Megan Lynch Chowning – photo © Alex Steed
Megan Lynch Chowning is a Nashville-based California native known for her excellent bluegrass and Texas-style fiddle lessons. She cut her teeth as a contest fiddler, and is a seven-time national fiddle champion who has played and toured with bluegrass and country acts such as Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan, Dale Ann Bradley, Roland White, Larry Cordle, Jim Hurst, Chris Jones, 3 Fox Drive, Due West, Chris Stuart, and Bill Evans. She has taught at many well-known camps, and runs the IBMA-award-winning Nashville Acoustic Camps with her husband Adam. In more recent times she has participated and been the torch bearer of the much-heralded John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, which she discusses here.
Hi Megan, congrats on releasing the John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Vol. 2. How long have you been working on this?
Thank you! John’s daughter, the visionary behind this series, Katie Harford Hogue (this is the correct spelling, her father added the T later at the suggestion of Chet Atkins), Sharon Gilchrist, and I had our first meeting back in the summer of 2023, but Katie had been working on it before then and she and I had several conversations during that time, so I’d say close to two years.
It has a lot of players. Did you know who they all were from the beginning or did it just evolve?
Both. And yes, the album has 48 separate artists on it. We each had wish lists at the beginning of planning and we made adjustments as we went along based on creating cool collaborations and availability.
The Julie Belle Swain
Unlike the first volume, this release has some songs and material that John Hartford had previously recorded. How did that change come about?
It started with a meeting we had with Alison Brown where she suggested doing a cut of Steam Powered Aereo Plane featuring Kathy Mattea with an incredible band lineup, and we couldn’t say no to including that. Then we decided to include John’s former wife (and Katie’s mom) Betty Hartford Gilbert singing No End of Love, which John wrote for her. Once we had two previously recorded songs, we found a place for three more that we felt helped elevate the overall feel of the album.
What is the ultimate goal of these projects?
To introduce the world to some of the over 2,000 previously unseen, unheard, and unrecorded fiddle tunes John wrote between 1980 and his death in 2001. We hope people will love them, learn them, and play them!
What are some things that have surprised you in working on these two volumes?
The most surprising thing has been the breadth of genres John explored in writing the tunes. Rags, polkas, waltzes, reels, and jigs. He did not limit himself to any one regional style or tune category. He was really trying to learn and create fiddle music from a 360-degree point of view.
Why do you think John doesn’t get the level of recognition as a lot of his peers?
I don’t know – that may have been more true a decade ago, but lately, he’s everywhere! From Billy Strings to Molly Tuttle to Sam Bush to Rachel Baiman, we’re seeing new tribute albums and new interpretations of his material. He was always your favorite artist’s favorite artist, and now I feel like that is breaking through more to the general public.
How can readers purchase or best experience the release?
Of course, it’s streaming everywhere and available on CD as well but the double vinyl albums (which includes John’s original artwork etched into the actual vinyl) is probably my favorite.
Going back to Vol. I, how did this all come together?
This all comes down to John’s daughter Katie, once she was made aware of the 68 spiral-bound notebooks full of fiddle tunes discovered almost seven years after his death. She got in touch with Matt Combs and enjoined him to help her create a book of 176 of the best, most complete, most representative tunes which became Hartford’s Mammoth Collection. (I was the copy editor on that book.) Then it was only a matter of time before the albums started rolling out.
So 2,000-176 = 1924 unseen Hartford compositions. It sounds like plenty of material for a Massive Hartford tunebook.
Sure, I can see your point. And in fact, there are well over 2,000 so it’s even more dramatic than that. Certainly, some of the tunes are unfinished, unreadable, or otherwise unsuitable. But really, the John Hartford’s Mammoth Collection book was all about finding the most representative tunes and creating a beautifully curated collection. And it was a massive undertaking just to accomplish that! All of the journals have been donated to the Center for Popular Music in Tennessee, and people can see them occasionally when they are displayed at specific events.
Is there a Vol. III in the works?
Yep! I can’t say too much about it yet, but there will be a third (and most likely last) volume.
Tell us about the upcoming tour.
Since 2022 I’ve been playing the tunes from the book and the album(s) in a live show, first with Tristan Scroggins and Adam Hurt, and now with Sharon Gilchrist and Rachel Baiman. It’s so fun! We’re called the John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project and we play the newly discovered tunes as well as some John Hartford classics. We also teach workshops at the festivals and concerts to get as many people playing the tunes as possible. This summer we’ll be playing at the Folky Fish Festival in Missouri, the Cowichan Festival on Vancouver Island in Canada, and the Earl Scruggs Festival which will have a slightly different but still awesome lineup.
I’m curious how a Hartford Workshop can be effective given his material is usually not just 3 chords on the line. Do attendees get to learn material or is it mostly you all playing stuff you couldn’t get to on stage?
No no, we don’t do “festival workshops” where it’s just us playing some tunes like we did on stage and everyone else sitting on their hands. That’s not how any of us roll. We teach these tunes, note by note, hands-on, to everyone who attends. John Hartford wrote tunes of all difficulty levels and they’re all represented in the Mammoth Collection and on the albums. We choose tunes to teach that are accessible to anyone beyond the very brand-new beginner. That’s the whole point of this project – to share the tunes and encourage as many people as possible to love and play them. We’re all extremely experienced and patient teachers and wouldn’t have it any other way.
