Amy Alvey is an old-time fiddler, guitarist, and songwriter who came to the music through Berklee College of Music and stayed for the contests. She placed second in the Clifftop fiddle contest in 2018 and won adult old-time fiddle at Mount Airy in 2026. With Mark Kilianski she makes up the duo Golden Shoals, which has released six albums and an EP since 2014.
Why Alvey matters
Alvey is proof that a conservatory player can earn a place in the old-time contest world. She did it by placing at Clifftop, Galax, and Mount Airy against fiddlers who grew up in the tradition. Her duo then took those tunes on the road to 33 states and four other countries. For a picker who came to old-time music late, she is the model: learn the source recordings, play the contests, and write your own songs on top of the tradition.
Life and career
Alvey grew up in Coto de Caza, California, and studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Berklee is where she and Mark Kilianski met and where both found old-time and bluegrass music. They started playing together in casual jam sessions in Boston under the name Hoot and Holler. Their first release, the EP Nothing If Not Young, came out in October 2014.
In 2016 the duo began touring full time, living in a camper van. They later settled in Asheville, North Carolina, and Alvey was listed from Asheville when she placed in the old-time fiddle contest at Galax in 2017. The albums Reasons to Run (2017) and Milkers and Hollers (2018) followed. In 2018 she placed second in the fiddle contest at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia, behind Henry Barnes and ahead of Tessa Dillon, Joseph Decosimo, and Erynn Marshall.
The duo changed its name to Golden Shoals and released a self-titled album in 2020 and Tune Hash in 2022. By then Alvey lived in Madison, Tennessee, outside Nashville, and hosted a radio show on WMOT. The IBMA named her to its 2023 Leadership Bluegrass class, and Golden Shoals played an official set at the IBMA conference in Raleigh that fall. In 2025 the duo released two albums, Gold Time and The Dream and the Hunger. In 2026 she won first place in adult old-time fiddle at the Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention.
Playing style
Alvey plays old-time fiddle with the clean technique of a trained player and the drive of a dance fiddler. Her contest version of Cherry River Rag, filmed at Clifftop in 2023, shows both: exact intonation on the double stops and a steady, pushing bow that never lets the tempo sag. She switches between fiddle, guitar, and banjo on stage, and she hears the chord changes the way a guitarist does.
Golden Shoals builds songs on that base. The duo’s press kit describes their sound as conservatory technique in tandem with the grit and drive of players like Roscoe Holcomb and Ola Belle Reed. In practice that means fiddle tunes at contest tempo next to original songs with modern lyrics.
Influences and legacy
Alvey found the music at Berklee, then went to the source: old-time contest fiddlers and the recordings they learned from. Her contest placings put her beside Erynn Marshall, who finished behind her at Clifftop in 2018, and the Galax and Mount Airy regulars such as Richard Bowman and Andrew Small. Golden Shoals has shared bills with Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper, Ricky Skaggs, Michael Daves, and Tatiana Hargreaves. She and Kilianski teach old-time fiddle, flatpicking, and harmony singing at camps and festivals, including Blackpot Camp and the John C. Campbell Folk School.
Signature tunes and songs
Cherry River Rag Setting the Woods on Fire Jimmy Beam Ain’t My Friend Treading Water.
Essential recordings
Reasons to Run, Golden Shoals (self-released, 2017) Milkers and Hollers, Golden Shoals (self-released, 2018) Golden Shoals, Golden Shoals (self-released, 2020) Tune Hash, Golden Shoals (self-released, 2022) The Dream and the Hunger, Golden Shoals (self-released, 2025)
Awards and honors
Old Fiddlers’ Convention, Galax, old-time fiddle, placed (2017) Appalachian String Band Music Festival, Clifftop, fiddle contest, second place (2018) Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention, adult old-time fiddle, placed (2022) IBMA Leadership Bluegrass class (2023) IBMA conference official performer, Golden Shoals (2023) Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention, adult old-time fiddle, first place (2026)
Watch and listen
Alvey plays Cherry River Rag in the Clifftop fiddle contest in 2023. Watch her bow arm stay relaxed through the double stops.
Golden Shoals plays the Hank Williams song Setting the Woods on Fire. Listen for the way the fiddle fills between vocal lines.
What to learn from Alvey
Learn Cherry River Rag from her 2023 contest video. It is a rag with double stops on the high part, and her version is clean enough to trust. The technique to steal is her steady bow at contest tempo. Set a metronome to the speed of the video and play the tune three times through without slowing the low part or rushing the high part. That even pulse, more than any lick, is what contest judges reward.
Sources
2018 contest winners, Appalachian String Band Music Festival (PDF) 2026 Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention results, Bluegrass Today 2022 Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention results, Bluegrass Today The Trailblazers take top spot at Galax 2017, Bluegrass Today IBMA announces 2023 Leadership Bluegrass class, Bluegrass Today TapRoot Sessions: Golden Shoals, Bluegrass Today Press kit, Golden Shoals Golden Shoals, Discogs search
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more old-time fiddlers. Erynn Marshall and Andrew Small compete at the same conventions. Bruce Molsky set the standard for old-time fiddlers who came to the music from outside it, and Tatiana Hargreaves works the same seam between old-time and bluegrass.