Tashina Clarridge is a California fiddler who won the Grand National Championship at the National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest in Weiser, Idaho, in 2005 and again in 2026. Her two titles came 21 years apart. She is the older sister of five-time champion Tristan Clarridge, and the two play together in the Bee Eaters.
Why Clarridge matters
Clarridge shows what a contest career looks like when it lasts. She won her first Weiser division as a child, her first Grand National title in her twenties, and her second in her forties, and in between she finished in the top five at Weiser year after year against players half her age. She also carried contest chops into the string band world with the Bee Eaters and into session work with Jody Stecher and Bill Evans. For a jammer she is a model of a fiddler who kept the tune list and the bow arm alive for three decades.
Life and career
Clarridge grew up in a musical family in Mount Shasta, in the mountains of far northern California. The family played together as the Clarridge Family, and both Tashina and her younger brother Tristan came up through the West Coast contest and fiddle camp scene. She won the Junior-Junior division at Weiser in 1994, and Tristan won the Small Fry division the next year. Her playing appears on Weiser contest compilations from 1996 and 1997 and on Mark O’Connor’s Fiddle Camp First Edition in 2006.
Tristan won the Grand National Championship in 2002, 2003, and 2004. In 2005 Tashina won it, and Tristan took it back in 2006 and 2008. She kept competing after that. She placed fourth in the Grand Champion division in 2014, fifth in 2015, third in 2017, and fourth in 2019. At the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, she finished second in the old time fiddle championship in 2021, behind Tristan, and second again in 2024. In 2021 she placed seventh in the open division of the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville.
Away from contests she played in the Bee Eaters with Tristan on fiddle and cello and Simon Chrisman on hammered dulcimer. The band’s album Oddfellows Road, released in 2011, added Wes Corbett on banjo, Dominick Leslie and Mike Marshall on mandolin, and Bruce Molsky on vocals. In 2012 she and Tristan played on the California sessions for banjo player Bill Evans’s In Good Company with Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, David Grier, and Todd Phillips. In 2019 they were two of the three fiddlers on Jody Stecher’s Dreams from the Overlook.
In June 2026, competing as Tashina Clarridge Lindley, she won the Grand National Championship at Weiser for the second time. Tristan placed second. The same week the two of them won the twin fiddling division, and she and Orin Lindley won the banjo and fiddle contest.
Playing style
Clarridge plays in the Texas contest style that Weiser rewards. Her breakdowns follow the Benny Thomasson model: a clear statement of the tune, then variations that move the melody up the neck, shift the bowing pattern, and add double stops without losing the pulse. Her tone is warm and even, and her intonation holds through the high variations.
What sets her apart in a contest round is her waltz and tune of choice. She plays waltzes with long, connected bow strokes and a light vibrato, and she picks swing and rag tunes that let her show chord-tone lines. The Camp Sumner videos of Billy in the Lowground and Forked Deer show the same approach at jam tempo: melody first, variations second, drive throughout.
Influences and legacy
Clarridge learned in the same West Coast scene as Alex Hargreaves, Tatiana Hargreaves, Brittany Haas, and Gabe Witcher. She recorded on the 2006 compilation from Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camp. Her brother Tristan Clarridge is her closest musical partner. Between them the siblings hold seven Grand National titles. Her contest years overlapped with Katrina Nicolayeff and Luke Price, who split most of the Grand National titles between 2011 and 2023.
Signature tunes and songs
Billy in the Lowground Forked Deer Sally Goodin Dry Shasta Wet Shasta Theodore’s Waltz.
Essential recordings
Oddfellows Road, the Bee Eaters (self-released, 2011) In Good Company, Bill Evans (Native and Fine, 2012) Fiddle Camp First Edition, Mark O’Connor and guests (2006)
Awards and honors
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Grand National Champion (2005, 2026) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Twin Fiddling 18 and over, with Tristan Clarridge (2026) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Banjo and Fiddle Contest, with Orin Lindley (2026) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Junior-Junior division (1994) National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest, Grand Champion division, third place (2017), fourth place (2014, 2019), fifth place (2015) Walnut Valley Old Time Fiddle Championship, second place (2021, 2024) Grand Master Fiddler Championship, open division, seventh place (2021)
Watch and listen
Clarridge plays Billy in the Lowground at Camp Sumner. Listen to how she states the melody plain before she starts the variations.
Clarridge plays her third round in the Grand Champion division at Weiser in 2017, the year she placed third. Watch the bow stay steady through the up-the-neck variations.
What to learn from Clarridge
Learn Billy in the Lowground from the Camp Sumner video. It is a C tune every jam knows, and her version gives you a plain melody and two or three variations you can drop into a break. The technique to steal is her contest pacing. She plays the first time through straight, adds one idea on the second pass, and saves the up-the-neck variation for the last. Do the same in a jam and your break will build instead of peaking on bar one.
Sources
National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest champions, University of Idaho Library The 73rd annual National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest and Festival, Bluegrass Today 2019 National Old Time Fiddlers Contest report, Bluegrass Today 2017 Weiser report from National Oldtime Fiddler’s Contest and Festival, Bluegrass Today Tara goes to Weiser 2015, Bluegrass Today Weiser 2014 report, Bluegrass Today Winfield competition winners for 2021, Bluegrass Today 2024 Winfield competition results, Bluegrass Today 2021 Grand Master Fiddler Championship results, Bluegrass Today Bill Evans is In Good Company, Bluegrass Today California Report: Jody Stecher discusses his new release, Bluegrass Today Bee Eaters, Oddfellows Road, Discogs Tashina Clarridge search results, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more. Her brother Tristan Clarridge holds five Grand National titles. Katrina Nicolayeff and Luke Price were her rivals through the 2010s, and Alex Hargreaves came out of the same West Coast scene.