Erynn Marshall

The fiddling obsession, for all its demands, is a gift because of the joy it brings when you abandon yourself to it. Erynn’s fiddling has that sense of delight in it, even in the lonesome pieces – a feeling like having a fine time playing music with your friends on a West Virginia summer night, crickets singing, air heady with the perfume of tobacco flowers and sweet clover. 
– Kenny Jackson

Erynn Marshall is not only a fine scholar of old-time fiddle tunes, but she can play them wonderfully.
– Pete Peterson, Old-Time Herald Magazine Vol. 11, (Nov. 2007)

Erynn Marshall’s old-time fiddle playing is front and centre and superb. …old-time tunes played with a brilliance rarely matched by anybody on the North American scene.  
– Mitch Podolak, Penguin Eggs Magazine (2007)

Erynn Marshall has carved out a niche for herself as an old-time fiddler in North America and abroad. Her playing style is expressive, innovative, yet rooted in tradition. She has been featured at numerous concert venues, folk clubs and festivals in the US and Canada and is known for her smooth, bluesy fiddle style, love of old tunes and her joy of performing home-made music with and for others. Whether solo or teamed up with kindred spirits, Erynn plays from the heart. She explores her artistic individuality while honouring the musicians and traditions that have influenced and inspired her along the way.

 A native of Victoria, BC  and now a resident of Gibsons, Erynn returned to the westcoast after completing her MA in ethnomusicology at York University, Toronto. In 2006, Erynn’s first book, Music in the Air Somewhere: The Shifting Borders of West Virginia’s Fiddle and Song Traditions, was published by the West Virginia University Press. This book was the culmination of several years of fieldwork in West Virginia with seventy-five to ninety-five years old singers and fiddlers. Frequent southern trips allowed Erynn to learn elements of Appalachian fiddling directly from older tradition bearers Melvin Wine, Lester McCumbers, Leland Hall, Art Stamper and others who were very generous teachers. Her respect for these mentors emanates from her earnest performances of traditional music.

 Erynn Marshall is a regular performer and fiddle instructor at prominent Canadian and US festivals and music camps including the: Swannanoa Gathering (NC), Augusta Heritage Center (WV), Woods Music and Dance Camp (ON),  North Atlantic Fiddle Convention (NF), Sunshine Coast Summer School of Celtic Music (BC), Calgary Folk Festival (AB), Edmonton Folk Festival (AB), Ottawa Folk Festival (ON), Sorrento Bluegrass Festival (BC), Fiddleworks (Saltspring, BC), Festival of Newfoundland & Labrador (NF) and The Midwest Banjo Camp (Lansing, MI). She has directed two stringband ensembles at York University in Toronto and was a featured musician on the roots music documentary I’ll Fly Away Home (Bravo) and The Clifftop Experience (Outlook, WV Public Broadcasting). Erynn presently performs with The Haints Old-time Stringband (with bandmates Pharis and Jason Romero) as well as with guitarist, Dave Clarke. In 2005, Erynn has recorded two CDs: Calico (Merriweather Records)and Meet Me in the Music with banjoist Chris Coole (Hickoryjack Records). Calico was nominated for Best World category at the 2005 TIMA Awards and won a Porcupine Award - Gem of Canada: Album of the Year.  Meet Me in the Music was nominated for the Best Traditional Album at the 2007 Canadian Folk Music Awards.Erynn has also received a CBC Galaxy Rising Star Award at the 2006 Edmonton Folk Festival and an Appalachian Fellowship through Berea College in Kentucky. Her recent CD, Meet Me in the Music, features many rare tunes and songs she learned during this period of musical immersion. In 2008, she won first place in the open fiddle competition at “Clifftop,” the Appalachian Stringband Festival (WV). She was the first female and the first person from outside the US to win the title. Erynn is now working on her new CD Tune Tramp  - a collaboration which will feature her performing with friends old and new.  For more info please visit her website: www.hickoryjack.com or Myspace: myspace.com/erynnmarshall.

Contact: Hickoryjack Records  www.hickoryjack.com  erynnmarshall@gmail.com