Great interview this month with seven time National Fiddle Champion and creator of the FiddleStar site, Megan Lynch Chowning! Megan doesn't compete in fiddle contests anymore, or judge them, or go to them, so I was very curious to hear about why. We talk about fiddling in California, fiddle contests, fiddle camps, and different kinds of learning and relating to fiddle music. Megan filled me in on the just-released John Hartford Fiddle Project Volume 2 that she co-produced.

Megan Lynch Chowning is a seven time national fiddle champion, touring musician, Grammy-nominated recording artist, teacher, singer, and flatfooter. She's toured with Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan, Dale Ann Bradley, Roland White, Larry Cordle, Jim Hurst, Chris Jones, 3 Fox Drive, Due West, Chris Stuart, and BEML (the duo of Bill Evans and Megan).

Megan has released a series of entirely solo fiddle albums, focusing on crowdsourcing fabulous but slightly more obscure fiddle tunes. She has taught fiddle and vocals at prestigious camps such as Augusta Heritage Week, the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop, Sore Fingers Bluegrass Week in the UK, Walker Creek Music Camp, and the California Bluegrass Association Camp, among many others. She’s the co-director (with her husband, Adam) of the IBMA-award-winning Nashville Acoustic Camps. But sometimes she just likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers.

Reach me at meganbeller@fiddlestudio.com
Bandcamp
YouTube
Fiddle Studio books
My website for learning to fiddle is Fiddle Studio which has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My interview this month on the Fiddle Studio Podcast is a conversation with The Wild Shoats, formerly The Shoats. Check out their fabulous brand new album Yell in the Shoats, just out! This is a relatively new band with three talented Old-Time fiddlers. I've heard them called both an Alt-folk group and a Gothic stringband.

I get their take on the music of Appalachia, and the relevance and connection they feel to it as 21st century musicians. Hear how these musicians came to Old-Time music, met up and started singing and playing and writing music together and created their unique sound. We also chat about playing in tune on the fiddle, matching up different bowing styles, and staying relaxed while practicing. How does Huck practice when he doesn't have a lot of time?

West Virginia native Mary Linscheid, brothers Gus and Huck Tritsch of Millheim, PA, and Alex Heflin of Morgantown, WV, set an alt-folk soundtrack to the strange late-stage capitalist Appalachia they grew up in. Calling on their collective backgrounds in folk songs, honky tonk, and the Appalachian high-lonesome sound, the Shoats reimagine the songs and sounds of their home through haunting original material and well-loved covers. The Shoats won the Appalachian String Band Music Festival’s Neo-Traditional Band Competition in 2023.

Yell in the Shoats album

The Wild Shoats

Reach me at meganbeller@fiddlestudio.com
Bandcamp
YouTube
Fiddle Studio books
My website for learning to fiddle is Fiddle Studio which has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

A bluegrass fiddler and a contradance fiddler walk in to a bar...and discover they both have degrees in music education. This month I talk with Austin Scelzo and we don't hold back discussing what we think is lacking in classical music and public school music education and training.

Austin and I talk about leaving classical music and finding a home in fiddling and all about bluegrass music and fiddle and what you might not know about it. We touch on how a lot of formal music training emphasizes hierarchies and levels and the repercussions- from a feeling of not-enoughness, to hesitancy to perform, to tension in your body and your playing.

We discuss how to expand from just playing the instrument to playing and embracing music and all it can offer. Austin had great ideas about reframing performance and building a musical vocabulary as well. If I could wave a magic wand I'd make this interview required for music and music education majors at music schools everywhere, just to hear an alternative perspective.

The song we share is Austin's song Trouble in My Soul and would you believe the set of pipes on this guy? Wow!

Austin Scelzo is a New England based bluegrass musician who plays fiddle and sings with the bands the Rock Hearts and On the Trail. He's won numerous awards nationally and internationally for his leadership in bluegrass advocacy and mentorship and he's well know for his friendly, down to earth, informative teaching that has brought many fiddlers and musicians into the bluegrass fold. He teaches at camps around the country and has his own teaching studio and jam classes. Check out his offerings:

Austin's Website
Teaching and Performing Calendar
Services
Bluegrass, Country, and Roots Online School
Harmony Vocals Online School
Bluegrass Jam Class (Wernick Method)
Connect on Facebook and Subscribe on YouTube

Reach me at meganbeller@fiddlestudio.com
Bandcamp
YouTube
Fiddle Studio books
My website for learning to fiddle is Fiddle Studio which has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!