Luke Bulla is a fiddler, singer, and songwriter who won seven titles at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho, between 1988 and 1996. His last win came in the open Grand National Championship at age 16. He moved to Nashville in 1999, played in Ricky Skaggs’s Kentucky Thunder, and spent 14 years in Lyle Lovett’s Large Band. He now tours as a solo artist.
Why Bulla matters
Bulla is proof that contest chops travel. He ran the Weiser divisions as a kid, then took that clean, in-tune playing into bluegrass, country, and pop sessions. His credit list runs from Skaggs and Alison Krauss to Brandi Carlile and the Indigo Girls. For a picker, his career shows what a fiddler with a contest foundation and a singing voice can do outside the contest tent.
Life and career
Bulla grew up in a musical family. He toured and sang with the Bulla Family band from age four and took up the fiddle at seven. The family recorded Daddy’s Hands in 1989, and Luke and his sister Jenny Anne released a duo record in 1992.
The Weiser record books track his childhood. He won the Small Fry division in 1988, listed from California. He won Junior-Junior in 1989, 1991, and 1992, listed from Oregon, and the Junior division in 1993 and 1995, listed from Washington. In 1996 he won the Grand National Championship at 16. His website says he was the youngest champion at the time. He also placed in the top ten at the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville in 1990, at age ten, and placed second there in 1996.
In the spring of 1999 Bulla moved to Nashville. He played fiddle in Ricky Skaggs’s Kentucky Thunder and appears on Skaggs’s 2000 tribute album Big Mon. He then joined the John Cowan Band and played on New Tattoo (2006) and The Massenburg Sessions (2010). With Casey Driessen he founded the band Wisechild. He also joined Works Progress Administration, a band with Sara Watkins, Sean Watkins, Glen Phillips, Benmont Tench, and Pete Thomas, which released WPA in 2009.
In 2009 Bulla released a solo EP and joined Lyle Lovett’s Large Band, where he stayed until 2023. He appears on Lovett’s Release Me (2012) and 12th of June (2022). In 2015 he co-founded the label Pure Music Nashville, which released his album Who Loves You Better in 2016. Bryan Sutton produced it. In 2023 he released a four-song Holiday Songs EP that he recorded alone.
Playing style
Bulla plays with the smooth bow and exact intonation the Weiser judges reward. His contest-era playing followed the Northwest and Texas style: long bow strokes, variations on each pass, and a steady dance tempo. In the Large Band he played under a singer and a horn section, so he learned to fit short, melodic lines into a busy arrangement.
His solo shows put the fiddle beside his voice. He sings lead, plays guitar and mandolin, and writes songs. On Temperance Reel, a tune he plays at most shows, you can hear a contest fiddler’s habit of never playing the tune the same way twice.
Influences and legacy
Bulla taught at Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camps in his early Nashville years, and O’Connor’s move from contest champion to touring artist maps onto Bulla’s own path. He has played and recorded with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck, Tony Rice, Chris Thile, Earl Scruggs, and Alison Krauss. His Weiser era overlapped with Danita Rast Hartz, Matthew Hartz, and Tashina Clarridge, who share the champions list with him.
Signature tunes and songs
Temperance Reel The Valley Blackberry Blossom Who Loves You Better.
Essential recordings
Luke and Jenny Anne Bulla, with Jenny Anne Bulla (1992) Big Mon: The Songs of Bill Monroe, Ricky Skaggs and Friends (2000) WPA, Works Progress Administration (2009) Who Loves You Better (Pure Music Nashville, 2016) 12th of June, Lyle Lovett (2022)
Awards and honors
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Small Fry division (1988) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Junior-Junior division (1989, 1991, 1992) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Junior division (1993, 1995) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Grand National Champion (1996) Grand Master Fiddler Championship, second place (1996) Grand Master Fiddler Championship, third place (1995)
Watch and listen
Bulla plays Temperance Reel alone. Watch how much variation he fits into a tune most jams play straight.
Bulla plays a solo spot during a Lyle Lovett concert in 2025. Listen to how he holds a room with one fiddle and no band.
What to learn from Bulla
Learn Temperance Reel from his solo videos. It is a standard jam tune, and Bulla’s version shows how to add variations without losing the melody. The technique to steal is his solo performance habit. Play a tune alone, with no rhythm player, and keep the time with your bow. Put a chord or a drone string under the melody so the tune does not sound thin. That is how a fiddler holds an audience between songs, and it is the skill that kept Bulla in a big band for 14 years.
Sources
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest champions, University of Idaho Library Grand Master Fiddler Championship past winners About Luke, Luke Bulla Holiday Songs EP from Luke Bulla, Bluegrass Today Luke Bulla, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more contest champions. Bulla founded a band with Casey Driessen and played beside Sara Watkins. Mark O’Connor made the same move from Weiser champion to touring artist a generation earlier, and Matthew Hartz beat him at the Grand Master championship in 1995.