Rafe Stefanini

He was born in San Benedetto Val di Sambro, in Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, and grew up in Bologna. His brothers Gianni and Bruno also play old-time music, and the three of them formed the Moonshine Brothers in the late 1970s, a band that lasted until he moved to America. He first visited the United States in 1975, settled there in 1983 and became a citizen, and he lived for many years in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, before moving to the Madison neighborhood of Nashville in July 2021.

In America he played old-time music in a series of bands. With Carol Elizabeth Jones and Stefan Senders he was one of the Wildcats, who recorded Old-Time Music (Marimac, 1988) and On Our Knees (1992). With Dirk Powell and Bruce Molsky he formed the L-7s, and he played on Mike Seeger’s Third Annual Farewell Reunion (Rounder, 1994) with Molsky, Powell and Dave Grant. With Molsky and the guitarist Beverly Smith he made up Big Hoedown, whose album Bruce Molsky & Big Hoedown came out on Rounder in 1997; the trio broke up in 2000. He was also in the Rockinghams with Meredith McIntosh, John Herrmann and Smith, who recorded Shout Lulu (Yodel-Ay-Hee, 2003).

His duo records with Bob Herring are Old Paint (Yodel-Ay-Hee, 1995) and Fresh Coat (5-String Productions, 2004). For County he made three albums of his own, Hell and Scissors (1999), Glory on the Big String (2001) and Ladies Fancy (2006), and Bluegrass Meadows (5-String Productions, 2003) is a set of old-time fiddle solos. With his daughter Clelia he recorded Never Seen the Like (Yodel-Ay-Hee, 2008) and Lady on the Green (2012), and with his wife, the guitarist Nikki Lee, and Clelia he performs as the Stefanini Family Band, also called Nine Pound Hammer. He played with Clelia in the Immigrant Band, with John Doyle, Eamon O’Leary and John Herrmann, whose album came out in 2016, and he recorded Holy Smoke! (2018) with David Bragger.

He has played on A Prairie Home Companion and at the Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention, and has performed in Finland, Germany and several countries of Southeast Asia. At the Appalachian String Band Music Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia, in August 2011 he took second place in the fiddle contest, behind John Showman, with Clelia fifth.