Multi-genre Portland-based fiddler and instructor Annie Staninec is a California native and part of the first-generation California Bluegrass Association youth movement. She was an IBMA Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year, won Fiddle Player of the Year awards from the Northern California Bluegrass Society, and the 2006 Outstanding Young Musician award at Djangofest Northwest. She is active in Portland with the band Whiskey Deaf, and maintains her Bay Area roots as a member of the Kathy Kallick Band. Annie has toured with numerous national acts such as David Grisman, Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, Town Mountain, Mary Gauthier, and Rod Stewart. You can read a lot more on her web site.
Hi Annie. Let’s start at the beginning. Do you recall your first musical memory and instrument?
Listening to my dad sing and play the guitar downstairs as I was falling asleep. I remember him singing Doc Watson, Norman Blake, and Delmore Brothers songs in particular. My first instrument was the fiddle. I began learning simple tunes from his guitar picking when I started Suzuki lessons. I grew up going to the Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival in Grass Valley, as well as other local festivals and jams around the Bay Area. We listened to records, tapes, and CDs regularly around the house and in the car.
What instruments do you play, and does your whole family play music?
I mainly play fiddle, but I also play some guitar, mandolin, and clawhammer banjo. My dad plays guitar and sings. My mom has played some mandolin off and on over the years, and more recently she’s been playing some clawhammer banjo. My sister plays fiddle and my brother plays mandolin.
What fiddle tunes do you love, and what is the first thing you do when you pick up your instrument?
There are way too many to list, and I feel like they’re in constant rotation depending on what I’m working on! I play whatever is on my mind at the moment.
What bands are you active in?
Kathy Kallick Band; Whiskey Deaf with my partner John Kael, Andrew Carriere, and the Cajun Allstars; Stumptown Stringband
When did you first meet Kathy Kallick, and how long have you been in her band?
I remember going to a workshop at Kathy’s house when I was about nine, and I grew up listening to her records, but I think I first met her at a New Year’s Day jam party around 2007. I’ve been in her band for about 15 years.
Talk some about your two albums, Annie Staninec (2015) and Twin Sisters (2023), and others that you have played on.
Yes, those are the two that I’ve produced or co-produced. I’m also on the last five Kathy Kallick Band albums (Lonesome Chronicles, Horrible World, Foxhounds, Time, Between the Hollow ,and the High-Rise), as well as some tracks from What Are They Doing In Heaven Today, Cut To The Chase, Count Your Blessings, and Laurie and Kathy Sings Songs Of Vern and Ray (all Kathy projects). I’ve recorded as a side artist on well over a hundred albums in various genres ranging from singer-songwriter to gypsy swing to world music. A few bluegrass artists I’ve recorded with are John Reischman, Red Wine, Ivan Rosenberg, and Windy Hill.
How did the fiddle/banjo instrumental album, Twin Sisters, with Nick Hornbuckle, come about, and how did you choose the material?
Nick asked me if I would like to collaborate on a duet album, and of course, I said yes because I’d been a fan of his playing for years, and we’ve had a lot of fun playing together off and on when I’ve filled in for Greg Spatz with the Jaybirds. We recorded it remotely, which was a perfect project during the pandemic. It was fun covering old-time tunes with our own style and interpretation. I think we each threw several tunes we already played into the mix, and it was pretty easy to narrow it down to a list of tunes we wanted to record. We’re each inspired by both old and new artists, and I think the content reflects that.
I assume you first met John Reischman through CBA.
I grew up listening to John play with the Good Ol’ Persons and the Jaybirds, so I’ve been a fan ever since I can remember. Kathy’s been longtime friends with him, so I probably started hanging out with him more when I joined Kathy’s band and we’d all be at the same festivals or music camps. I’ve been on staff and played with him many times at various camps, including the CBA camps and Kaufman Kamp. I’ve also twinned with Paul Shelasky for the Good Ol’ Persons reunions at Rockygrass and the Freight & Salvage, so I’ve played with him in that capacity. I do remember that one of the first times I hung out and played with him was at the Station House in Point Reyes, and Paul sat in for a few tunes and they played Swingin’ The Alphabet from the Three Stooges. There was an instant connection and bond through that because I grew up watching the Stooges. At some point John started calling me to sub with the Jaybirds when Greg couldn’t make it, so I’ve done several tours with them including ones in Canada and one in the UK for a couple of weeks in 2019, which was super fun.
