Matthew Hartz is a contest fiddler and teacher who won the two biggest fiddle contests in the United States five times between 1988 and 1995. He took the Grand National Championship at Weiser, Idaho in 1988 and 1992 and the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville in 1989, 1993, and 1995. His students include Luke Price, Luke Bulla, and Alex Hargreaves, who between them own seven Grand National titles.
Why Hartz matters
Hartz bridged two contest worlds. He won his first titles listed from Texas and his later ones listed from Idaho, the two poles of the American contest circuit. His bigger mark is as a teacher. Three of the most decorated Weiser champions of the last thirty years call him the turning point in their playing. If you want to know where the modern contest sound came from, his lessons are one of the sources.
Life and career
Hartz won the Grand National Championship at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in 1988, listed from Texas. He followed 1987 champion Jimmie Don Bates, another Texan. The next year he won the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville, ahead of Bart Trotter of Texas and Daniel Carwile of Alabama.
He won Weiser again in 1992. By 1993 he was listed from Idaho, and that year he won his second Grand Master title with Danita Rast of Idaho in second place. In 1995 he won the Grand Master championship a third time, ahead of Roberta Rast and Luke Bulla. The Grand Master contest did not run from 1998 to 2004, so his three titles came in one seven-year window that also produced three wins for Danita Rast.
Hartz played fiddle on Jack Ingram’s 1994 album Lonesome Questions, and he appears on the 1997 National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest recording Chairmaker’s Rush. He kept working the contest circuit as an accompanist, and in 2015 he won the accompanist division at Weiser after backing 95 contestants. He teaches online through his own site and offers video lessons, backing tracks, and chord charts.
Playing style
Hartz plays the Texas contest style with a strong swing feel. His own site names deep groove and rhythmic precision as the two things he teaches first, and his lesson samples cover contest standards like Red Apple Rag, New Broom, and I Don’t Love Nobody. He also plays guitar, and his years as a contest accompanist show in his fiddling: the rhythm comes first and the variations sit on top of it.
Influences and legacy
Hartz came up in the Texas contest scene of the 1980s, the era of Dale Morris Jr. and Jimmie Don Bates, the Texas champions at Weiser in the years before him. In Idaho he competed beside Danita Rast Hartz and Roberta Rast.
His students carry his name farther than his own titles. Luke Price, a five-time Grand National champion, says he would not be the musician he is without Hartz. Luke Bulla, the 1996 Grand National champion, calls Hartz’s instruction a turning point in his career. Alex Hargreaves, the 2007 Grand National champion and 2009 Grand Master champion, says studying with Hartz changed his outlook on the fiddle. Hartz has also played duets with young fiddler Alex Tormala.
Signature tunes and songs
Sally Goodin Grey Eagle Red Apple Rag New Broom I Don’t Love Nobody.
Essential recordings
Lonesome Questions, Jack Ingram, fiddle credit (1994) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest 1997: Chairmaker’s Rush, various artists (1997)
Awards and honors
Grand National Champion, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Weiser (1988) Grand Master Fiddler Champion, Nashville (1989) Grand National Champion, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Weiser (1992) Grand Master Fiddler Champion, Nashville (1993) Grand Master Fiddler Champion, Nashville (1995) Accompanist champion, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Weiser (2015)
Watch and listen
Hartz plays at the Fiddlers’ Frolics in Hallettsville, Texas in 2015. Listen for the swing in the hoedown.
Hartz and guitarist Alex Tormala play Sally Goodin as a duet.
What to learn from Hartz
Learn Sally Goodin from the duet video. It is the Texas contest tune every judge knows by heart, so the variations have to be clean. The technique to steal is his groove. Play the tune with a metronome and lock the bow to the click before you add a single variation. Hartz built three champions on that order of work: rhythm first, notes second.
Sources
Champions, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest collection, University of Idaho Library Past winners, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 1989 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 1993 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 1995 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship Tara goes to Weiser 2015, Bluegrass Today Matthew Hartz Music, official site Matthew Hartz, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle contests guide for the full champion rolls. Danita Rast Hartz won the same two titles in the same years. His students Luke Price, Luke Bulla, and Alex Hargreaves took the Weiser crown after him. Mia Orosco is the Texas fiddler who won both titles in the 2010s.