Shane Cook is an Ontario fiddler who won the Grand National Championship at Weiser, Idaho, in 1999 at age 17. He then won the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Championship three times, in 2000, 2002, and 2003, and the Canadian Open three times. He is the only fiddler from outside the United States on the Weiser Grand National champions list. He retired from contests at 24 and now leads the band Shane Cook and the Woodchippers.
Why Cook matters
Cook is proof that Canadian old-time fiddling and Texas-style contest fiddling can live in one bow arm. He won the biggest title in the United States with the same hands that won the biggest titles in Canada, and he did it as a teenager. For jammers the lesson is in his repertoire. He plays the tunes of Don Messer, Graham Townsend, and Andy DeJarlis with a clean, driving precision that any bluegrass or contest player can borrow.
Life and career
Cook grew up in Dorchester, Ontario, near London. He recorded his first album, Cookin’ on the Fiddle, in 1994, and a second, Heritage Fiddles, in 1996. He won three Canadian junior titles and two Canadian duet titles with Kyle Cook. In 1997 he won the championship class at the Maritime Fiddle Festival in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
In June 1999 he went to the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser and won the Grand National Championship at 17. The next year he won the Canadian Grand Masters in Ottawa. He won it again in 2002 and 2003, with Mark Sullivan taking the title in the years between. He also won the Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Championship in 2001, 2003, and 2005. By his own count he holds seven Canadian titles. He stopped competing at age 24.
Cook studied music at Western University in London, Ontario, and graduated with an honors degree. In 2000 he became a founding member of Bowfire, a touring violin show that appeared on PBS, and stayed with it for more than 15 years. He released Sundry in 2001 and a self-titled album in 2005, a set of Canadian old-time tunes with a swing band that included mandolinist Ray Legere and guitarist Brian Pickell. He recorded When Here Meets There with Nova Scotia fiddler Troy MacGillivray, which won an East Coast Music Award, and Head to Head with Jake Charron of the East Pointers in 2014.
In 2016 he formed Shane Cook and the Woodchippers with Emily Flack of Leahy on piano, vocals, and step dance, Joe Phillips on bass, and Kyle Waymouth on guitar, tenor banjo, and dance. The band premiered its debut album, Be Here for a While, with the International Symphony Orchestra and toured it across Canada and the United States in 2022. The album and band were nominated for two Canadian Folk Music Awards that year. Cook also plays in the Brian Pickell Band and the StepCrew, joined the Claire Lynch Band in 2018, and teaches at fiddle camps.
Playing style
Cook plays with contest precision and dance-hall drive. His bowing is clean and articulate, with each note separated and in tune, which is why his Weiser win stands up in a Texas-style room. On Ottawa Valley reels and Down East tunes he keeps a hard, steady pulse and adds his own step dance footwork under the fiddle, a sound you can hear on Head to Head where he is credited on fiddle and feet.
His tune list runs from Scottish and Irish reels through Messer and Townsend to swing and bluegrass, and he arranges them with harmony parts and key changes rather than long solos. Claire Lynch, who hired him in 2018, described his playing as acrobatic precision with clarity, and that is the core of it.
Influences and legacy
Cook’s self-titled album is a map of his influences: Don Messer, Graham Townsend, Andy DeJarlis, and Brian Pickell. He came up in the Ontario contest world that also produced Scott Woods, who won the Canadian Grand Masters the two years before him, and Mark Sullivan, who traded the title with him from 2000 to 2005. He studied at Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camps and at the Berklee summer string program. April Verch and Aynsley Porchak are the other Ontario fiddlers of his era who have crossed between Canadian and American contest stages. Porchak won the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville in 2015, a title Ontario’s Rudy Meeks had taken in 1977, but no other Canadian has won the Grand National at Weiser.
Signature tunes and songs
Hangman’s Reel The Goldenrod Murray River Mason’s Apron Crossing the Avon Old Dangerfield.
Essential recordings
Shane Cook (2005) When Here Meets There, with Troy MacGillivray (2008) Head to Head, with Jake Charron (2014) Be Here for a While, Shane Cook and the Woodchippers (2021)
Awards and honors
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Grand National Champion (1999) Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Champion (2000, 2002, 2003) Canadian Open Old Time Fiddle Champion (2001, 2003, 2005) Maritime Fiddle Festival, championship class (1997) Canadian junior fiddle champion (three times) Canadian duet fiddle champion with Kyle Cook (two times) East Coast Music Award, Roots/Traditional Recording, When Here Meets There Canadian Folk Music Award nominations, Instrumental Group of the Year and Traditional Album of the Year (2022) CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award
Watch and listen
Cook plays a medley of The Goldenrod, Murray River, and Mason’s Apron. Listen to how clean each note stays as the tempo climbs.
What to learn from Cook
Learn Mason’s Apron from the medley above. It is a Scottish reel that Canadian fiddlers play at contest speed, and Cook’s version shows how to keep the notes separate instead of smearing them. The technique to steal is his bow articulation. He starts each note with a small bite of the bow and lets it ring, so a fast reel stays clean instead of turning into a blur. Practice one A part with a metronome at half speed until every note has that edge, then bring it up.
Sources
Shane’s bio, Shane Cook Music, Shane Cook Shane Cook and the Woodchippers, Shane Cook National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest champions, University of Idaho Library Past champions and results, Canadian Grand Masters Fiddling Association Past winners, Grand Master Fiddler Championship Shane Cook, Wikipedia
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more. Cook traded the Canadian Grand Masters title with Mark Sullivan and followed Scott Woods. Aynsley Porchak is the other Ontario fiddler with a major American title, and Louis Schryer holds the most Canadian Grand Masters wins.