Artist Category: Fiddle | Page 2

Hanneke Cassel

With a career spanning over two decades, Hanneke Cassel has helped redefine what it means to be a modern fiddler. A driving force in the ever-changing landscape of acoustic music, Hanneke blends originality and innovation with the spirit of Scottish traditional fiddle. Fusing musical roots from the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton Island with Americana stylings, Hanneke’s playing has been described by the Boston Globe as “exuberant and rhythmic, somehow wild and innocent, delivered with captivating melodic clarity and an irresistible playfulness.” Beyond the strings of her fiddle, it is Hanneke’s hugely generous presence and passion that round out her magnetism as a performer on the world stage of fiddle music.

Cassel’s latest album Infinite Brightness lyrically and poignantly captures a brightness that shines with sorrow-tinted joy. Written on the heels of a global pandemic and in memory of friends who’ve died in recent years, the nine compositions on this album exude Cassel’s trademark energetic playing while carrying the gravitas of loss, grief, and a sense of hope that endures. Co-produced with bandmate Keith Murphy, who plays guitar and harmonium on the album, Infinite Brightness also features Jenna Moynihan, who contributes five-string fiddle, Tristan Clarridge on cello, and guitarist Yann Falquet (heard on “Dmitri’s Dream” and “Last Alleluia”).

Ilana Katz Katz

Ilana Katz Katz is a Blues and Appalachian fiddler, singer, songwriter, novelist, screenwriter, essayist, watercolor painter, apparel artist, longtime subway busker, and budding children’s book author who strives to bring good mojo wherever she goes.

Ilana’s humble performance beginnings on Boston’s crowded subway platforms – where she played for more than a decade – unexpectedly morphed into an expanded world of performing ‘above ground.” She’s been hailed as “a star with her own blend of Blues and old-time Appalachian fiddling,” called “brilliant and soulful” by Blues master Ronnie Earl and deemed the “special sauce” to many bands.

A chance meeting with Ronnie Earl in 2013 resulted in him offering to accompany Ilana on her 2014 debut record. He subsequently showcased her in many shows. From there, her distinguished signature Blues style soon had her performing with a “who’s who” of Blues musicians around the country. Her records on Regina Royale and Vizztone Label Group garnered Living Blues charting accolades and a flurry of invitations to perform at Blues festivals. Her growing presence as a guest instrumentalist and songwriter for other artists continues to thrive and her latest endorsement as a Fishman artist helps her bring the music into the world with the best equipment possible.

She still enjoys bringing music to people – as she did in the subway. The post-pandemic environment brings her to street performing when she isn’t touring and recording. Her own brand of Blues and versatile improvisational style continues to flourish. She’s celebrated for her solo performances, as a band leader and for lending her fiddling prowess to various music ensembles. Her talents span many genres – including jazzy scat singing in sync with her fiddle – for which she is known. She’s excited about her forthcoming 2021 release, “In My Mind.”

Doug Lamey

Doug has studied, taught and performed Cape Breton fiddle for most of his life, inspired from toddlerhood by his grandfather, legendary fiddler Bill Lamey. Since then, Doug has performed at many concerts and festivals throughout North America. He recorded a CD in 2009 as a member of the band Tri (“Among Friends/A-measg Chàirdean”), which was released at Club Passim, and upon his move to Cape Breton in 2011, Doug celebrated with a solo album, A Step Back in Time. Doug’s playing has a solid rhythmic beat that’s the key to the great Cape Breton-style fiddling, and his love of the music clearly shines through. Doug currently resides in Baddeck, Cape Breton with his family and just this past winter released another solo album entitled True North, now available in person and online. Fiddler Magazine says “Amazing Cape Breton Fiddler.” True North is “Highly Recommended.”

Aleksi Campagne

Named Penguin Eggs & Roots Music Canada’s New Discovery of the Year, Aleksi Campagne offers a contemporary, indie-folk take on the time-honoured fiddle-singing tradition. Born and raised in Montreal, Aleksi’s music blends folk songwriting with an edgy, multi-layered sound resulting from his unique combination of voice, violin and looping-effect pedals. His debut album For The Giving / Sans rien donner was just nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award (April 2024), and is a fully bilingual album offering 10 songs in French and the same 10 songs in English.

Aleksi’s debut has been a whirlwind! Aleksi was selected as a Mariposa Folk Festival Emerging Artist to perform at the festival. His first single Another Day was picked by Paul Corby as a Top Single of 2022. He was then celebrated by Tom Coxworth as one of the Top 5 Favourite acts at the Folk Alliance International Conference, alongside acts like The Fretless and Mary Gautier. His second single Won’t be Scared was selected as the only Canadian finalist in the Kerrville Folk Festival’s Grassy Hill New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters. In a review in Le Devoir by Sylvain Cormier, Aleksi’s debut was compared to that of Patrick Watson and Half Moon Run. According to Roots Music Canada, “Aleksi Campagne finessed one of the most musically ambitious accomplishments of the year, an impeccable double album, one set of songs in two conjoined bilingual packages.” He is now touring his album with over 50 shows in Canada and the United States!

