With Labor Day coming up, it means that the Grand Master Fiddler Championship is just around the corner. Top fiddlers in bluegrass, old time, swing, Texas, and contest style will get together at the Turner Theater in Franklin, TN, just south of Nashville, on September 1.
There are a great many fiddlers’ conventions all over the US, state conventions, city and county contests, and large events like Galax, Mt. Airy, Clifftop, Weiser, and several others, but the Grand Masters stands apart from all of them, both because of the way the competition is run, and for the level of talent among the contests each year. Reading the winners list offers a “who’s who” of contemporary American fiddling, and contestants also like that awards are given for accompanists as well as fiddlers, with special categories for Youth and Traditional fiddlers.
Past winners include icons like Mark O’Connor, Texas Shorty, Dale Morris, Randy Howard, Danita Rast, and Daniel Carwile, and current players Aynsley Porchak, Maddie Denton, Tristan Claridge, Alex Hargreaves, Trustin Baker, Ridge Roberts, and many others.
Also on that list is Jimmy Mattingly, who took home the trophy in 1981, and will be honored at the 2024 Grand Masters with the Dr. Perry F. Harris Distinguished Fiddler Award. Jimmy got his start in bluegrass, playing in Spectrum with Béla Fleck and Jimmy Gaudreau, and served as a founding member of the Grascals. But his greatest notoriety came as fiddler with Garth Brooks, touring with him all over the world.
Congratulations Jimmy on this high honor, essentially a founder’s award as the Grand Master Fiddler Championship is the brainchild of Dr. Harris.
Musical performers for this year will be Mark & Maggie O’Connor.
Full details can be found online.
