Aubrey Haynie is a Nashville session fiddler and mandolin player whose work appears on hundreds of bluegrass and country records. He has released three albums of his own on Sugar Hill, and he holds four IBMA awards, including Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year for The Bluegrass Fiddle Album in 2003. The Academy of Country Music named him its Top Fiddle Player of the Year at its April 2009 awards. His mandolin work has its own page.
Why Haynie matters
When a Nashville producer needs a fiddle break that sounds like Kenny Baker but sits clean inside a modern mix, Haynie gets the call. He plays the traditional bluegrass style with the tone and timing of a session pro, and he plays mandolin at the same level. His 2003 record The Bluegrass Fiddle Album is the clearest statement of that approach: standard bluegrass fiddle tunes cut with a top Nashville band and no gimmicks. Pickers use it as a reference for how the old tunes should sound today.
Life and career
Haynie was born on March 27, 1974, in Tampa, Florida. At age nine he started fiddle lessons with Ted Locke, a relative of his grandmother. After two years on fiddle he took up mandolin, and within four years of his first lesson he had joined the Bluegrass Parlor Band. As a teenager he met Chubby Wise several times, and he studied Kenny Baker records. In 1990, at 16, he won the contemporary division of the Florida state fiddle championship for the second time, playing Wild Fiddler’s Rag and Skater’s Waltz.
He moved into the Nashville studio world in the 1990s. He was part of the group project Bluegrass ‘95, with Scott Vestal, Adam Steffey, Wayne Benson, Barry Bales, and Clay Jones, which won the IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year award in 1996. In 1998 the IBMA named Stanley Gospel Tradition: Songs About Our Savior its Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year, with Haynie among the players.
Sugar Hill released his first solo record, Doin’ My Time, in 1997. A Man Must Carry On followed in 2000, and its original tune Happy Go Lucky later ran as the music bed for a national Subaru television campaign in 2013. On that track Haynie plays both mandolin and fiddle, with Bryan Sutton on guitar, Jerry Douglas on resonator guitar, Dennis Crouch on bass, and Kenny Malone on percussion. The Bluegrass Fiddle Album came out in 2003 and won the IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year award that fall.
Session work has filled the years since. He played on the compilation Celebration of Life: Musicians Against Childhood Cancer, which won IBMA Album of the Year in 2006. On April 5, 2009, in Las Vegas, the Academy of Country Music gave him its Top Fiddle Player of the Year award over fellow nominees Bryan Sutton, Randy Kohrs, and Rob Ickes. Recent credits include fiddle on Alan Bibey’s Uncle Herschel with Sierra Hull and Ronnie McCoury, and sessions for Jody King, the Shannon Slaughter Band, Milan Miller, and Val Storey.
Playing style
Haynie plays straight bluegrass fiddle. The model is Kenny Baker: long, smooth bow strokes, a warm tone, and melody first. His double stops are in tune and in time, which is why producers trust him behind a vocal.
The session habit shows in his control. His breaks land on the beat, his kickoffs set the tempo without rushing, and his backup fills stay under the singer. On The Bluegrass Fiddle Album you hear the tunes played the way a jam plays them, at a tempo a band can hold, with the melody clear enough to learn from. His mandolin work carries the same clean chop and clear tremolo.
Influences and legacy
Ted Locke taught him. Chubby Wise was a personal influence he met as a boy, and Kenny Baker’s records shaped his sound more than any other. In the studio he has played beside Bryan Sutton, Jerry Douglas, Adam Steffey, Scott Vestal, Barry Bales, Sierra Hull, and Ronnie McCoury. He is one of the players, with Stuart Duncan, who set the sound of Nashville bluegrass sessions from the 1990s on.
Signature tunes and songs
Happy Go Lucky Doin’ My Time Wild Fiddler’s Rag Skater’s Waltz.
Essential recordings
Doin’ My Time (Sugar Hill, 1997) A Man Must Carry On (Sugar Hill, 2000) The Bluegrass Fiddle Album (Sugar Hill, 2003) Bluegrass ‘95, with Scott Vestal, Adam Steffey, Wayne Benson, Barry Bales, and Clay Jones (1995)
Awards and honors
Florida state fiddle championship, contemporary division (1990, second win) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year, Bluegrass ‘95 (1996) IBMA Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year, Stanley Gospel Tradition: Songs About Our Savior (1998) IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, The Bluegrass Fiddle Album (2003) IBMA Album of the Year, Celebration of Life: Musicians Against Childhood Cancer (2006) Academy of Country Music, Top Fiddle Player of the Year (presented April 2009)
What to learn from Haynie
Learn any tune from The Bluegrass Fiddle Album and play it with the record at full speed. The arrangements are jam tempo and jam length, so the album works as a practice partner. The technique to steal is his backup. Listen to a Haynie session cut with a vocal and count how few notes he plays under the singer. Long held double stops on the chord tones, a short fill at the end of each line, and nothing else. That discipline is what gets a fiddler hired twice.
Sources
Aubrey Haynie, IBMA award recipients Aubrey Haynie wins ACM award, Bluegrass Today Aubrey Haynie gets some Subaru love, Bluegrass Today Aubrey Haynie, Wikipedia Aubrey Haynie, Discogs Aubrey Haynie search results, Bluegrass Today
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more bluegrass fiddlers. Haynie learned from the records of Kenny Baker and met Chubby Wise as a boy. Stuart Duncan shares the Nashville session chair with him, and Michael Cleveland plays the same Baker-rooted style on stage. His mandolin tunes and records are on his mandolin page.