Leland Martin

Leland has been playing various styles of traditional fiddle music for over 2 decades. He’s played and judged competitively, well-respected as a session musician with a wealth of tunes, and even written a few tunes himself.

About the album: “The title “Moonlighter” is working two-fold: both in the literal sense–musician is not my main occupation–and in the metaphorical sense as it relates to my musical style. My playing has been influenced by many traditional (and non-traditional) musicians and genres, and so I find myself moonlighting between styles rather than firmly rooted in one or the other. My goal with the album is to give you a genuine sense of my musical style, both in my playing and compositions. In this project, I’m joined by artists Conor Hearn, McKinley James, Neil Pearlman, and Katie McNally—who also produced the album. The tracks will feature both traditional and contemporary tunes, as well as a few of my own compositions. I’m very excited to finally be releasing some music of my own, and I hope you will look forward to it as well!”

Micah John & Lillian Chase

Micah John is an award-winning fiddler, guitarist, and singer. At only 17, she has spent the last decade immersed in the roots music community of the Northeast and has performed at legendary venues such as Club Passim and The Burren Backroom. Micah placed 1st in the Open Bluegrass Fiddle Contest at the 2019 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest and 2nd in Old-time fiddle at the 2022 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest.

Lillian Chase, a 19-year-old fiddler and vocalist, grew up enveloped in the old-time and bluegrass scene in and around Asheville, North Carolina. She has played at well-known Southern venues including Merlefest and Song of the Mountains, and is now studying Music Performance at Berklee College of Music. She placed 4th in the 2022 Open Old-Time Fiddle Contest at Clifftop and 1st in Old-Time Fiddle at the 2022 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest.

Micah and Lillian were initially connected by their shared mentor, Bruce Molsky, and met at the 2021 Ossipee Valley Music Festival. The two started performing as a duo after competing together in the Twin Fiddle category at the 2022 Lowell Banjo & Fiddle Contest, where they placed 1st. Their duo quickly became well-established in the Boston area after playing a sold-out show at Club Passim in fall of 2022.

Micah and Lillian share a love for old-time fiddle tunes and ballads, and interlace their sets with newer songs and tunes. Their shows are full of tight harmonies, twin-fiddling, and rocking guitar & fiddle duets.

Lena Jonsson

Lena Jonsson’s ability to balance a deep knowledge of traditional Swedish folk music with innovative artistic sensibilities, sparkling joy of life and a charisma of a rock-star have made her one Scandinavia’s most visionary musicians. She has created a unique style inspired by traditional Swedish music as well as rock, pop and American old-time and bluegrass traditions. Together with guitarist Erik Ronström and bassist Krydda Sundström they create a virtuosic yet playful trio. In April 2023 the trio won Artist of the year at the Swedish Folk awards. Their album Stories from the Outside won both a Swedish Grammis and the Manifest prize in 2021 and Album of the year by LIRA Music Magazine and song of the year by Swedish radio. Lena Jonsson Trio released their third album Elements in June 2023.

Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves

Traditional music is not static; it shifts with the times, uncovering new meanings in old words, new ways of talking about the communal pathways that led us to where we are today. For master musicians Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves, traditional banjo and fiddle music is a way to interpret our uncertain times, to draw artistic inspiration and power from the sources of meaning in their lives. History, family, literature, live performance, and environmental instability all manifest in the sounds, feelings, and sensations that permeate their music. Their 2022 sophomore album, Hurricane Clarice is a direct infusion of centuries of matrilineal folk wisdom, a fiery breath of apocalyptic energy.

Individually they are both leaders in the young generation of roots musicians, de Groot being known for intricate clawhammer banjo work with Bruce Molsky, and Hargreaves bringing powerhouse fiddling to the stage with Laurie Lewis and David Rawlings in addition to teaching bluegrass fiddle at UNC-Chapel Hill. Their first self-titled album released in 2019 garnered attention from CBC Q, Paste Magazine and Rolling Stone Country, earning the duo the Independent Music Awards “Best Bluegrass Album” and a nomination from IBMA for “Best Liner Notes of the Year.” The duo has been booked at festivals and venues such as Newport Folk Festival, Savannah Music Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC, and Red Wing Roots Music Festival. Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves create a sound that is adventurous, masterful, and original, as they expand on the eccentricities of old songs, while never losing sight of what makes them endure.