You run a well-known camp. How long has that been active and tell us all about it.
I do hope we’re well-known, thank you! I run eight to ten camps every year, along with my husband, at our house just outside of Nashville, TN. I started with a few fiddle camps each year back in 2007 and then when he and I got married in 2012 we decided to expand to flatpick guitar, mandolin, clawhammer banjo, songwriter, Dobro, old-time fiddle and banjo, vocal, jamming, and whatever else other fun camps we could think of. We won an industry award from the IBMA in 2018 and are so proud of the work we’ve been able to do helping adults improve their instrument and jamming skills.
You’ve had some great guest instructors, tell us about them.
Well, generally speaking, if you’ve heard of them, we’ve probably had them teaching at our camps. John Reischman, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Della Mae, Deanie Richardson, Kenny and Amanda Smith, Sierra Hull, and the list goes on and on. But more than anything, we’re most excited about the teachers to whom we’ve given opportunities to learn and grow as instructors. Some of the teachers who got their first gig at one of our camps are known far and wide as master teachers now.
What do you feel makes your camps unique and how do you gauge if they are a success or not?
They’re in our home, and we only take 15 campers at each event. Not to mention, we’re in Nashville so we have access to some of the best musicians, teachers, and field trip activities in the world. All of our camps sell out within a few hours (sometimes minutes) of opening registration, which is a great honor and compliment. But we gauge success on how many of our campers send us messages from all over the world sharing pictures of jams they’ve started, other camps they’ve gotten the courage to attend, and all the other musical events they participate in. It means the world to us to know that they feel comfortable enough because of what they’ve experienced with us to broaden their musical horizons beyond our living room.
You’re a native Californian. Tell us how you got hooked on bluegrass.
I am! I started playing the fiddle when I was four years old but didn’t really take to bluegrass until I started attending the East Bay Pickin’ Parties in 2001. It wasn’t long before I was starting a band and roaming around the late-night jams at the CBA Father’s Day Festival.
Special Consensus featuring Maddie Denton and Megan Lynch Chowning
I have to assume you attended California Bluegrass Association events as a youth.
Nope, not at all. I was consumed with fiddle contests and Texas-style fiddling and western swing and jazz and all sorts of other things growing up. I was a member of the California Old Time Fiddle Association and focused on their jams and contests, as well as the National Old Time Fiddlers Contest, which I attended every year starting at about six years old. I never played bluegrass growing up, unless one could consider a few crossover tunes that might qualify.
What California-based bands were you active in?
I co-founded Cabin Fever with Larry Chung, along with John Relph, Yvonne Walbroehl, and Steve Swan. I played in Rick Jamison and Copper Canyon, and in Due West with Jim Nunnally, Bill Evans, Erik Thomas, and Cindy Browne. I filled in with lots of other bands along the way and even after I left for Nashville I spent three years touring as a duo with Bill Evans.
What instruments do you play regularly?
I am a fiddle chick, through and through, but can play some rhythm guitar in a pinch.
What is the first and most recent fiddle tune that you learned?
First was certainly Boil em Cabbage. The most recent was probably something for an upcoming John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project show, I think John’s tune Living Up Stairs.
What caused you to move to Nashville and how has that been for you?
In 2004 I was asked by the band 3 Fox Drive to move here and join the band, and I had also been meeting and picking with a lot of people who lived in Nashville at the same time, so it seemed like the perfect time. As I write this, I’ve just celebrated my 20th Nashversary. I miss California like crazy, but living here has been incredible and I wouldn’t have had the career experiences I’ve had, and I wouldn’t have met my wonderful husband. My professional relationships have all been extremely supportive and positive and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Are there any particular styles/players of fiddle tunes that you favor?
I love bluegrass, old-time, Texas style, western swing, and all the wonderful players of those genres. I’d have to say I find Texas Shorty, Dick Barrett, and Bobby Hicks to have been most influential (alongside my teachers like Evelyn Horner) in my playing.
How do you know when a student is making big improvements?
I don’t know if there are a lot of “big” improvements in the fiddle game. It’s a hard instrument! But more importantly, I like to focus on consistent improvements and practical ones, at that. I want my students to be improving in small ways, all the time, and always focusing on improving in the direction of their own personal goals.
How do you recommend that students work through any musical challenges they have?
I might be biased, but I do think it helps to ask a teacher to help. But aside from that, the most important thing you can do as you’re learning is to listen, listen, listen to everything you can. Identify what you want to sound like, and move in that direction.
How can students connect with you?
They can work with me in two main places: www.fiddlevideo.com, and through my ongoing (and also past recorded) Zoom workshops available on my fiddlestar web site.
How to Transition from Classical Violin to Fiddle – FREE lesson by Megan Lynch Chowning
Is there anything I forgot to ask?
I just want everyone to play and sing all the music they can for as long as they can. Even if it’s not perfect or up to speed. It’s still making the world a better place. Oh, and I just co-produced Julia Belle: John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Volume 2 and I’m so very proud of it and I hope everyone listens to it and learns a tune from it. I promise it will make you happy.
Thanks, Megan, and hope to see the upcoming tour.
Thank you, Dave! I hope our paths cross again soon.
