Artist Category: Bluegrass

The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project

The musical legacy of John Hartford has found a new chapter with The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project; Mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist, fiddle player Rachel Baiman, and banjo/guitarist Ella Korth bring newly discovered Hartford tunes to old-time and bluegrass fans everywhere. These compositions, found handwritten in 60 notebooks after John’s death, were compiled in The John Hartford Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes, and recorded on the GRAMMY-nominated album, The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Vol. 1, and Vol. 2: Julia Belle. Julia Belle was co-produced by Gilchrist and released in February 2025. The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project is passionate about sharing these tunes far and wide so that they can become part of the roots music canon for future musicians to love and enjoy.

The John Hartford Fiddle Project has performed at festivals such as The Earl Scruggs Music Festival, Cowichan Bluegrass Festival, the Folky Fish Festival and has toured house concerts throughout the States. The Project also presents workshops teaching tunes from Hartford’s Mammoth Collection FT book, aspects of Hartford’s iconic songwriting and creative ensemble practices Hartford lead in his own band.

Renowned mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist has performed and recorded with the Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet, Scott Nygaard & John Reischman in the Harmonic Tone Revealers, The CA Bluegrass Reunion Band, Darol Anger, Uncle Earl, Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, and many others. She is also an influential music educator offering multiple online mandolin courses at pegheadnation.com and teaching at music camps around the globe. Sharon has also performed and recorded with the acoustic string bands Uncle Earl and Della Mae who, like Hartford are known for creating their own sound within traditional music. In 2024, Sharon joined the John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 2 as an artist and co-producer alongside Katie Harford Hogue, Megan Lynch Chowning and guest producer Alison Brown.

Rachel Baiman has spent the last decade working as a musician in a wide variety of roles, from session musician (Molly Tuttle, Kelsey Waldon, Caroline Spence), to live sidewoman (Kacey Musgraves, Amy Ray), to bandmate and producer (Nicholas Jamerson, Josie Tonney). Known in the bluegrass and old-time world for her work with progressive fiddle duo 10 String Symphony, Rachel represents the new generation that carries on John Hartford’s legacy as both an instrumentalist and songwriter. Since 2017, Baiman has toured her solo project internationally with appearances at the Kilkenny Roots Festival in Ireland, the Mullum Music Festival in Australia, and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington, DC.

Guitar and Banjo phenom Ella Korth has been touring as a side musician with Leith Ross in Europe, the US and Canada, and played guitar for GRAMMY Award-winning John Reischman’s band at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. With her own musical project, Ella has played a number of festivals, including Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival, NimbleFingers, Cowichan Valley Bluegrass Festival, Oly Old Time and Folk’n Fiddle Music Festival. Passionate about songwriting and co-writing, Ella won a Kootenay Music award for “Best Roots Song” in 2018.

The Cody Sisters

“All the quiet people have got a lot to say,” sing the Cody Sisters on the title track to their forthcoming album. And the group—Maddie Cody, Megan Cody, and Will Pavilonis—has spent the better part of their young lives proving it, whether they’re collaborating as writers, harmonizing on bluegrass stages, or inviting fans to share their own stories.

“This feels like a project where we’re just jumpstarting everything,” says Maddie of All the Quiet People, recorded at Vermillion Studios with producer Mike Robinson and Engineer Eric Wiggs. “We’ve gone through a transitional period with our genre, with the way that we approach music. As we’ve grown, we’ve leaned into the sounds that feel truest to who we are.”

Maddie and Megan have been making music together since ages six and eight, respectively. Raised on the Colorado folk and bluegrass scene—with encouragement from their dad, who often played guitar around the house and was the original bass player in the band—festivals like RockyGrass were high notes amidst a lifelong musical awakening filled with live performances, songwriting, and travel. With Maddie on banjo, Megan on mandolin, and both women trading turns on the guitar, the sisters built a following quite early for their resonant harmonies and meticulous instrumental chops.The Cody Sisters took on a new depth in 2020 when bassist Will Pavilonis became part of the band, bringing fresh dimensions to their arrangements and sound.

