Kenny Baker, Master Fiddler

Court Square Stage, Saturday night

Fiddle Workshop Sunday

Kenny Baker refined the rugged bluegrass fiddle style during his twenty-two year stint with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. Today, he is one of the most emulated fiddlers of all time.

Baker utilized the "long-bow" technique, resulting in a very polished and connected sound. He was also heavily affected by the use of three fiddles in Bob Wills' recordings and developed a knack for playing with rich double stops as a result. Baker fiddled on the definitive recordings of such landmark bluegrass instrumentals as "Jerusalem Ridge" and "Salt Creek." He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Hall of Honor in 1999.

The Jenkins, Ky., native is one of the most influential fiddlers in the history of bluegrass music. Countless fiddle players have received words of encouragement, impromptu lessons -- even musical instruments -- from the man whom Bill Monroe often introduced onstage as "the greatest fiddler in bluegrass music." The countless hours he logged at Monroe's Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in Brown County, Ind., remain treasured memories for his many fans and friends, where he'd hold court at his record table swapping stories, fiddles and laughs. At night, after his work was done, Baker could often be found jamming around a smoky campfire until daybreak playing tunes such as "Festival Waltz," "Gray Eagle" and "Washington County."

A third-generation fiddler, Baker was born June 26, 1926, and picked up the fiddle at age 8, but soon switched over to the guitar. As a teenager, Baker worked in the east Kentucky coal mines before enlisting in the Navy during World War II. While stationed in New Guinea, he was given the opportunity to sit in as a guitarist with a visiting USO troupe. Baker so impressed the head of the unit that he was given an immediate transfer to the entertainment outfit, where he served out the remainder of his military hitch.

During his time in the service, Baker renewed his interest in the fiddle after hearing the music of jazz violinist Steffan Grappelli and the Texas Swing music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Baker started dabbling with the instrument after being recruited to play a square dance with the USO troupe. "The two songs I played that night were 'Ragtime Annie' and 'Rubber Dolly.' I just kept crisscrossing those same tunes all night," he recalls.

Baker returned to the coal mines after completing his military service but continued to hone his musical skills by playing local dances at night. By 1953, he was working with Don Gibson in Knoxville, which led to his meeting Bill Monroe. The bluegrass patriarch offered him a spot in his Blue Grass Boys, which he joined for the first time in 1957.

With a family to support and times often financially lean for musicians, Baker was in and out of the group over the course of the next decade before settling in for his longest hitch in 1968. For the next 16 years, Baker was Monroe's right-hand man. The two men's mutual respect and admiration for each other's musical abilities resulted in an outstanding body of recordings such as Bill Monroe's Uncle Pen album and The Master of Bluegrass.

Commencing in the late 1960s, Baker began his relationship with County Records of Virginia, where he recorded a series of instrumental albums including Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler, A Baker's Dozen and Frost on the Pumpkin. All of those records contained a mix of traditional numbers and original compositions that are a part of many a fiddler's repertoire today. It is perhaps his 1976 recording, Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe, for which he will always be best remembered. Rarely a live performance goes by without someone requesting numbers from the album such as "Lonesome Moonlight Waltz" or "Jerusalem Ridge."