Erynn performs in The Haints Old-time Stringband with singer/guitarist Pharis Romero & banjoist/singer Jason Romero (www.romerobanjos.com). For more info please visit www.thehaints.com or www.hickoryjack.com.
Influences
Southern old-time fiddle, banjo, stringband & vocal music
Erynn Marshall - has carved out a niche for herself as an old-time fiddler in North America and abroad. Her playing style is expressive, innovative, yet rooted in tradition. She has been featured at numerous concert venues, folk clubs and festivals in the US and Canada and is known for her smooth, bluesy fiddle style, love of old tunes and her joy of performing home-made music with and for others. Whether solo or teamed up with kindred spirits, Erynn plays from the heart. She explores her artistic individuality while honouring the musicians and traditions that have influenced and inspired her along the way.
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A native of Victoria, BC and now a resident of Galax, Virginia, Erynn moved to the South to play more old-time music and organize concerts at the Blue Ridge Music Center www.blueridgemusiccenter.org She has been playing fiddle for 30 years. In 2006, she published her first book, Music in the Air Somewhere: The Shifting Borders of West Virginia’s Fiddle and Song Traditions, (West Virginia University Press). This book was the culmination of several years of fieldwork in West Virginia with seventy-five to ninety-five years old singers and fiddlers. Frequent southern trips allowed Erynn to learn elements of Appalachian fiddling directly from older tradition bearers Melvin Wine, Lester McCumbers, Leland Hall, Art Stamper and others who were very generous teachers. Her respect for these mentors emanates from her earnest performances of traditional music.
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Erynn Marshall is a regular performer and fiddle instructor at prominent Canadian and US festivals and music camps including the: Swannanoa Gathering (NC), Augusta Heritage Center (WV), Woods Music and Dance Camp (ON), North Atlantic Fiddle Convention (NF), Sunshine Coast Summer School of Celtic Music (BC), Calgary Folk Festival (AB), Edmonton Folk Festival (AB), Ottawa Folk Festival (ON), Sorrento Bluegrass Festival (BC), Fiddleworks (Saltspring, BC), Festival of Newfoundland & Labrador (NF) and The Midwest Banjo Camp (Lansing, MI). She has directed two stringband ensembles at York University in Toronto and was a featured musician on the roots music documentary I’ll Fly Away Home (Bravo) and The Clifftop Experience (Outlook, WV Public Broadcasting). She has an MA in ethnomusicology focusing on Appalachian music (York University, Toronto) and a BMus (University of Victoria).
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Erynn presently performs with The Haints Old-time Stringband (with bandmates Pharis and Jason Romero. Their new 2009 recording, Shout Monah, has been nominated for two Canadian Folk Music Awards: Traditional Album of the Year and Ensemble of the year. Erynn’s previous recordings include: Calico (Merriweather Records) and Meet Me in the Music with banjoist Chris Coole (Hickoryjack Records). Calico was nominated for Best World category at the 2005 TIMA Awards and won a Porcupine Award - Gem of Canada: Album of the Year. Meet Me in the Music was nominated for the Best Traditional Album at the 2007 Canadian Folk Music Awards. Erynn has also received a CBC Galaxy Rising Star Award at the 2006 Edmonton Folk Festival and an Appalachian Fellowship through Berea College in Kentucky. In 2008, she won first place in the open fiddle competition at “Clifftop,” the Appalachian Stringband Festival (WV). She was the first female and the first person from outside the US to win the title. In 2009 she won third place in fiddle at the West Virginia State Folk Festival and fourth place at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention out of approximately 100 fiddlers.
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Erynn is now working on her new CD Tune Tramp - a collaboration which will feature her performing with old-time musicians across North Amercia. The theme of this album is the distances we travel to make the music we love with the people we love to make music with. For more info on Erynn and her old-time music please visit: www.hickoryjack.com or www.thehaints.com.
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"...old-time tunes played with a brilliance rarely matched by anybody on the North American scene. Erynn Marshall’s old-time fiddle playing is front and centre and superb." Mitch Podolak Penguin Eggs Magazine 2007
“The fiddling obsession, for all its demands, is a gift because of the joy it brings when you abandon yourself to it. Erynn’s fiddling has that sense of delight in it, even in the lonesome pieces – a feeling like having a fine time playing music with your friends on a West Virginia summer night, crickets singing, air heady with the perfume of tobacco flowers and sweet clover.” – Kenny Jackson April 2005
Erynn Marshall / The Haints's Friend Space (Top 12)
Hi, Just saw you in California and was amazed. You are different than any other fiddler I've seen. Very, very impressive, thanks for the eye opening performances.
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this folk-carol on myspace... Poem 230 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (see my blog for details): CHRISTMAS SUNG SIMPLY
As gospellers have said, Beneath signalling skies, On land dusty to tread, A trough in a stable Was the strawy first-bed Of a divine baby - The forgiving Godhead.
A season for new hope - There then and here now; The yuletide of goodwill - There then and here now.
In respect of this chance, Beneath bright or dark skies, Faith's the star that we glance Attending Christ's churches And trying to enhance, With singing and ritual, Our God-loving stance.
How are you, Erynn Marshall / The Haints? Haven't checked in on you lately, so I swung by to wish you a happy thanksgiving & hope you are feeling well! Listen, I have another track up on my page, "Attack Of The Mushroom People." You can Hear it right Now, if you'd like at: www.myspace.com/psychedelicpablo OK, that's it for the shameless self-promotion.Thanks for being a friend. adios for now! Pablo
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 162 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): TEES TO TYNE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS - SUMMER 2001
Where traditions are not so rare; Sea, country and works scent the air; A multitude of monuments, Planted tubs and patterned pavements.
The longish pedestrian malls; The remnants of defensive walls; Historic buildings are a gauge Of the respect for heritage.
Wheat, rape and pines in the fields; Estuaries guarded by shields; Long sandy beaches and wide scenes; Romantic-ruin go-betweens.
Rivers in parts licked by trees, Or fringed by boat clubs, wharfs, gantries, And crossed by practical delights - Varied spans, forming pleasing sights.
Fine churches headed at Durham; Football kits ad infinitum; Kept castles - one for study; Masonry behind masonry.
And, with moulding-works out that way, It’s somewhere for a longer stay..?
Thanks for all your support! The show went really well at the Laugh Factory, and the turnout was great!
If you couldn't make it, I have uploaded to my profile seven ten-minute segments from this outstanding variety show featuring Old Time Music, magic, dance, comedy and fun!
Online Now!
