Bruce Molsky

"Equally accomplished on fiddle, guitar, and clawhammer banjo, and possessed of a singing voice that has nothing to recommend it except clarity, strength, and unerring pitch, Molsky lays tunes and sings lyrics that will move you in ways that may surprise you." - AllMusic.com

"..the artful arc of his career has not been shaped by the notion of bringing his music to the world but bringing the world into his music. Whether in clarion-clear vocals or on the cache of stringed instruments he employs, the two-time GRAMMY nominee draws out the heart and humanity in Appalachian, Irish and Eastern European music."
- Columbia Daily Tribune

"America's reigning old time fiddler."
- Matt Glaser, fiddler-educator

"The Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddle."
- Darol Anger, fiddler

"There's an incredible power of history and tradition in his vocals."
- Linda Ronstadt, singer

Bruce Molsky stands today as the premier old-time fiddler in the world, the defining virtuoso of Appalachia’s timeless folk music traditions. In addition to a prolific solo career, performing on fiddle, guitar, banjo and vocals, Molsky frequently joins genre-busting supergroups, like the Grammy-nominated Fiddlers Four, and Mozaik, with Hungarian Nikola Parov, and Celtic giant Donal Lunny. He was on Nickel Creek’s farewell tour, and performs in a trio with Scottish fiddler Aly Bain and Sweden’s great Ale Möller.

Molsky was born in the Bronx in 1955, and fell in love with old-time music as a teenager. He moved to Virginia in the ‘70s, learning directly from old masters like Tommy Jarrell, and seeing how the music fit into people’s lives. “It was only the older people, of Tommy’s generation, who still had the music as part of their everyday existence,” Molsky says. “At first, I wanted to live like that; but then I realized I didn’t want to claim the culture as my own - I just loved the music.”

That personal authenticity deeply informs his music. Whether performing an ancient reel from Virginia, a Swedish waltz, or a loping cowboy ballad, Molsky presents himself as exactly who he is. Rob Simonds, executive director of the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, says that’s the key to Molsky’s enormous appeal as a live performer: “He’s that unique blend of virtuoso and humble, nice guy that is irresistible to audiences.”

Linda Ronstadt hears that same honest beauty in Molsky’s singing. She placed his singing of “Peg’n’Awl” on her Rhapsody playlist, alongside Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chet Baker. “Bruce has that ability to track deep emotion in his voice, without any unnecessary adornment,” she says. “It’s pared back to only the essential architecture of emotion.