one bus, the tour manager was on the other one, and I had a stack of passports. I was responsible for my entire bus’ passports. I’m sitting up front next to the driver and we pull up to Border Patrol to get back into the States and they saw me and probably thought, “She’s gotta be this Christian rock singer or something.” They did not make any of us get out. They just laughed, looked at the passports, and said, “Yeah, you’re good.”
Top photo by Sabrina Stone
Bottom photo by Andrew Alwert
