Biography

Ken Perlman is a pioneer of the 5-string banjo style known as melodic clawhammer; he is considered one of the top clawhammer players in the world, known in particular for his skillful adaptations of Celtic, Appalachian, & Canadian fiddle tunes to the style. Ken has toured throughout most of the English-speaking world and in Western-Europe, both as a soloist and – for over fifteen years – in a duo with renowned Appalachian-style fiddler Alan Jabbour. Ken has written some of the most widely respected banjo and guitar instruction books of modern times, including Clawhammer Style Banjo, Melodic Clawhammer Banjo, and Everything You Wanted to Know About Clawhammer Banjo. Ken has been on staff at prestigious teaching festivals around the world, and he now directs three music-instructional camps: American Banjo Camp, Midwest Banjo Camp, and Suwannee Banjo Camp.
An independent Folklorist, Ken has spent decades collecting tunes and oral histories from traditional fiddle players on Prince Edward Island in Eastern Canada, resulting in a collection of over 400 tunes called The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island, an oral-history based work called Couldn’t Have a Wedding Without the Fiddler, and the website bowingdownhome.ca, devoted to traditional Prince Edward Island fiddling. His previous recordings are Southern Summits and You Can’t Beat the Classics (with Alan Jabbour), plus the solo CDs Northern Banjo, Island Boy, Devil in the Kitchen, Live in the U.K. and – from Folkways – Clawhammer Banjo & Fingerstyle Guitar Solos.