Playing at Djangofest, and with Darol Anger and Dawg, must have been mind-expanding.
Playing with Darol and David was absolutely mind-expanding, and so exciting! Again, these folks have been my heroes for my entire life, so I was definitely in disbelief the first time I played and performed with either of them. I was part of the opening band, the Gypsy Kidz, in the Gypsy Caravan Tour in 2006 that David headlined with Stephane Wrembel, but we all played a couple of tunes together at the end of each show. I don’t think David knew that bluegrass was my main genre, and I remember during one of the sound checks I started playing Cedar Hill and his head whipped around as he started playing it with me. I think the first time I performed with Darol was at the Four Corners Folk Festival with the Republic of Strings, and later in 2017, he asked me to teach a small fiddle camp with him where we constituted the entire staff, along with his partner at the time, Emy Phelps. I felt incredibly honored to be there with him, and I so appreciated his unconventional perspectives which made so much sense to me. I love his creativity, generosity, attitude, humor, and kindness. Besides being incredible soloists, both Darol and David are amazing supporting musicians, and make it so easy for people to play with them – it taught me how important it is to play well with others because the fact that they lift up everyone else around them is part of their magic.
I have to ask this. What was it like touring with Rod Stewart?
It was amazing and interesting to get to see what goes into such a large production. Rod was great to work for, and his team and band members are wonderful. It felt a bit like being part of a circus.
What is the Portland bluegrass scene like?
We’re fortunate to have a small but wonderful community of folks to play with here, and things are slowly changing as we’ve lost some of the old guard who were very influential. The Sawtooth Mountain Boys were my favorite local traditional bluegrass band. The band is no longer active, but some of the members still perform and pick regularly, and are sounding great.
What players from the past inspire you to play and why?
There are way too many to list here, both past and present, but I’ll try to name a few. Past players… Chubby Wise was my first favorite fiddler, and his recordings continue to inspire me today. I remember seeing him perform Orange Blossom Special and getting to meet him when I was five years old at the Grass Valley Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, and instantly being captivated by his joy and fiddling. His tone is sweet and rich, and I particularly love the way he uses slides with syncopation. I fell in love with Vassar Clements’ fiddling around the time I was in middle school. His double stops and triple stops are so inventive, creative, and surprising, and he combines them with the coolest shuffles. When I was in high school I became obsessed with Scotty Stoneman – it’s some of the fieriest, wildest, most exciting fiddling I’d ever heard. Kenny Baker and James Price always sound perfect, tasteful, and smooth with beautiful tone, and they always stay true to the melody. Curly Ray Cline’s fiddling is soulful and full of joy, and I love how he backs up songs, particularly All I Ever Loved Was You. I also love Herb Hooven, Jim Shumate, Benny Martin, Howdy Forrester, Byron Berline, Mac Magaha, Joe Meadows, Chubby Anthony, Ralph Mayo, Tex Logan… the list goes on and on.
Wow. I see now where you get your old-time sound. What about more recent influences?
The list of present-day fiddlers is also much too long – Glen Duncan, Jim Buchanan, Buddy Spicher, Bobby Hicks, Michael Cleveland, Bruce Molsky, Darol Anger, Tatiana Hargreaves, Jon Glik. I was extremely fortunate to be able to take lessons with Chad Manning when I was growing up, who has also been a huge influence. He would teach me these great tunes with variations, and I think it began to get my mind working on the fact that a melody is flexible. These days, on a personal level, I’m most inspired by my wonderful friends Paul Shelasky, Dennis Fetchet, and Mike Eisler. They are all amazing fiddlers that I grew up listening to who share the same passion for traditional bluegrass, and they’ve each been a huge influence on my playing.
I loved doing the piece on Paul Shelasky, which is kind of how you and I connected. Tell us more about playing with him.
