Meghan Bryant (Beginning Fiddle) from Floyd County, Kentucky made her first appearance on the CCMMS stage with her teacher Jamie Wells at age eight. She continued to study with Jamie at the Mountain Arts Center and later with Jesse Wells as CCMMS’s first Charlie Whitaker Memorial Apprentice. Meghan recently graduated with a BA in traditional music performance and elementary education from Morehead State University. She teaches fiddle in the Hindman Settlement School’s Pick & Bow afterschool program, as well as offering private lessons. She is a featured performer in the Mountain Arts Center’s Kentucky Opry.
Barb Kuhns (Early Intermediate Fiddle) from Medway, Ohio and began playing fiddle as a teen, inspired by the Hotmud Family and Van Kidwell. She began going to festivals in Kentucky including the Fraley Family Mountain Music Festival where she was very taken with the music of J.P. Fraley and later was awarded a Kentucky Folklife apprenticeship with him. Barb and her husband, guitarist Doug Smith, perform with the Corndrinkers and can be heard on a self-titled album and The Corndrinkers Still on County Records. She has directed the Fraley Festival of Traditional Music held every fall at Carter Caves State Park for over 20 years.
John Harrod (Intermediate Fiddle) of Shelby County, Kentucky first learned old time music from Darley Fulks, Bill Livers, Asa Martin and Lily May Ledford. In the 1980’s he produced a large and influential body of field recordings of musicians around central and northeast Kentucky. These can be heard on Rounder’s Fiddle Music of Kentucky (2 volumes) and Along the Ohio’s Shores. John performs with the band Kentucky Wild Horse and can be heard on their CD Spirits of the Lonesome Hills. June Appal Records recently released his first solo recording Johnny Come Along. John has taught at Cowan since its founding and has also taught at Augusta, Swannanoa and the Festival of America Fiddle Tunes.
Earl White (Advanced Fiddle) from Floyd County, Virginia is a founding dancer of the Green Grass Cloggers. He began touring widely in 1971 at bluegrass festivals, but soon had a fateful encounter with old time music at the Galax Fiddlers Convention. Earl quickly became a much sought after fiddler whose performance and workshop credits include Merle Fest, the Berea College Celebration of Traditional Music, Clifftop, the Swannanoa Gathering and Common Ground Gathering on the Hill in Maryland. Earl’s 45 + years of performing and teaching have inspired a growing number of Black American musicians who are playing and perpetuating traditional music rooted in Black culture and communities. Currently, he hosts the Old Time Jam at the Floyd Country Store, offers music camps at his farm and teaches privately. His driving, danceable style can be heard on the album “Earl White Stringband”, available on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
https://www.facebook.com/earlwhitestringband/
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Don’t wait until CCMMS 2023 to learn some new tunes! Check out the instructional videos for all levels of fiddlers.
Bruce Greene teaches “The Field Lark” for beginning or early intermediate fiddlers, along with tips on bowing.
Another great beginner tune from Meghan Bryant with tips for starting from scratch.
Carrie Wells Carter teaches a couple of fun Snake Chapman tunes for early intermediate fiddlers.
John Harrod teaches “Red Lick” and “Manassas” for intermediate fiddlers. And John brakes down bowing for Kentucky tunes (a series of 3 videos), highly recommended for all fiddlers!
Visiting Master Barb Kuhns shares some sweet tunes from Jimmy Wheeler and J. P. Fraley.