Mike Barnett is a Nashville-born fiddler who held the fiddle chair in Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder from 2016 to 2020. Before that he played with Jesse McReynolds, the Deadly Gentlemen, and the David Grisman Quintet. His 2018 album Portraits in Fiddles paired him with a dozen bluegrass elders and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album in 2019. He stepped away from touring in 2020 and has since released two records of duets and expanded arrangements.
Why Barnett matters
Barnett is a contest-trained fiddler who went to Berklee, learned bluegrass on the road with Jesse McReynolds, and then spent years in Boston and New York playing everything from string band music to jazz. He brought all of that back into a traditional band with Kentucky Thunder. He plays lyrical lines instead of licks, and on Portraits in Fiddles he gave Bobby Hicks and Buddy Spicher room on his own record.
Life and career
Barnett was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He reached the championship division finals at the 2008 Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville, and he toured with Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys, where he learned bluegrass from a first-generation bandleader.
He left Nashville for Berklee College of Music in Boston and came of age in the Boston roots scene. From 2011 to 2014 he played fiddle in the Deadly Gentlemen, a Boston string band. He also worked with the David Grisman Quintet, Tony Trischka, Joe Walsh, and the Bryan Sutton Band. Compass Records released his first solo album, One Song Romance, in 2014. He then lived in Brooklyn and played the small clubs of New York City.
In November 2016 Ricky Skaggs named him the new fiddler in Kentucky Thunder, replacing Andy Leftwich after Leftwich’s 15 years in the band. Barnett played some dates in late 2016 and started full time in 2017. He moved back to Nashville. Compass released Portraits in Fiddles in 2018 with David Grisman, Tim O’Brien, Bryan Sutton, Tony Trischka, Buddy Spicher, David Grier, Bobby Hicks, Noam Pikelny, Mike Bub, and Stuart Duncan. It was nominated for the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album in February 2019.
He stepped away from the road in 2020, and Skaggs later hired Mike Rogers and Billy Contreras to cover the fiddle chair. Compass released his duets album +1 in March 2021, with Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, Alex Hargreaves, Dominick Leslie, Ricky Skaggs, and saxophonist Eddie Barbash. In November 2023 the label released 3+, an EP that expanded three of those duets into full band tracks with Noam Pikelny, Chris Eldridge, and Paul Kowert of Punch Brothers.
Playing style
Barnett plays with a smooth, singing tone and long melodic lines. Compass describes his playing as lyrical, and that is the right word. He shapes a break like a vocal verse, with a clear start, a peak, and a landing, instead of a string of licks.
Contest training gave him clean intonation and control at speed. Berklee and the New York years gave him jazz-inflected note choice and a taste for Celtic airs and ballads. In Kentucky Thunder he played straight bluegrass with drive. On his own records he moves from a breakdown to a Celtic hymn to a pop-tinged song without changing his sound. He has said bluegrass gives him the harmonic structure and technical base that lets him reach into other genres.
Influences and legacy
Barnett got his bluegrass training from Jesse McReynolds and then studied the fiddlers he later recorded with: Bobby Hicks, Buddy Spicher, and Stuart Duncan. He has named Darol Anger’s Diary of a Fiddler, the duo work of Christian Howes and Billy Contreras, and the Tim O’Brien and Darrell Scott records as influences. Tim O’Brien sang on Portraits in Fiddles.
His duet partners are the leading players of his generation: Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, and Alex Hargreaves. He taught at Augusta Bluegrass Week in 2016.
Signature tunes and songs
Mary and the Soldier Righteous Bell Hangman Reel Old Barnes Hollow City Born to Be With You.
Essential recordings
One Song Romance (Compass, 2014) Portraits in Fiddles (Compass, 2018) +1 (Compass, 2021) 3+ (Compass, 2023)
Awards and honors
Grand Master Fiddler Championship, championship division finalist (2008) Grammy nomination, Best Bluegrass Album, Portraits in Fiddles (2019)
Watch and listen
Barnett plays in the championship division finals at the 2008 Grand Master Fiddler Championship. Watch a contest-trained player before the band years.
Barnett plays Coal Burning Grease Fire at Augusta Bluegrass Week in 2016. Listen for the long, connected phrases.
What to learn from Barnett
Learn Hangman Reel from Portraits in Fiddles. It is a fast old-time reel, and the Bluegrass Today review singled out the precise picking on that track. The technique to steal is his phrasing. Take a tune you know and play one break as a single sentence: start soft, build to the highest note in the second half, and land on the root without a flourish. That is the difference between a list of licks and a solo.
Sources
Mike Barnett, Compass Records Mike Barnett to Kentucky Thunder, Bluegrass Today Portraits in Fiddles, Mike Barnett, Bluegrass Today 61st annual Grammy Award nominations are out, Bluegrass Today Mike Barnett on bouncing back and a new album, Bluegrass Today Mike Rogers and Billy Contreras to Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Bluegrass Today Out today: Mike Barnett 3+ EP, Compass Records Bluegrass Today premieres new Michael Barnett track Mary and the Soldier, Compass Records
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more players. Barnett recorded with Bobby Hicks, Buddy Spicher, and Stuart Duncan, and trades duets with Alex Hargreaves. Darol Anger is one of his named influences.