Erynn Marshall is an old-time fiddler, teacher, and author who was born in Victoria, British Columbia, and has lived in the Galax, Virginia, area since 2009. She won the fiddle contest at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival at Clifftop, West Virginia, in 2008, the first woman to take it in 19 years. She won old-time fiddle at Mount Airy in 2019. Her 2006 book Music in the Air Somewhere documents West Virginia’s fiddle and song traditions.
Why Marshall matters
Marshall learned the old West Virginia and Kentucky styles from the people who made them, then proved on contest stages that a student of the sources could beat the field. She spent years visiting fiddlers in their eighties and nineties, wrote down what they knew, and put it on records and in a book. Her original tunes now turn up at jams beside the old ones.
Life and career
Marshall was born on August 4, 1977, in Victoria, British Columbia, and later lived in Gibsons, British Columbia. Her teachers included Melvin Wine and Lester McCumbers of West Virginia, Leland Hall, and Art Stamper of Kentucky. In 1998 she moved to Toronto for graduate study at York University and earned a master’s degree in ethnomusicology in 2003.
West Virginia University Press published her book Music in the Air Somewhere: The Shifting Borders of West Virginia’s Fiddle and Song Traditions in 2006. That same year she held a three-month Appalachian Fellowship at Berea College in Kentucky and won the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. She began playing with the Haints Old Time Stringband in 2007.
In August 2008 she won first place in fiddle at Clifftop, listed as Erynn Marshall of Gibsons, British Columbia. In 2009 she moved to Galax, Virginia, and became concert coordinator for the Blue Ridge Music Center. She married songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Carl Jones, and the two tour and record together as Dittyville. In June 2019 she won adult old-time fiddle at the Mount Airy Bluegrass and Old Time Fiddlers Convention, with Andrew Small in second. She moved to nearby Hillsville, Virginia, in 2021.
Her recordings include Calico, Meet Me in the Music with Chris Coole, Sweet Memories… Never Leave with Carl Jones in 2015, Greasy Creek in 2016, and Old Tin with Jones in 2020. She plays in the Galax Bogtrotters with Eddie and Bonnie Bond. She coordinates Swannanoa Old-Time Week in North Carolina, directs the Alleghany Junior Appalachian Musicians program, and teaches at camps and by video.
Playing style
Marshall plays in the older West Virginia and eastern Kentucky manner. The bow does most of the work. She uses short, rhythmic strokes with drone strings underneath, and she lets the tune’s crooked phrases stand instead of squaring them off.
She learned tunes note for note from her teachers and keeps their versions intact. Her Melvin Wine tunes, such as Eadle Alley, keep his phrasing and his uneven measure counts. Her Eighth of January follows the John Ashby version rather than the common jam version. Her own tunes, like Rocky Point and The Lohman Waltz, sit inside that same sound world.
Influences and legacy
Her sources were the elder fiddlers she visited: Melvin Wine, Lester McCumbers, Leland Hall, and Art Stamper. Wine was a National Heritage Fellow, and McCumbers won Clifftop in 2004 in his eighties.
Her Clifftop win came a year before Tatiana Hargreaves won in 2009, and John Showman of Toronto followed her as a Canadian-born Clifftop champion in 2011. She and Carl Jones played on Fiddle Tunes from Uncle Dick Hutchinson in 2022, and she has appeared in films including Voices of Virginia and The Clifftop Experience.
Signature tunes and songs
Eadle Alley Eighth of January Trouble on My Mind Breaking Up Christmas Rocky Point Daredevil Blues The Lohman Waltz Happy Hollow.
Essential recordings
Meet Me in the Music, with Chris Coole (Hickory Jack) Sweet Memories… Never Leave, with Carl Jones (Dittyville, 2015) Greasy Creek (2016) Old Tin, with Carl Jones (Dittyville, 2020)
Awards and honors
CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award, Edmonton Folk Music Festival (2006) Appalachian Fellowship, Berea College (2006) Appalachian String Band Music Festival, Clifftop, fiddle contest, first place (2008) Mount Airy Bluegrass and Old Time Fiddlers Convention, adult old-time fiddle, first place (2019)
Watch and listen
Marshall plays Eadle Alley, a tune she learned from Melvin Wine. Listen to the drone under the melody and the uneven phrase lengths.
Here she plays Eighth of January in the John Ashby version. Watch the short bow strokes and the steady shuffle.
What to learn from Marshall
Learn Eadle Alley from her video. It is a Melvin Wine tune, and it teaches you to count a crooked tune by feel instead of by numbers. The technique to steal is her bow economy. Play Eighth of January with short strokes, keep a drone string ringing under the melody, and let the rhythm come from the bow rather than from extra notes. That is the old West Virginia sound, and it works at any jam tempo.
Sources
Erynn Marshall, Wikipedia Bios, Dittyville Press, Dittyville Winners from Appalachian String Band Festival 2008 at Clifftop, West Virginia, West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History 2019 Mt. Airy Bluegrass and Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Bluegrass Today Fiddle Tunes from Uncle Dick Hutchinson, Bluegrass Today Erynn Marshall, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more players. Marshall learned from Melvin Wine and Art Stamper. Fellow Clifftop champions Bruce Molsky, Tatiana Hargreaves, John Showman, and Andrew Small work the same old-time ground.