Biography

84-year old Chattanooga, Tennessee fiddling legend Fletcher Bright joins forces again with West Coast bluegrass banjo icon Bill Evans for "Songs That Are Mostly Older Than Us," featuring sixteen traditional and original old-time/bluegrass fiddle instrumental tracks. Joining them on this release are Norman and Nancy Blake, adding guitar and cello on ten tracks.

For over seventy years, Fletcher’s been fiddling up a storm in his home state of Tennessee. He was there when Arthur Smith’s 78rpm records were the hottest fiddling around. He was there when bluegrass was perfected by the Monroe/Flatt/Scruggs trinity, and, like so many other young fiddlers (he was in high school at the time), he fell in love with the blazingly original fiddle of the great Chubby Wise. Inspired by Chubby, he formed a bluegrass band, The Dismembered Tennesseans, with fellow students. This band is still playing today, over sixty years later! An ever-diligent student with an insatiable curiosity, he was there studying when newcomers like Mark O’Connor and Byron Berline revolutionized the bluegrass violin. He was there when another new generation, led by The Punch Brothers, again redefined bluegrass, and he was an inspiration to a young Noam Pikelny. And he’s here now, 13 years into a new century as bluegrass has attained a greater grip on the American cultural mainstream than ever. But let the generations come and go, let time roll on by, Fletcher Bright won’t change his course. He’ll keep steering his riverboat fiddling straight ahead, taking time to explore some of the many divergent streams of American fiddle traditions, but never veering too far from the main current of bluegrass fiddle that he’s been navigating, all the way from the original source of the music.

Bill Evans is a positive five-string banjo life force: an author, historian, producer, teacher, workshop leader and performer/composer. The author of "Banjo for Dummies" and "Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies," Bill's 2012 CD "In Good Company" features 26 guests artists including the Infamous Stringdusters and Tim O'Brien. This release topped folk and bluegrass charts and was named to many "Best of Year" lists, including Folk Alley and Pop Matters.

"Songs That Are Older Than Us" features special guests Norman Blake on guitar and Nancy Blake on cello, who play on ten cuts on this release.