Jana Jae (born 1943) is the fiddler with the blue violin. She won the ladies division at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho, in 1974, then became the first woman in Buck Owens’s Buckaroos. She played more than 100 live performances on Hee Haw. The National Fiddler Hall of Fame inducted her in 2015. She hosted her 27th annual fiddle camp in Grove, Oklahoma, in 2024.
Why Jae matters
Jae took contest fiddling to network television. Millions of Hee Haw viewers who never heard of Weiser saw a woman with a blue fiddle tear through Orange Blossom Special every week. She proved that a classically trained player could win a fiddle contest, hold a chair in a country band, and front her own show. Her camp and festival in Oklahoma have trained a generation of young fiddlers.
Life and career
Jae was born Jana Greif on August 30, 1943, at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana. Both of her parents studied violin at the Juilliard School. She started on a one-eighth size violin at age two. When she was nine her parents divorced, and she and her mother moved to Idaho to live with her grandparents. Her grandfather was a champion fiddler, and he taught her to play by ear. She grew up near Weiser and heard bluegrass at the national contest there. Her stepfather, a guitarist, taught her the double shuffle show style she uses on Orange Blossom Special and Black Mountain Rag.
She kept up her classical study too. She won scholarships to Interlochen and the International String Congress, graduated magna cum laude with a music degree, and studied at the Vienna Academy of Music. She taught school music for several years. The University of Idaho’s list of Weiser champions records her, under the name Jana Greif, as the 1974 ladies division winner. She cut an album under that name, I Love Fiddlin’!, in 1975.
While teaching in Redding, California, she led a bluegrass band called Clearcreek. Buck Owens played the college there and invited her on stage to play Orange Blossom Special with Don Rich. After Rich died in 1974, Owens’s manager Jack McFadden called her to Bakersfield. She waited a week in a hotel room, passed a four hour audition, and flew to Las Vegas that night to start work as a Buckaroo. Owens handed her a blue Barcus-Berry electric fiddle and told her to play it. She hated the idea at first. Then Hee Haw fans started writing letters to “the girl with the blue violin.”
Jae left the Buckaroos in the late 1970s and built a solo career. She recorded for Lark Records, including The Devil You Say! in 1980, Live! in 1981, and Symphony Pops in 1983. She has played the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Wembley Festival in England, and the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and has toured Japan, Australia, Brazil, and Africa. She has judged the Weiser contest three times. She now lives in Grove, Oklahoma, where she hosts the American Heritage Music Festival each June and a fiddle camp each Labor Day weekend.
Playing style
Jae plays two ways at once. Her left hand comes from Juilliard-trained parents and Vienna study, so her intonation and vibrato are clean and classical. Her right hand comes from Idaho contest stages and her stepfather’s show fiddling. She uses the double shuffle, the rocking bow pattern that drives Orange Blossom Special, and she pushes it hard for a crowd.
Her set list moves from a bluegrass breakdown to a western swing tune to a pops arrangement with orchestra, and she has recorded all three. The blue fiddle is part of the act. Owens bought it so audiences would spot her on a crowded stage, and it worked.
Influences and legacy
Her first teachers were her parents and her fiddling grandfather. Her stepfather gave her the show licks. Buck Owens and Don Rich shaped her stage sense, and she credits Owens for her career. Owens called her every Sunday until his death in 2006.
She has shared stages with Roy Clark, Chet Atkins, Ricky Skaggs, Mel Tillis, Ray Stevens, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Her fiddle camp in Grove draws more than 50 students a year, with her daughter and granddaughters on the coaching staff. Oklahoma fiddler Junior Marriott teaches the advanced class. She played at the 2019 National Fiddler Hall of Fame induction beside Byron Berline.
Signature tunes and songs
Orange Blossom Special Black Mountain Rag Listen to the Mockingbird Cotton Eyed Joe.
Essential recordings
I Love Fiddlin’!, as Jana Greif (American Heritage Music Corporation, 1975) The Devil You Say! (Lark Records, 1980) Live! (Lark Records, 1981) Symphony Pops (Lark Records, 1983)
Awards and honors
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, ladies division (1974) National Fiddler Hall of Fame (2015)
Watch and listen
Jae plays Orange Blossom Special at a rodeo opry show. Watch the double shuffle in her right hand on the train section.
What to learn from Jae
Learn Orange Blossom Special the way she plays it, with the double shuffle in the middle section. Start the shuffle slow on open strings until the accent falls on the right beat, then add the train whistle slides. The technique to steal is her stage sense. She plays to the back row and makes every tune a show. Pick one tune in your set, stand up, and play it for the audience instead of for your bandmates.
Sources
Jana Jae, official site, About Jana Jae interview, Voices of Oklahoma Jana Jae and The Blue Violin, Bluegrass Today Camping with Jana Jae, fiddle style, Bluegrass Today 2019 National Fiddler Hall of Fame inductions, Bluegrass Today National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest champions, University of Idaho Library Jana Greif, I Love Fiddlin’!, Discogs Jana Jae, The Devil You Say!, Discogs Jana Jae, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more players. Byron Berline shares her Oklahoma base and her hall of fame. Charlie Daniels and Doug Kershaw also took show fiddling to television. Kenny Sears came up through the same country band world.