Fred Carpenter and Friends

Carpenter began violin lessons at seven and studied classical violin for ten years before he turned to fiddle, learning from the records of Kenny Baker, Vassar Clements and Byron Berline and placing well at national fiddle contests. In 1980 he moved to California to join the Tony Rice Unit, touring and recording with it for three years; he is the fiddler on Still Inside (Rounder, 1981) and on part of Backwaters (1982). He left California in 1985, played two years with the Dillards and moved to Nashville in 1987, where he toured with Emmylou Harris, Ronnie Milsap, Suzy Bogguss, Paul Overstreet and George Strait and then spent some twenty years in Kathy Mattea’s band.

In 1988 he started the Violin Shop in a spare bedroom of his Nashville home, drawing on four years as an apprentice at the Loveland Violin Shop in California. It moved into a store in the Bellevue area of West Nashville in 1993 and to 8th Avenue South, near Music Row, in 2013, and in January 2022 he passed ownership to Brandon Godman, staying on in the workshop.

The album’s songs were released as singles through the second half of 2024: “Toy Heart” with Vince Gill in July, “If I Needed You” with Kathy Mattea in August and “Sultans of Swing” with Tim O’Brien in September. The full twelve-track album added “Love Has No Pride” with Alison Krauss, “Why You Been Gone So Long” with Gill and Cordle, “I Will” with Sara Watkins, “Old Train” with Ricky Skaggs and Mike Rogers, “Home from the Forest” with O’Brien and “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” with Bogguss and Mattea, alongside the instrumentals “Tee It Up,” “Waltz for April” and “La Satina.”