Vassar Clements emerged as one of bluegrass music’s most inventive and widely admired fiddlers by blending jazz influences with country traditions. His breakthrough arrived in the early 1950s through membership in Bill Monroe’s band, yet he refused to confine his work to standard bluegrass forms. Across the ensuing four decades he wove an array of styles into his technique, establishing himself among the genre’s most esteemed players while simultaneously becoming a versatile session musician who recorded with acts ranging from the Monkees and Hank Williams to Paul McCartney, Michelle Shocked, Vince Gill, and Bonnie Raitt.
Clements acquired his fiddle skills without formal instruction beginning at age seven, after which he assembled an ensemble alongside two cousins. By twenty-one his proficiency had drawn the notice of Bill Monroe, who recruited the young musician; Clements performed with the mandolinist on the Grand Ole Opry in 1949 and cut his first session with Monroe the next year.
He remained with Monroe’s group for six years, though occasional brief departures occurred. In 1957 he joined Jim & Jesse’s Virginia Boys and continued with them for four years. Alcoholism sidelined him during the early 1960s, but recovery allowed his return to performance in 1967, when he relocated to Nashville and took up tenor banjo during an engagement at the Dixieland Landing Club. He toured with Faron Young in 1969 and became part of John Hartford’s Dobrolic Plectorial Society, a unit that disbanded after ten months; Clements then spent a year with the Earl Scruggs Revue.
Session work began for him in 1971, with appearances on recordings by Steve Goodman, Gordon Lightfoot, David Bromberg, J.J. Cale, and Mike Audridge over the following two years. His profile rose sharply in 1972 through participation in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken, an album that helped cement his stature as a country and bluegrass figure. Capitalizing on that success, he issued his debut solo effort, Crossing the Catskills, on Rounder Records in 1973 and commenced touring the festival and college circuits. The same year found him on additional releases including the Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood, Jimmy Buffett’s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, and Mickey Newbury’s Heaven Help the Child.
Mercury Records signed Clements in 1974, resulting in the 1975 albums Vassar Clements and Superbow. He also performed that year with the bluegrass supergroup Old & in the Way alongside Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, and John Kahn, and made a cameo appearance in Robert Altman’s film Nashville. Two further albums appeared in 1977—The Vassar Clements Band on MCA Records and The Bluegrass Session on Flying Fish—after which four years passed before another solo project. Throughout the interval he maintained a constant touring schedule and contributed to numerous recordings. Hillbilly Rides Again and Vassar both surfaced on Flying Fish in 1981.
Recording under his own name remained sporadic through the 1980s and 1990s, yet Clements continued extensive session work and annual concert activity. A reunion with Old & in the Way yielded That High Lonesome Sound in 1996, followed three years later by the solo album Back Porch Swing. Full Circle arrived in spring 2001, and Livin’ With the Blues, his first blues-oriented project, was released in 2004.
