Grayson McGuire and Robbie Herman at the 2026 Alleghany County Fiddlers’ Convention – photo © G. Nicholas Hancock
In 1995 Richard Nichols, a maintenance engineer at Alleghany Memorial Hospital, and Dr. Jack Cahn, a family practitioner — both string musicians — thought about starting a fiddlers’ convention. The Alleghany County Fairgrounds had just opened, and money was needed to maintain the facilities. Nichols and Cahn also wanted to keep interest in old-time and bluegrass music alive in the community. A group of local musicians and the fairgrounds board members planned the first event, and raised prize money by selling advertisements in a printed event program.
This convention’s format is a bit unique in that contestants can play anytime on Friday and Saturday, while Saturday night the top 15 bluegrass bands and the top 15 old-time bands are selected to a playoff for the five top positions in each category. A representative band member of each group of top 15 finalists draw a number to determine in what position they will play on stage on Saturday night.
G. Nicholas Hancock was on hand for both Friday and Saturday to photograph the event. Here are selected photos from that endeavor.