I started hanging out with Paul about twenty years ago, and we originally bonded over our mutual love of the Three Stooges. He’s so musical on any instrument he picks up, and writes beautiful tunes and songs. Besides the creativity and humor in his playing, his fluency across multiple genres blows my mind – he sounds like a different fiddler when he plays bluegrass versus jazz, and he can change his style to imitate other musicians in an instant. He’s introduced me to the playing of so many incredible fiddlers in various styles including bluegrass, old-time, Irish, Texas, and jazz. We often transcribe solos together, dissecting bowings and double stops, and have spent many fun hours twin-fiddling late into the night at festivals, and annoying people with our duck calls and Stooges quotes.
When did you first encounter Mike Eisler?
I met Mike when I moved to Portland around 2012. We were at a friend’s campout picking party when in the middle of the night I heard fiddling from across the field that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It was Mike playing a tune that he’d written called Lonesome Star, and it was that dark, lonesome, gritty, bluegrass sound I loved. We enjoy swapping tunes, recordings and stories, and hashing out ideas for breaks, and new ways to interpret old tunes and songs.
I recall that Paul played with Dennis in one of the Disneyland bands. When did you meet him?
I met Dennis at Summergrass in 2021, and we became friends when I interviewed him for Fiddler Magazine. Besides his wonderful repertoire of tunes and licks, his creative double and triple stops really make his fiddling stand out. He has an amazing ear for harmonies, finds twin parts to complex melodies, and plays beautiful counterpoint double stops. He’s introduced me to many great old rock/pop recordings and artists from the ’40s through the ’70s, and he’s inspired me to learn a bunch of great Kenny Baker tunes. We share recordings, swap licks, work out long-distance twins over the phone, and have a great time twinning, picking, and hanging together when we can meet up at festivals. It’s a dream come true to have these guys be such a big part of my life, and I am eternally grateful for that.
What musical era do you wish you could go back and witness?
It would have been amazing to be around in the ’60s and ’70s when all the first-generation bluegrass bands were touring and playing the festival circuit.
Do you play anything other than bluegrass/old-time?
I primarily play bluegrass, but I also play some old-time, country, Irish, Cajun, and gypsy swing.
What other instrument or style might you like to learn?
I’d love to get better at all the styles I dabble in – there just isn’t enough time to learn everything! I’ve always thought it would be really fun to explore/learn some Eastern European/Balkan music and explore more time signatures. Also, I’ve always thought the Uilleann pipes are the coolest.
What issues contribute to good or bad tone?
That’s an interesting question because tone is subjective, and different folks may get the sound they’re looking to produce in different or unconventional ways. In terms of the player, the combination of bow speed and pressure, the angle of the bow in relation to the strings and to the instrument, the lane the bow is in (over the fingerboard, next to the bridge, or anywhere in between), the amount of pressure of the fingers on the strings, and how the fingers are positioned on the strings are all contributing factors. Regarding gear, the instrument, setup, strings, bow, horsehair, and rosin are all factors. Too much or too little rosin can make it challenging to produce a clean sound. I wipe down my strings and re-rosin my bow every few days because the tone sounds wispy and inconsistent to me after a certain amount of buildup. Humidity and temperature also affect the sound. My fiddles tend to sound fuller and richer when it’s warm and slightly humid, whereas they sound thinner or a bit hollow in very cold and/or dry climates.
How many students do you have?
About 30.
What is an easy-to-fix common mistake many players suffer from?
I don’t know what’s easy because we’re all different, but listening, observing, and slowing down seem to be things most of us can benefit from. Listen repeatedly to recordings and musicians that inspire you to truly appreciate the details, and listen for things that you may not expect. Then slow down and listen to yourself with the same observant ear. I’ve found recording myself to be an extremely helpful practice tool, because when listening back, I often notice things that I miss when I’m playing in the moment, and it helps me to isolate and work on areas I want to improve. Drones and metronomes have been helpful tools for me as well.
What might you do to work through a frustrating musical challenge?
It depends on what the challenge is, but for technique, I like to isolate things whenever I can, do drills until I see improvement and consistency, and then put things back into context. I do lift and replace exercises with drones and/or a tuner to improve intonation, or I’ll drill a new piece of bowing vocabulary until it gets into muscle memory. If it’s more abstract, like organizing ideas for a challenging song or tune I’m going to record, just playing it for a while usually gets ideas flowing. If I feel stuck for whatever reason, I might think about different elements or vocabulary that I want to incorporate, the narrative, rhythmic variations and phrasing, etc. Concentrating on one thing at a time seems to work best for me, as well as taking breaks and coming back to challenges over the course of the week or even months.
