Jake Krack (born 1984) son of Reed and Dara Krack, is a prominent young old-time fiddler and fiddle teacher from Nicut in the U.S. state of West Virginia. He began fiddling at age six [1] or eight. [2] His teachers include Bobby Taylor, Lester McCumbers, Melvin Wine, Brad Leftwich, Joe Thompson, Wilson Douglas, and Glen Smith.
He received a B.A. degree from Berea College in Kentucky in 2007, where his friends called him "Jack". [1] He has had two internships: at the Smithsonian Institution with music archivist Jeff Place and with the West Virginia Humanities Council, working on the Mountain Music Heritage Project.
Krack performed on the A Prairie Home Companion radio program in 1998, and on the Mountain Stage radio program in 2000. Also in 2000 he performed at the Millennium Stage of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He performed at MerleFest in 2002 and in the 2003 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
He has won first place in old-time fiddle at the Galax Fiddlers Convention in Galax, Virginia (2003, 2006, and 2008), the Henry Reed Festival (2007), the Clifftop festival in Clifftop, Fayette County, West Virginia (2006), the Mount Airy Fiddlers' Convention in Mount Airy, North Carolina (2002, 2004, and 2009), and the under-60 category at the Vandalia Gathering in Charleston, West Virginia (2002).
He compiled, arranged, and co-produced the 2007 Smithsonian Folkways CD Classic Old-time Fiddle From Smithsonian Folkways, [3] and coproduced Lester McCumbers' CD Old Timey.
He was featured in The New York Times in 1999 [4] and appeared in the 2004 PBS documentary Soundmix: Five Young Musicians. [5]
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. Together, they form an ensemble called the string band, which along with the simple banjo-fiddle duet have historically been the most common configurations to play old-time music. The genre is considered a precursor to modern country music.
Thomas Jefferson Jarrell was an American fiddler, banjo player, and singer from the Mount Airy region of North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains.
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles, and to a lesser extent the music of Continental Europe.
Charlie Higgins was an American old time fiddle player from Galax, Virginia. Higgins said that he was influenced by other old-time fiddlers including Emmett Lundy and Fiddlin' Arthur Smith. His style of playing was said to be very innovative and creative. Higgins played regularly with Wade Ward, Dale Poe and other old-time musicians in the Galax area. Recordings of Charlie Higgins are few, and limited to field recordings made between 1959 and 1961 by folklorists Alan Lomax, Peter Hoover and John Cohen. At the time of these recordings Higgins was over eighty years of age, and apparently was not recorded during his prime. However, he was still good enough at age 82 to win first place at the 1960 Galax Old Fiddler's Convention. Higgins died in 1967 and is buried with his wife Mallie at the Coal Creek Community Church in Galax, Virginia.
Melvin Wine was an American Appalachian fiddler from the state of West Virginia. He was a lifelong resident of Copen, in Braxton County, West Virginia.
Wade Ward (1892–1971) was an American old-time music banjo player and fiddler from Independence, Virginia. He was widely known playing the clawhammer banjo and frequently won the Galax, Virginia Old Time Fiddler's Convention. His instrument, a Gibson RB-11 5-string banjo, is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Along with Kyle Creed, Wade Ward is known for his 'Galax' style of playing the clawhammer banjo.
Brad Leftwich is an American old-time fiddler, banjo player, singer and teacher of traditional old-time style. He is originally from Oklahoma but has resided in Bloomington, Indiana for most of his life. He performs solo and with his long-time musical partner and wife, Linda Higginbotham, and with his band, The Humdingers, which also includes Sam Bartlett and Abby Ladin.
Erynn Marshall is a Canadian old-time fiddler, ethnomusicologist, teacher, and author.
Lester McCumbers was an American old-time fiddler from Nicut, West Virginia. His students included Erynn Marshall and Jake Krack.
Nicut is an unincorporated community in Calhoun County, West Virginia, United States.
The Appalachian String Band Music Festival is a weeklong gathering of thousands of string band musicians and their friends from across the country and around the world, who each year since 1990 have assembled near the New River Gorge in West Virginia in late July/early August to celebrate the evolving tradition of old-time music and the community of people who keep it thriving by preserving and contributing to that tradition.
James Benton Flippen was an American old-time fiddler from Mount Airy, North Carolina. He was one of the last surviving members of a generation of performers born in the early 20th century playing in the Round Peak style centering on Surry County, North Carolina. His contemporaries included Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Kyle Creed, and Earnest East.
Ira Bernstein is a dancer and teacher in the United States who specializes in traditional American dance forms such as Appalachian-style clogging, flatfoot dancing, tap dance, and step dancing. He is considered an authority on clogging, and the leading figure in this dance style. He calls himself a "percussive step dancer who specializes in Appalachian flatfooting," and also dances Green Grass style Appalachian clogging, English clogging, French-Canadian step dancing, Irish step dancing, and South African gumboot dancing.
Rafe Stefanini is an old-time banjo player, fiddler, guitarist, singer, teacher, violin maker, and restorer.
Clark Kessinger was an American old-time fiddler. Many of his fiddle tunes made their way to other fiddlers or into the bluegrass music genre.
Old timefiddle is the style of American fiddling found in old-time music. Old time fiddle tunes are derived from European folk dance forms such as the jig, reel, breakdown, schottische, waltz, two-step, and polka. When the fiddle is accompanied by banjo, guitar, mandolin, or other string instruments, the configuration is called a string band. The types of tunes found in old-time fiddling are called "fiddle tunes", even when played by instruments other than a fiddle.
"Yew Piney Mountain" is part of the canonical Appalachian music tradition which has been highly influential in American fiddle tradition generally, including its old time fiddle and bluegrass fiddle branches. According to Alan Jabbour at the Digital Library of Appalachia, the tune was called "Blackberry Blossom" until that title was taken over by a different tune. The earlier "Blackberry Blossom", as played by Sanford Kelly from Morgan County, is now represented by the tune "Yew Piney Mountain".
Martin Douglas Wallin was a ballad singer and fiddler born in Madison County, North Carolina, and a recipient of a 1989 North Carolina Heritage Award.
Daniel Shane Knicely, known as Danny Knicely, is an American country and bluegrass musician. In addition to singing, he plays guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. His album releases include: The Evenin' News, Chop, Shred & Split, Waltz for Aimee, The Melody Lingers, Roots and Branches, and Murders, Drownings and Lost Loves (2006) — which he recorded with Will Lee.
Lee Cremo was a Mi'kmaq fiddler from Cape Breton Island, Canada.
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