Tracy Schwarz ranks among America’s foremost traditional fiddlers. His extensive discography stretches from the New Lost City Ramblers and the Strange Creek Singers through sessions with fellow traditional players, his own relatives, and, in later decades, numerous Cajun masters. Although born in New York City, he grew up across New England and New Jersey, where late-1940s radio broadcasts first sparked his passion for country music. That exposure prompted him to take up the banjo and guitar. During his college years he also became proficient on the mandolin and bass fiddle, soon joining various bluegrass groups in the Washington, D.C., area. In the early 1960s he served two years in the Army, acquiring fiddle skills during that period. He joined the New Lost City Ramblers in 1962 as Tom Paley’s replacement and remained a full-time member for a decade, though his participation gradually diminished once he chose to devote more time to his Pennsylvania farm. Throughout the 1970s he continued performing with additional ensembles, most prominently the Strange Creek Singers. Interest in Cajun music deepened after he shared a stage with Dewey Balfa at the 1974 University of Chicago Folk Festival; the two subsequently recorded a pair of Smithsonian Folkways albums, Traditional Cajun Fiddle: Instruction by Tracy Schwarz and Dewey Balfa (1976) and Cajun Fiddle Old & New with Dewey Balfa (1977). Since 1989 Schwarz and his wife, musician Ginny Hawker, have collaborated in performance, teaching, and the ongoing exploration of traditional styles, issuing the joint albums Good Songs for Hard Times in 2000 and Draw Closer in 2004.