“I immediately knew Will would be the perfect fit for the group,” explains Megan, who first connected with Pavilonis playing folk music in their freshman dorm. In addition to lending his talents on upright bass and vocal harmonies, Pavilonis quickly became an essential part of the writing process, too, helping pair Maddie’s lyrics and melodies with the right musical arrangements. On their 2023 self-titled EP as well as on tour stops across the United States and Europe, the Cody Sisters’ sound evolved and matured—a creative growth especially evident in All the Quiet People.

“In a way, this album is an expression of our coming of age story—together,” says Maddie. “Collectors on the Run,” for example, is based on a memorable night from the trio’s first time on the road together. “It was our last night of what we thought was this grand tour, driving our dad’s minivan across the midwest. We were all set on ending it with some extravagant fun night, but we wound up at a little league baseball game,” Megan explains with a laugh. “It’s so silly, but I think that was when all of us realized that we could do this forever; that we want to be on the road and collect all of these little stories together for as long as we can.”

The songs that aren’t strictly autobiographical often take inspiration from fictional stories and novels. “So often I connect with characters that I’ve picked up from books,” says Maddie, citing the work of Ocean Vuong as a major influence on tracks like “Mother Tongue.”

In many ways, the album’s potent combination of personal experience and compelling fiction underscores its major takeaway: that every story has value. “We want our listeners to understand that their stories should be heard no matter who they are,” says Maddie. “We’re all collectively just interested in making a small difference with our music—to add a little bit of joy to this chaotic world.”

Shelby Means

Born in the bluegrass of Kentucky and raised on Wyoming’s high plains, Shelby Means is one of the foremost bassists in bluegrass, with nearly two decades of experience in bluegrass, folk, rock, Americana, and country outfits. Now based in Charleston, SC, during her tenure in Nashville she was a member of the GRAMMY-nominated, incredibly impactful distaff bluegrass band, Della Mae. Throughout her career she has traveled to nearly 30 countries around the world spreading musical diplomacy.

Means is also one half of roots duo Sally & George with her husband and collaborator, Sol Driven Train’s Joel Timmons. With Timmons, Mary Lucey, and Billy Cardine, she co-founded another group, Lover’s Leap, a genre blurring, heart-led Americana band. Means is a member of Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, with whom she gained her first GRAMMY win for their 2023 album, City of Gold. She’s also received more than a handful of awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association for her work with Della Mae and Golden Highway.

Means is a driving player with a deep pocket, a singular stage presence, and a magnetic, centered approach to the upright bass. Beyond her work on the instrument, she’s also an accomplished songwriter and a heartfelt vocalist whose voice is rooted in tradition while authentically her own. With her debut solo music, slated for release in 2025, Means invites listeners to experience the same soulful presence and adventurous spirit she has built her career on. Her singing and playing has been heard across the country and around the world, from NPR’s airwaves, the Grand Ole Opry, Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and Newport Folk to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Kazakhstan, Australia, and beyond.

Ben Garnett

For Ben Garnett, the acoustic guitar is naturally cinematic. “It has this ability to build a world for other instruments to inhabit,” Garnett muses. His forthcoming album, Kite’s Keep (2025), features artfully constructed compositions brought to life by acoustic music luminaries like Darol Anger, Brittany Haas (fiddle), Ethan Jodziewicz, Paul Kowert (bass), and Chris Eldridge (guitar). “My dream was to shine a light on these pervasive, yet often overlooked, abilities of the instrument; to demonstrate that a ‘guitar record’ can actually showcase the guitar as this world-building, ensemble instrument, rather than merely a lead instrument.” Shifting its aperture from folk to bluegrass, pop to jazz, classical to avant-garde, Kite’s Keep rarely settles into any one particular genre; rather, it relishes the in-between spaces, revealing its innovations not through spectacle, but through the quiet power of storytelling in motion.

