Bruce Molsky
Best known for
Fiddle
Bruce Molsky is a New York-born fiddler, banjo player, guitarist, and singer recognized as one of the foremost stewards of unaccompanied Appalachian old-time music — a largely self-taught Bronx native who built an international career and a long teaching legacy out of the Round Peak tradition.
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- Born in 1955 in New York City and raised in the Bronx; took up guitar as a boy and fiddle as an engineering student at Cornell in the early 1970s.
- Made pilgrimages to North Carolina source fiddler Tommy Jarrell beginning in 1976, immersing himself in Round Peak and Southern old-time repertoire; his sources also include Hobart Smith and Henry Reed.
- Worked as an engineer for years before turning to music full-time in the mid-1990s.
- A pioneer of the unaccompanied fiddle-and-voice style; solo albums include Lost Boy (Rounder, 1996), Poor Man's Troubles (Rounder, 2000), Contented Must Be (Smithsonian Folkways, 2004), and Soon Be Time (Compass, 2006).
- A founding member of Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny's Mozaik and of Fiddlers 4 with Darol Anger, Michael Doucet, and Rushad Eggleston; collaborators range from Tony Trischka and Mark Knopfler (Tracker, 2015) to Aoife Ní Bhriain.
- Played on Béla Fleck's My Bluegrass Heart (2021), which won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.
- A founding faculty member of the American Roots Music Program at Berklee College of Music and a fixture at workshops such as the Swannanoa Gathering; named one of NPR's 50 Great Voices in 2010.
- Widely cited as the most important conduit between old-time fiddle tradition and contemporary acoustic music, influencing Brittany Haas, Rayna Gellert, Tatiana Hargreaves, and many younger players. Lives in Beacon, New York.
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Bruce MolskyPlayed on recordings with Bruce Molsky
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Brittany HaasPlayed on recordings with Brittany Haas
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Bruce Molsky and Big HoedownPlayed on recordings with Bruce Molsky and Big Hoedown
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Tatiana HargreavesPlayed on recordings with Tatiana Hargreaves
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Bruce Molsky and Bob CarlinPlayed on recording with Bruce Molsky and Bob Carlin
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Joe WalshPlayed on recording with Joe Walsh
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Molsky’s Mountain DriftersPlayed on recording with Molsky’s Mountain Drifters
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The Wayfaring StrangersPlayed on recording with The Wayfaring Strangers
