Megan Lynch Chowning is a contest fiddler, bluegrass sideman, and teacher based in Nashville. She won seven division titles at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho, the first in the Small Fry division in 1983 and the last in the Adult division in 2015. She toured with Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan, played on the Grammy-nominated John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1, and runs the FiddleStar lesson business and the Nashville Acoustic Camps with her husband, Adam Chowning.
Why Lynch Chowning matters
Lynch Chowning has spent more of her career teaching than competing. She started teaching at 14. She now runs eight to ten small camps a year near Nashville, a monthly bluegrass workshop, and a library of video lessons. She also invented the fiddle capo. Her own playing sits at the meeting point of Texas contest style and Nashville bluegrass, which is the exact spot most jam fiddlers want to reach.
Life and career
Lynch Chowning grew up in Redding, California, and started fiddle at age four. Her teacher was Evelyn Horner, and her first tune was Boil Them Cabbage Down. She listened to Texas Shorty, Dick Barrett, and Bobby Hicks. At Weiser she won the Small Fry division in 1983, then the Junior-Junior division three years running in 1985, 1986, and 1987. She won the California state championship six times.
She came back to Weiser as an adult and won the Young Adult division in 2003 and 2004. In 2001 she found the Bay Area bluegrass scene through the East Bay Pickin’ Parties and co-founded the band Cabin Fever. She played with Rick Jamison and Copper Canyon and with Due West. In 2004 she moved to Nashville to join 3 Fox Drive. She then spent four years on the road with country singers Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan. She also worked with Roland White, Dale Ann Bradley, Larry Cordle, Jim Hurst, Chris Jones, and Special Consensus, and she spent three years in a touring duo with banjo player Bill Evans. Their album Let’s Do Something… came out in 2009.
She started her fiddle camps in 2007. In 2012 she married Adam Chowning, and the two built the camps into the Nashville Acoustic Camps. The IBMA gave the pair its Momentum Award for Industry Involvement in 2018. In 2014 she won the Traditional Championship at the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville, and in 2015 she won the Adult division at Weiser, listed from Tennessee. She has judged the national contest at Weiser three times and many state contests.
Her solo records are unaccompanied fiddle, played at learning tempos. Something Old New Borrowed Blue, released in 2014, includes Chinquapin Hunting, Ookpik Waltz, Bonaparte’s Retreat, Sally Ann, and Cuckoo’s Nest. She played on The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1, produced by Matt Combs and Katie Harford Hogue from Hartford’s handwritten tune journals. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album in 2020. She toured the music with Tristan Scroggins and Adam Hurt in 2023, and a second volume, Julia Belle, followed in 2025.
Playing style
Lynch Chowning plays Texas contest style with a Nashville edge. Her contest rounds build the way Weiser judges expect: a plain first pass, then variations that grow busier on each repeat, with long smooth bow strokes and double stops on the waltzes. Her country years added the sideman’s craft: short fills, kickoffs, and harmony lines behind a singer, which she now teaches as a separate skill.
Her solo fiddle albums are recorded slow on purpose so a student can hear every note. Her lesson videos on the Nashville number system, double-stop warmups, and fiddle fills show how she thinks: chords first, then melody.
Influences and legacy
Her early models were Texas Shorty, Dick Barrett, and Bobby Hicks, and her teacher Evelyn Horner. In Nashville she worked beside Roland White and Dale Ann Bradley. Maddie Denton, the 2016 Grand Master champion and 2025 IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year, now teaches beside her on the FiddleStar platform.
Signature tunes and songs
Cotton Patch Rag Huckleberry Hornpipe Chinquapin Hunting Ookpik Waltz Forty Years Ago Waltz Boil Them Cabbage Down.
Essential recordings
Let’s Do Something…, with Bill Evans (Native and Fine Records, 2009) Something Old New Borrowed Blue (2014) The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1, various artists (2020) Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 2, various artists (2025)
Awards and honors
Small Fry champion, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Weiser (1983) Junior-Junior champion, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Weiser (1985, 1986, 1987) Young Adult champion, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Weiser (2003, 2004) Traditional Championship, Grand Master Fiddler Championship (2014) Adult champion, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Weiser (2015) IBMA Momentum Award, Industry Involvement, with Adam Chowning (2018) Grammy nomination, Best Bluegrass Album, The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1 (2020)
Watch and listen
Lynch Chowning plays a first round at Weiser. Listen for how the hoedown, waltz, and tune of choice each build from plain to busy.
She plays Cotton Patch Rag alone, at a tempo you can play along with.
What to learn from Lynch Chowning
Learn Cotton Patch Rag from her solo video. It is a Texas rag with a chord pattern that moves, so it forces you to hear changes instead of just running a scale. The technique to steal is her fill playing. Pick a slow bluegrass song, find the chord tones, and play two-note fills only in the gaps after each vocal line. That is the job a fiddler gets hired for in Nashville, and it is the job a jam needs most.
Sources
About Megan, FiddleStar Champions, National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest collection, University of Idaho Library 2014 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship California Report: Fiddler Megan Lynch Chowning on Hartford Project and more, Bluegrass Today Something Old New Borrowed Blue from Megan Lynch Chowning, Bluegrass Today 2018 IBMA Momentum Award winners, Bluegrass Today 2021 Grammy nominees announced, Bluegrass Today John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project on tour in March, Bluegrass Today Bill Evans and Megan Lynch, Let’s Do Something…, Discogs The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Vol. 1, Discogs Julia Belle: The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Vol. 2, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more contest and bluegrass fiddlers. Maddie Denton teaches with her and followed the same path from contest stages to the IBMA awards. Dick Barrett and Bobby Hicks are the players she studied. Katrina Nicolayeff and Luke Price own the Weiser era she judged.