How do you learn a new tune?
First I listen to different versions of a tune to see which recording I want to learn from. Then I listen to that recording on repeat, sometimes for a few minutes, and sometimes off and on for days or weeks. I often slow down the recording during this phase. When I’m ready to work on it, I usually have it slowed down, and start by playing along with the whole track a handful of times before working on the parts individually. I might break it down into parts (like an A or B part), or loop each phrase. Once the entire melody is under my fingers, I start speeding up the recording incrementally and continue to play along until I get it up to speed. That’s the learning part, but then the next phase is just practice and repetition so that I can retain what I’ve learned and recall it without listening to it. Depending on the complexity of the tune, that process might take place within an hour, or span several weeks. I might be able to play a tune convincingly after a couple of hours, but I’m usually still noticing details I initially missed each time I come back to work on it. I guess in that regard the learning process is never finished, but that’s kind of a positive thing for me, because I know I’ll never get bored.
What do you do when not playing music?
I love talking to and spending quality time with my friends and family, laughing, taking long walks/hikes, eating ice cream, playing with my dog, thrifting, doing mending/dying projects, and drawing pencil sketches.
Tell us about your instruments and gear.
I have an Arvid Lundin fiddle that I got from Chad Manning when I was in high school, which was the only fiddle I played for a couple decades. It’s the first instrument he built and it has a great balance, sweet, bright overtones, and is very responsive. It also records really well. It had a crack at the base of the scroll for many years that finally became irreparable, and Jamie Herrmann built a perfectly matching new neck for it. While my fiddle was in the shop, I needed another one to play, so I bought an old 1800s German fiddle from Mike Eisler that he had named Brownie. Brownie has a deep, dark tone but has the power to cut through other instruments. It just sounds like such a bluegrass fiddle to me.
Most recently, Dennis Fetchet gave me the fiddle he had played while touring with the Bluegrass Cardinals. He also recorded with it on their first album, which I grew up listening to, so it’s very sentimental to me. It’s an 1800s JTL French workshop fiddle and has a warm, sweet, very bluegrass sound. I use a JP Bernard bow that was built in Pierre Guillaume’s workshop in Brussels, Belgium. I love the balance and weight, and it’s rich and responsive. I use Lonesome Pine Smooth Rosin, which has great grip and helps to produce a very clean, consistent tone.
Is there anything else you would like to say or plug?
I’m often asked what it is that defines bluegrass fiddling – specifically as opposed to old-time, country, and other related styles – and how we can express that style authentically in our playing. Basically, bluegrass fiddling is defined by the original masters who played it. What you hear on the recordings of first-generation bluegrass musicians (Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and others), provides the archetype for all of us who either want to play traditional bluegrass, or use it as a basis to evolve our own style. In my opinion, the best way to learn bluegrass fiddle is to listen carefully to the solos of these early masters and try and reproduce them as closely as possible. How much of these solos or licks or techniques you eventually incorporate into your own playing will depend on how you define your own style and your other influences, but learning them is the best way to understand what truly defines bluegrass fiddling.
I found this to be such an important tool for me that I wrote two books with transcriptions of some of my favorite fiddlers and solos, including commentary around what I found interesting or unique about them. The first book includes 30+ solos from a variety of influential players, and the second focuses specifically on ‘twin fiddling’, or fiddling in harmony. The books also include access to recordings of every solo, played with and without backup, both slowly and up to speed. The books can be purchased on my web site, and ordered in physical format or as a digital (PDF) download.
Are your instructional books good for all levels or more advanced players?
My hope is that these books will be a valuable learning tool for fiddlers of all levels, and that they inspire interest in some of these amazing first-generation musicians. They are transcriptions (along with slow and up-to-speed recordings) of fiddle solos from classic bluegrass recordings, so while the breaks may be geared more toward intermediate to advanced players, I think everyone can get something from them. Even if you’re new to the music or instrument, the best way to start learning is listening to these classic recordings.
Thanks for your time Annie and I hope to see you at Wintergrass next year.
Thanks so much for getting in touch Dave!
