I grew up on a small farm in Celo, a small community in western North Carolina. I started fiddling when my mom traded our goats' milk for lessons from Bruce Greene, one of the greatest living old-time fiddlers. Becky Morrissey and Paul Statsky provided more formal violinistic instruction.
After a four-wheeler accident and a few years away from music, I got into Irish fiddling in college, learning from my mother's cassettes, friends and extended trips to Ireland including a year abroad in Dublin. Living in Carrboro, NC, for a few years I toured with the Irish/Cape Breton band Cucanandy. Some of my favorite places we played were the Cherry Tree, Caffe Lena, the Kennedy Center, and the Lunenberg and the Celtic Colours music festivals in Nova Scotia. At home, guitarist Rob Sharer and I hosted some traditional Irish music sessions, which were always best when friends like Grainne Murphy, Dan Leonard, and Pat and Cathy Sky showed up. I also played with the Americana bands Grasshopper Highway, Jonathan Byrd, and Hooverville, all good friends.
Currently I play mostly with The Weal and Woe (vintage and original country) and Gangstagrass. A Gangstagrass track is the Emmy-nominated theme song of the new TV show "Justified" on FX (shout-outs from the WSJ and TVGuide), and a blazing full album, "Lightning on the Strings, Thunder on the Mic," produced by Rench and featuring T.O.N.E-z, Matt Check, Todd Livingston, Jen Larson, myself and others, is bringing hillbillies and gangstas together across the nation.
I also play now and then with other characters from the NYC bluegrass, oldtime and traditional Irish music scenes: The Brooklyn Playboys, The Cobble Hillbillies, Rench, Kings Co. Strings, Jen Larson, Fran Leadon, Kyle Sanna, Izzy Zaidman and Grizzly's String Blitz, The Wissler Family, Citigrass, Michael Daves, Ben Fraker, The Pride of the Subway Ceili Band, Don Meade, Fionn O'Lochlainn, Dana Lyn, Tes Slominski and Rhys Jones. To name a few. They are awesome!
(I also have a day job, teaching at NYU law school)