Vassar Clements (1928 to 2005) was a bluegrass fiddler who turned into a genre of his own. He joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1949, played on Will the Circle Be Unbroken in 1972, and toured with Jerry Garcia in Old and In the Way. He called his swing-soaked style hillbilly jazz, and he played on somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 recordings. He won a Grammy in 2005, the year he died, and the IBMA put him in its hall of fame in 2018.
Why Clements matters
Clements proved that a bluegrass fiddler could improvise like a horn player and still drive a band. He came up under Monroe, so his bow had the old push. Then he let the big band records of his childhood leak into his solos. The result was a fiddle voice that rock bands, jazz players, and jam bands all wanted on their records. Every bluegrass fiddler who plays a blue note over a breakdown, or takes a second chorus that leaves the melody behind, is working ground Clements cleared.
Life and career
Clements was born on April 25, 1928, in Kinard, in the Florida panhandle, and grew up in Kissimmee. He taught himself fiddle at age seven, and his first tune was There’s an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor. He played in public from age 14. His stepfather knew Chubby Wise, and when Monroe’s band visited Florida, the young Clements heard Wise up close.
In late 1949 Wise left Monroe. Clements, then 21, rode a bus to audition. Monroe told him to come back the next day and paid for his room. Clements got the job and stayed until 1956. He recorded ten songs with Monroe for Decca in 1950. From 1958 to 1961 he fiddled for Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys, cutting 14 songs for Starday and six for Columbia and Epic. He also played on the Flatt and Scruggs theme for The Beverly Hillbillies.
Drinking cost him the middle 1960s. He worked as a plumber at the Kennedy Space Center, in a paper mill, and as a railroad switchman. He got sober and moved back to Nashville in 1967, where he joined Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys and then found session work. In 1971 he joined John Hartford’s Dobrolic Plectral Society with Norman Blake and Tut Taylor and recorded Aereo-Plain. He then joined the Earl Scruggs Revue.
The 1972 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album Will the Circle Be Unbroken made him famous outside bluegrass. He played on the Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood. In 1973 he joined Old and In the Way with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, and John Kahn. Their live album came out in 1975 and carried bluegrass to a rock audience. Clements cut his first solo record, Crossing the Catskills, for Rounder in 1973, and Hillbilly Jazz for Flying Fish in 1974. He led the Vassar Clements Band from 1975 to 1984 and recorded Together at Last with Stéphane Grappelli in 1987.
He kept touring and recording into the 2000s. Livin’ With the Blues, his only blues album, came out on Acoustic Disc in 2004. In 2005 he won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance for Earl’s Breakdown, recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, and Jerry Douglas. His last show was in Jamestown, New York, on February 4, 2005. He died of lung cancer in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, on August 16, 2005, at age 77.
Playing style
Clements never learned to read music. He said everything he played came from feeling. His tone was big and warm, with a wide vibrato on held notes and a slide into almost every phrase. He liked long bows and let a note bloom before he moved on. On a breakdown he kept Monroe’s drive, but his fill lines used chromatic runs, blue thirds, and swing rhythm borrowed from the Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Artie Shaw records he heard as a boy.
He played the tune once, then built a new line over the chords the way a saxophone player would. He could also play viola, cello, bass, mandolin, guitar, and tenor banjo, and that ear for the whole band showed in how he left space for other soloists.
His fiddle was as recognizable as his sound. It has a carved bearded head in place of a scroll and a painting of Sappho with a lute on the back. The Clements family website credits the instrument to the 16th century maker Gaspar Duiffoprugcar. John Hartford loaned it to him in the early 1970s and then gave it to him as a Christmas present.
Influences and legacy
Clements learned from records and from watching Chubby Wise with Monroe. Big band swing shaped his rhythm. In the Earl Scruggs Revue and Hartford’s band he played with a generation that was stretching bluegrass. He recorded with the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, the Marshall Tucker Band, and Papa John Creach.
His duet record with Grappelli tied bluegrass fiddle to jazz violin in public. Later collaborators included Tony Rice, with whom he recorded Hartford, Rice & Clements, and Grisman, whose Acoustic Disc label released his blues album. Fiddlers like Sam Bush, Byron Berline, Darol Anger, and Stuart Duncan work in a space he opened. ASCAP lists 18 of his compositions.
Signature tunes and songs
Lonesome Fiddle Blues Crossing the Catskills Kissimmee Kid Westport Drive Orange Blossom Special Liberty Bill Cheatham Sitting on Top of the World.
Essential recordings
Crossing the Catskills (Rounder, 1973) Hillbilly Jazz (Flying Fish, 1974) Old & In the Way, with Old and In the Way (Round, 1975) Vassar Clements (Mercury, 1975) Together at Last, with Stéphane Grappelli (Flying Fish, 1987)
Awards and honors
IBMA Album of the Year, True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe (1997) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year, Will the Circle Be Unbroken Vol. III (2003) Grammy Award, Best Country Instrumental Performance, Earl’s Breakdown (2005) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2018)
Watch and listen
Clements plays Orange Blossom Special. Listen for the slides and the way he stretches the shuffle into swing.
Clements and Tony Rice play Kissimmee Kid, a tune from his 1975 Mercury album. Watch how his solo leaves the melody and builds a new line over the chords.
What to learn from Clements
Learn Lonesome Fiddle Blues from the 1975 Mercury record. It is a slow blues in a fiddle key, and it teaches the slides, blue notes, and long bows that made his sound. The technique to steal is his second chorus. Play the melody once, then play the chord tones instead of the tune, and add one chromatic run between chords. Keep the bow long and let each note ring. Do this on a breakdown at a jam and you will hear where hillbilly jazz came from.
Sources
Vassar Clements, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Vassar Clements, IBMA award recipients Vassar Clements, Wikipedia Biography, Vassar Clements official site Vassar’s fiddle, Vassar Clements official site Hillbilly jazz, Vassar Clements official site Vassar Clements, Crossing the Catskills, Discogs Vassar Clements, Hillbilly Jazz, Discogs Vassar Clements, Vassar Clements, Discogs Vassar Clements and Stéphane Grappelli, Together at Last, Discogs Old & In the Way, Old & In the Way, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the bluegrass fiddle guide for more Monroe alumni. Clements followed Chubby Wise into the Blue Grass Boys and recorded with Stéphane Grappelli. Byron Berline and Sam Bush carried the same crossover spirit into newgrass, and Darol Anger built on his jazz side.