Every piece on Kite’s Keep is a mini-movie with its own narrative arc, cinematic close-ups, and golden hour lighting with Garnett as both auteur director and best supporting actor. Not surprising for someone who frequents the Belcourt, Nashville’s arthouse cinema, to study how stand-out indie movies create tension and emotional resonance. The album takes its cue from Andrés Segovia, who famously said, “the guitar is an orchestra.” Garnett likes to disassemble his compositions, handing out the parts to his co-conspirators to give guitaristic ideas a new timbral life. Says Garnett, “there are moments on this record where the fiddle and bass take over material born from the fretboard, carrying it up or down to places where the guitar can only point.” This can be heard on the opening track “Look Again,” with its prismatic melodies expanding outward or “Tell Me About You,” a conversation piece with interlocking parts, fitting together like puzzle pieces. Kite’s Keep is full of singable melodies and guitar parts that sparkle with a sense of verve and adventure.

From early on, music was an immersive experience for Garnett. He played tuba in his grade school band and loved the wild atmosphere when they warmed up in the hallway. He learned Green Day songs after school, but his guiding light was his cousin Andy Timmons, a rock guitar god who lived an hour away on Texas Highway 121. Andy played in Danger Danger and with Olivia Newton-John and imparted the wisdom that songs are more important than virtuosity. Young Garnett spent hours in Andy’s studio, surrounded by vintage tube amps and over 100 guitars, pouring over Beatles songs and basking in those shimmering Ibanez guitar tones. In his 20s, Garnett found a new kind of guitar hero studying with Julian Lage at the Savannah Acoustic Seminar before moving to Nashville and striking up a deep friendship with Chris Eldridge (Punch Brothers), who has since become his longtime mentor and collaborator.

Garnett’s self-assured debut album, Imitation Fields (2023), produced by Eldridge, is a refreshingly beautiful collision of new acoustic and electronic music. Hypnotic pulses meet rootsy melodies featuring an all-star cast of many of the musicians on Kite’s Keep, as well as Billy Contreras (fiddle), Dominick Leslie (mandolin), former Circus No. 9 bandmate Matthew Davis (banjo), and others. He has made duo records with Matt Glassmeyer (Speed of Wood Vol. 1, 2024), Ethan Sherman (Stereoscope, 2019), and Celia Hill (Spherically, 2016). Garnett tours with contemporary bluegrass bands Missy Raines & Allegheny and Circus No. 9. He’s performed on the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium, Big Ears Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Rochester Jazz Festival, Philadelphia Folk Fest, and toured extensively in the US, Canada, France, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand. As an educator, he’s taught at the Berklee College of Music, Targhee Music Camp, Idaho Bluegrass & Banjo Camp, Ashokan Bluegrass Camp, and Folk Alliance International.

Laura Orshaw

A respected powerhouse on the Bluegrass scene, Orshaw was the first female to win SPBGMA Fiddle Player of the Year and prides herself on keeping the sounds of traditional Bluegrass alive in the genre. With her sophomore solo project set to be released in early 2026, Orshaw is already a seasoned performer, having toured throughout the world opening and sharing the stage with artists such as Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, John Scofield, Jim Lauderdale, Old Crow Medicine Show, Sarah Jarosz, Becky Buller, and Darol Anger among others. Orshaw has celebrated a successful career as a member of the Grammy nominated Po’ Ramblin’ Boys and a two IBMA award winner (2020 Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year, 2020 Collaborative Recording of the Year).

Ragged Union

Ragged Union’s signature bluegrass-and-beyond music has appeared at festivals, concert series and events all across the USA, England, and China, since 2013. Past performances include IBMA Wide Open Bluegrass, John Hartford Memorial Festival, Northwest String Summit, Durango Meltdown, Shrewsbury Folk Festival (England), and the Qingdao International Beer Festival (China), to name a few. Their music appears on celestial and satellite radio, and can be found on Spotify, Pandora, and anywhere music can be found, streaming or otherwise. The band toured as a five, or six-piece unit from 2014 until 2019, and from 2020 to 2023 as a quartet or trio. 2024 brought back the five-piece format, and to the delight of audiences, the music once again reaches its full potential.

