In the 1970s a renewed fascination emerged with the vernacular sounds of rural America, especially the propulsive, rhythmic string-band style rooted in the southern Appalachian and Blue Ridge regions, later grouped under the umbrella term “old-time” music. Bruce Molsky, a native New Yorker, encountered this repertoire during his high-school and college years and found himself captivated equally by its communal ethos and by its sheer musical force.
Old-time music originated in an era when scattered settlements convened for self-generated entertainment, so it naturally welcomes players of every ability; jam circles routinely mix seasoned professionals with casual participants. Few other idioms maintain so porous a boundary between performer and listener. Molsky’s engineering background, however, gave him an analytical lens that let him discern the intricate nuances separating merely competent rural players from acknowledged masters. He also arrived on the scene while many of those foundational musicians remained active and willing to pass on their craft. By the 1990s he stood at the forefront of most devotees’ rankings of fiddlers and banjoists.
Born in the Bronx in 1955, Molsky first took up guitar at his parents’ urging as a constructive pastime. Within a year the instrument had claimed him, and he began envisioning a professional path in bluegrass. At Cornell he crossed paths with veteran old-time players, among them members of the Ithaca-based Highwoods Stringband who were then driving the revival. He formed a close friendship with one of the band’s fiddlers, Walt Koken, himself a noted banjo champion. Molsky soon added both fiddle and banjo to his skills, began attending fiddlers’ conventions and festivals, and in 1976 relocated southward to immerse himself more fully in the tradition’s heartland.
A decisive turning point occurred during a visit to a friend in the North Carolina Blue Ridge community of Mt. Airy. Nearby lived the revered fiddler Tommy Jarrell; Molsky requested a brief introduction, yet a car breakdown extended the encounter into an entire day of music and technical guidance from the figure widely regarded as the genre’s most pivotal stylist. In a later Fiddler magazine interview Molsky recalled, “That’s where I learned to play the fiddle -- that one day, just hanging out with him.”
Since the 1970s Molsky has appeared and recorded both alone and alongside his wife Audrey under the name Hesperus, as well as in several ensembles. After stints in the 1970s with the Correctone String Band and in the 1980s with the Hellbenders, he co-founded the L-7’s in the early 1990s with multi-instrumentalists Dirk Powell and Rafe Stefanini. When Powell married Cajun musician Christine Balfa and settled in Louisiana, Beverly Smith joined on guitar and vocals, prompting the group’s rename to Big Hoedown. Although Molsky had contributed to earlier projects, his first solo album, Lost Boy, appeared on Rounder in 1996; the following year he released Bruce Molsky and Big Hoedown with Stefanini and Smith. Around that period he chose to pursue music full-time, yet he retained the same social outlook that had drawn him as a teenager—a conviction that the music primarily served to forge friendships and exchange life experiences. Even within a field celebrated for approachable “stars,” Molsky remained one of its most affable figures.
