A fiddlin' affair

Christy Bailey, The News Courier, Athens, Ala.
·3 min read

Oct. 10—Musicians and fans from across the country met this past weekend for the 55th annual Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention held on the campus of Athens State University. For three days, musicians and buck dancers took the stage to compete for cash prizes as Bluegrass lovers listened and enjoyed a picture perfect weekend under the trees around Founders Hall.

Taking this year's title of Alabama State Fiddle Champion and $2,000 in prize money was Katrina Nicolayeff from Meridian, Idaho. Murfreesboro, Tennessee's Justin Branum finished as first runner-up.

Several musicians from Athens-Limestone participated in contests this year with an especially great local showing on the dulcimer. Jan Hammond, of Athens, took first place in the event. Other winners on dulcimer are as follows.

—3rd Nicole Tressler, Madison

—4th Roger Patterson, Athens

—5th Alan Moiorano, Madison

—6th Jerry Todd, Athens

—7th Lisa Tressler, Madison

* 8th- David Bennett, Madison

Other local winners include:

—Ronnie Norton, Athens, seventh place for harmonica

—Connor McMeans, Athens, eighth in Bluegrass banjo.

—Will Thomas, Lester, seventh in mandolin.

—Lance Pitts, Athens, old time singing

—Peyton Royster, Harvest, old time banjo

—Brianne Hargrove, Athens, Appalachian buck dancing

—Limestone County, Athens, Bluegrass band

Up and coming musician Ty McMeans placed in many categories for beginning and apprentice level musicians. He finished first in beginning guitar and beginning mandolin, second in beginning banjo, and third in apprentice fiddler.

Other apprentice fiddler winners include:

—5th Ivy Bahro, Athens

—6th Jake Atherton, Anderson

—8th Amelia Sizemore, Athens

For a complete list of winners, visit our website.

The Queen of Bluegrass and Grammy award winner Rhonda Vincent and her band The Rage took the stage Saturday night to an enthusiastic crowd. She signed autographs and posed for pictures following their performance.

Vincent said on a video posted to her social media from backstage at the convention, "It's just so exciting. Over 12,000 people are here and it's an amazing event because of the young musicians here. It is just so exciting to see."

Tony Robertson, a member of the convention's steering committee and a musician, spoke about the event and it's importance to the Athens-Limestone community.

"It means expansion mostly. We are getting out to a lot of people who are not familiar with this type of music. These big acts that the college is bringing in like Rhonda Vincent has really helped bring people in to see really good Bluegrass music," he said. "It's wholesome. It's family oriented so everybody gets to have a good time. We are committed to seeing this thing be successful."

Robertson also said that money generated by the convention is donated back to the college. "Some is put back into the convention in prize money. We appropriated some money to pave an entrance into one of the facilities here on campus. It also went to some students during COVID to help them. The money goes all over the college," he added.

"We had perfect weather this year so it's been a really great crowd of people who have been able to enjoy the day. It just keeps getting bigger every year. We keep having more and more people coming and participating. More musicians, more acts, more people in the audience — it's doing its thing. It's organic now," Robertson said.

Next year's 56th Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 5 through Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.