The band’s recipe for tasty contemporary bluegrass contains three main ingredients. Geoff Union’s ‘Outsider Songwriting’ makes use of poetic lyric ideas that stretch beyond the ‘normal’ country themes to include personal, and even historical, stories, often presented in creative rhyme meter. Ragged Union sets their sometimes obscure-in-a-good-way lyric content to ‘Timeless Melodies’ that are new, yet sound familiar and classic. The songs are further enhanced with ‘Unexpected Arrangements’. Changes in feel, tempo, and time signature, along with rich compositional ideas, and atypical song structure (like putting the bridge at the end of the song) set Ragged Union’s original material apart. All of these concepts come together in an impressively exciting live performance that is equally at home at the festival, concert series, or nightclub.

The band has released four albums, 2015’s Hard Row to Hoe; 2017’s Time Captain, and Live at Leeds (recorded live at the Seven Arts Theatre in Leeds, England) and 2022’s Round Feet, Chrome Smile. A new release is in the works for the winter of 2024-25.

Bronwyn Keith-Hynes

Grammy-winning fiddle virtuoso Bronwyn Keith-Hynes is stepping into the spotlight. After several years of wowing audiences as the fiddler for Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, the 2x IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year is striking out on her own – fronting a band for the first time and bringing her voice to the forefront. Known for her fiery fiddle playing and pure, rootsy singing, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes’ debut vocal album ‘I Built A World’ earned her a Grammy nomination this past February, and American Songwriter calls her “a world-class fiddler with a golden voice.”

Now, as her own entry in bluegrass history expands from celebrated instrumentalist to bandleader and front woman, Bronwyn isn’t just crafting a career in the image of genre greats like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas; she’s bringing them along for the ride. Both Bush and Douglas are featured as players on I Built a World, and they’re not the only of Bronwyn’s musically-inclined pals and heroes to make an appearance on this star studded album. Keith-Hynes’ music blends high octane bluegrass sensibilities with the soul of country and American Roots music. Backed by a powerhouse group of Nashville musicians hand picked from her tight-knit community, Keith-Hynes represents the next generation of top tier bluegrass musicians, who will be appreciated for generations to come.

With a career that has already spanned collaborations with some of the biggest names in acoustic music, Bronwyn is now forging her own path—bringing her undeniable talent to audiences in a whole new way.

Mitch Greenhill

Mitch Greenhill cut his musical eyeteeth at the old Club 47. He has since released 9 albums and 2 books. After joining the family business Folklore Productions (FLi Artists), he represented musicians like Taj Mahal, the Klezmatics and Doc Watson, for whom he produced a Grammy-winning recording. He has composed music and designed sound for regional theaters and on Broadway, and has appeared in a couple of Hollywood movies.

Mitch is delighted to return to Cambridge and to the Passim. And to reunite with James Field, whom he met on their first day of college, on the other side of Harvard Square.

Level Best

Level Best is a traditional bluegrass band, formed seven year ago. Since then, they have played festivals, clubs, and music halls on both Coasts as well as touring Europe and Ireland multiple times. They have recorded three CDs. Level Best shows feature a rousing mix of country and bluegrass gems.

With exciting solo work on fiddle, dobro, mandolin, and banjo, Level Best has that soulful polish, earned with years of playing bluegrass and country music.

Level Best is Lisa Kay Howard Hughes on mandolin, Wally Hughes on fiddle and Dobro, Ed Lick on banjo, Joe Hannabach on bass, and James Field on guitar. Everyone sings. James’s career in bluegrass began many years ago, when he was a member of the Charles River Valley Boys and played many a night at the legendary Club 47, precursor to Passim. With the good fortune to be part of Level Best, it’s a special honor to return to the Passim stage.

Water Street Wranglers

The Water Street Wranglers are an Boston-based Americana band with strong roots in bluegrass and a passion for mixing traditional and contemporary sounds. This quintet mixes driving bluegrass standards with fresh, ear-catching originals in each set, and their signature sound is completed by their 3-part harmony singing. The band features Chandler Harris on lead vocals, Caleb Kibby on mandolin and vocals, Aiden Schnell on guitar and vocals, Alayna Whitkanack on fiddle and vocals, and Wes Shuck on the four string upright bass and the one string Yo-Yo.