If Hurricane Clarice has the incendiary fire of a red hot live performance, that was very much the plan for de Groot, Hargreaves, and Cook. “We love performing live together so much,” says de Groot. “We were talking to Phil about that, how do you capture that energy and intimacy of a performance without being too aware that you’re recording in a studio? Phil’s idea was to just play it like it’s a show.” They worked out the innovative idea of rehearsing and recording the music as performance “sets” about one hour long. Musically, both artists are at the absolute top of their game. In addition to the recording innovations, the duo have worked tirelessly to build on their already impressive technique and to find new ways to play live together. In stringband music, nearly every song or tune necessitates a complete retuning of the fiddle and banjo, so set lists have to be carefully built and the best artists develop an intricate knowledge of alternate tunings and modalities. For de Groot & Hargreaves, they wanted their set list to build a narrative that flowed easily and that showcased their abilities as consummate artisans.

The repertoire on Hurricane Clarice comes from field recordings, old hymns, and LPs, but it also comes from modern literary sources and original compositions from the two, a delightful mix of the old and the new. Both de Groot and Hargreaves are avid readers, so the Hargreaves-penned title track delves into the surreal world of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector while the Canadian ballad “The Banks of the Miramichi” references the “before times” of a polluted river used as a case study in the environmentalist classic Silent Spring. Hargreaves in particular has worked to incorporate literary traditions and storytelling into the music. Hargreaves in particular has a great love for literary traditions and storytelling. “I feel like playing traditional music is similar to reading science fiction or magical realism.” Hargreaves explains, “We’re taking these traditional components that we’ve learned from a lineage of people passing it down orally. It always changes, someone exaggerates it in a way that fits their storytelling or playing style. It keeps getting weirder and weirder with each telling to match who’s telling it.” Other tunes come from deep dive sources, like Black fiddler Butch James Cage (“Dead and Gone”), or the tune “Nancy Blevins” from fiddler Albert Hash (on further research, the “real” Blevins may have been involved in witchcraft).

Unlike many songs from the bluegrass and old-time traditions, the songs on Hurricane Clarice are not concerned with love. They do wryly tackle topics like seasonal depression (“Each Season Changes You”) and the absurdity of touring (“The Road That’s Walked by Fools”) but if anything was on the duo’s minds while recording it was likely family, either the kind you’re born to or the kind you make yourself. So much of this music is made with intent and meaning without needing words–just swirling dance melodies designed to be played all night–that it seems likely that both Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves were both unknowingly crafting an ode to family as a source of hope in a time of dying.

Ryan Young

2022 MG ALBA Musician of The Year nominee Ryan Young brings new and exciting ideas to traditional Scottish music, receiving international praise for his spell-binding interpretations on the fiddle. His debut album was recorded with four time GRAMMY winner Jesse Lewis (who has worked with the likes of Bela Fleck and Yo Yo Ma) and launched at Feakle Traditional Music Festival in County Clare, accompanied by renowned guitarist, Dennis Cahill (Martin Hayes; The Gloaming).

Focussing on traditional Scottish music, Ryan brings new life to very old, often forgotten tunes by playing them in his own unique way. His fiddle playing is brimming with fresh melodic ideas, an uplifting rhythmic drive and a great depth of dynamics and precision. His sound is very distinctive and takes the listener on an emotional and adventurous journey in any performance.

Ryan holds both a first class honours and a Masters degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He was twice a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards and twice a finalist in the prestigious BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of The Year. He was awarded ‘Up And Coming Artist Of The Year’ at the Scots Trad Awards in 2017, nominated for the Horizon Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2018 and awarded Folking.com’s Musician Of The Year title, also in 2018.

Further MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards nominations include Album Of the Year, and Folk Band Of The Year. Ryan Young was also the only UK artist selected to perform at the prestigious World Music conference, WOMEX, in 2019.

Neil Pearlman & Kevin Henderson

Uniting two stand out voices in Scottish music today, the fiddle and piano duo of Kevin Henderson and Neil Pearlman is a transatlantic collaboration that has set stages alight from Scotland to California. Each known for his high-energy, joyful and fresh approach to the tradition, their combined sound is fiery yet precise; moving from heart-wrenching airs to sparkling reels in the blink on an eye. The duo’s debut album Burden Lake features original tunes from both Henderson and Pearlman in conversation with traditional Shetland melodies. Launched in January of 2020 at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, the album has been lauded as “cold pressed perfection” by folkworld.eu, received 5 stars in The Scotsman, and Fatea Magazine raves that “the sheer virtuosity of the musicianship is breathtaking.”

Kevin Henderson is a fiddler who draws on the rich fiddle music tradition of his native Shetland and his experience with leading bands including Boys of the Lough, Fiddlers Bid, Session A9 and Nordic Fiddlers Bloc to create an expressive and adventurously individual musical style.

“Kevin Henderson’s fiddle playing is all effortless grace and skill”, Kit Bailey – BBC2 Folk & Acoustic

Neil Pearlman is recognized throughout the Celtic music world and beyond for his distinctive approach to the piano. He has worked with many of the world’s top folk music artists and is in demand internationally as a collaborator, session musician and educator. Neil also hosts the podcast TradCafe which features his conversations and collaborations with influential artists from a wide variety of music traditions.

“A tremendous pianist”, Bruce MacGregor — BBC Radio Scotland, Travelling Folk