Trustin Baker is a Missouri fiddler with two Grand Master Fiddler Championships, won in Nashville in 2018 and 2022. He finished second in that contest three years running before his first win, and he won its youth division in 2013 at the start of that run. He plays fiddle and banjo in the Baker Family, a bluegrass band with his mother and siblings.
Why Baker matters
Baker is the model of a contest fiddler who paid his dues. He placed second at the Grand Master championship in 2015, 2016, and 2017, then won it as a 19-year-old in 2018 and took the Charlie Bush Traditional Fiddler Performance Award at the same contest. He won again in 2022, one of a handful of fiddlers with two Grand Master titles since the contest returned in 2005. He also works as a bluegrass sideman, which keeps his contest playing tied to the dance beat.
Life and career
Baker comes from Birch Tree in the Missouri Ozarks. He recorded a solo album, Baker’s Dozen, in 2011, with 13 tunes including Say Old Man, Cotton Patch Rag, Grey Eagle, Sally Goodin, and Lady Be Good. He played fiddle and guitar on it himself. Bluegrass Today lists him among the students of Missouri contest champion and teacher Junior Marriott.
In 2013 he won the youth division of the Grand Master Fiddler Championship in Nashville. He moved into the open division and placed second behind Katrina Nicolayeff in 2015, Maddie Denton in 2016, and Mia Orosco in 2017. In 2018, at age 19, he won the open championship at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, with Ridge Roberts in second. The judges also gave him the Charlie Bush Traditional Fiddler Performance Award that year.
The Baker Family released If It Ain’t Love in 2017. Baker played fiddle and banjo, sang lead and harmony, and recorded and mixed the album. His mother Carrie Baker plays guitar, his sister Carina plays mandolin and sings, and his brother Elijah plays bass. In 2019 the band signed with Turnberry Records and Management, and that fall Baker won the open division of the Oklahoma State Fiddling and Picking Contest. Bluegrass Today reported that year that he had played the Grand Ole Opry. The Bluegrass Music Association of Iowa named him its Fiddle Player of the Year in 2019.
He won his second Grand Master title in 2022 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, ahead of Leah Sawyer and Andrew Lin. He placed fourth in 2021, second in 2024 behind Ridge Roberts, and eleventh in 2025. In 2025 he filled in on banjo with the Kody Norris Show at a festival in Ohio, and he took a place in the hot fiddle division at the Cherokee National Fiddle Contest in Oklahoma.
Playing style
Baker plays the Texas-style contest set: breakdown, waltz, and tune of choice, with long bow strokes and stacked variations. His 2018 Nashville rounds earned the contest’s Charlie Bush Traditional Fiddler Performance Award as well as the title, so the judges heard the tradition in his playing as well as the polish. On Baker’s Dozen the tune list mixes Texas standards like Grey Eagle and Sally Goodin with swing numbers like Lady Be Good, and that mix is his contest sound. In the Baker Family he switches between banjo and bluegrass fiddle behind his sister’s singing.
Influences and legacy
Baker learned in the Missouri contest circuit, where Junior Marriott has taught a string of champions from his home studio. He competes beside Ridge Roberts, Jesse Maw, and Katrina Nicolayeff, and his three straight runner-up finishes came behind Nicolayeff, Maddie Denton, and Mia Orosco. His brother Elijah has placed in the Grand Master accompanist division several times.
Signature tunes and songs
Grey Eagle Sally Goodin Cotton Patch Rag Say Old Man Beaumont Rag.
Essential recordings
Baker’s Dozen (self-released, 2011) If It Ain’t Love, with the Baker Family (self-released, 2017)
Awards and honors
Grand Master Fiddler Championship, Youth division (2013) Grand Master Fiddler Championship, second place (2015, 2016, 2017, 2024) Grand Master Fiddler Championship (2018, 2022) Grand Master Fiddler Championship, Charlie Bush Traditional Fiddler Performance Award (2018) Oklahoma State Fiddling and Picking Contest, Open division (2019) Bluegrass Music Association of Iowa, Fiddle Player of the Year (2019)
Watch and listen
Baker plays Beaumont Rag on his own channel. Listen to the long bow and the way the rag rhythm stays loose without losing the beat.
Baker’s winning round in the 2013 Grand Master youth division, posted by the contest.
What to learn from Baker
Learn Grey Eagle. It is on his first record and it is a standard contest breakdown in A that every Texas-style judge knows. The technique to steal is his patience. He placed second three times before he won, and his rounds sound the same whether he is winning or not: steady tempo, clean bow, no rushing into the variations. Practice a contest set of three tunes at one tempo with a metronome and record it. Judges hear steadiness before they hear flash.
Sources
Past winners, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 2013 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 2015 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 2016 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 2017 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 2018 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 2022 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship 2024 results, Grand Master Fiddler Championship Trustin Baker wins 2018 Grand Master Fiddler Championship, Bluegrass Today 2022 Grand Master Fiddler Championship results, Bluegrass Today 2025 Grand Master Fiddler Championship results, Bluegrass Today Spring Street and Baker Family to Turnberry Records and Management, Bluegrass Today 2019 Oklahoma State Fiddling and Picking Contest, Bluegrass Today 2019 BMAI award winners, Bluegrass Today Junior Marriott: from champion fiddler to celebrated instructor, Bluegrass Today Industrial Strength Summer Fest debuts in Ohio, Bluegrass Today 71st annual Cherokee National Fiddle Contest, Bluegrass Today Trustin Baker, Baker’s Dozen, Discogs The Baker Family, If It Ain’t Love, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more contest champions. Baker trades wins with Ridge Roberts and Jesse Maw at the Grand Master championship, and he finished behind Maddie Denton and Mia Orosco in his runner-up years.