Rebekah Weiler is quickly becoming known as
one of the new faces to watch among old-time banjo players.
This young talent is known as "the old-time banjo gal of Tennessee." She first picked up a banjo when she was 15 and won
one of the Macon Doubler Fellowships (presented by the nationally
recognized Uncle Dave Macon Days Old Time Music Festival) to study
traditional music.
Currently, a recent graduate of Middle
Tennessee State University, Rebekah has gathered a string of honors
that reflects her hard work and dedication to the banjo.
Rebekah is the youngest artists to be become an
endorsing artist of GOLD TONE BANJOS. Also, she endorses
Black Diamond coated Banjo Strings. She highly recommends
Perfect Touch Picks and Dogwood Design Straps
She plays with a intensive lick and believes in having a good time
on stage where she is recognized by her white hat, vintage dress and famous holler when the spirit moves her.
In 2007, she made history by becoming the first woman in the
36-year-history of the Old Time Fiddler's Jamboree in Smithville, TN
to win the Old Time Banjo championship. This caught the attention
of people around the world and she was featured on internet sites as
far away as Cuba and Japan.
Later, that summer, she went on to win the State of Kentucky Old
Time Banjo title.
In 2005 & 2007 at IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association)
she was featured in the Old Tyme Opry Show on the Roots and Branches
stage. Artist Robert Yonke, known as the Appalachian Painter, was in the IBMA audience in 2007. After watching her performance he was inspired to return to his studio and create the 'Kickin' Mule' print. The artwork is an impressionistic style rendering of Rebekah and guitarist, Matt Kinman.
You can see and hear her on the www.tranjo.com page
demonstrating the neat new travel banjo which she played at the
Banjo.com booth.
In 2006, the gifted picker won the Old Time Banjo title at the
40th annual Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention at
Athens, Alabama and the 50th annual West Tennessee title.
Additionally, she placed in the finals at the prestigious Fiddlers'
Grove Festival in North Carolina, Clifftop Festival in West
Virginia and the Galax Festival in Virginia.
She was featured in an article in Banjo Newsletter
in April 2006, by Bob Carlin
In 2007, French artist, Robert
Amyot, wrote an article about her in TRAD, a beautiful folk
arts magazine in France.
Articles in Images of Rutheford County and
the Old Time Herald (by Tom Brown) appeared in 2008.
She taught beginning old-time banjo at Augusta Heritage program at Davis-Elkins College, in Elkins, WVa.
Rebekah has played with the award-winning old-time string band Delmer Holland and the Blue Creek Ramblers since she was in high school. The group traveled to the Adams Ave. Festival in San Diego, played the Blue Plate Special radio show on WDVX, Knoxville, TN and played the Jerusaleum Ridge Memorial Festival, Rosine, Ky, in addition to many other venues.
In October of 2008, she traveled with the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers to perform with them at the Hardly Strickly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, CA.
Together with the Blue Creek Ramblers, she went in the studio to record two CDs, Keeping The Tradition Alive and Ain't Dead
Yet.
At the 2004 State of Tennessee Old Time Banjo competition,
she won the state title and according to the late folklorist and
author, Dr. Charles Wolfe, Rebekah was the youngest female to do
so.
As a teenager, she won youth scholarships to study old time banjo
at the Swannona Gathering, Warren Wilson Collge, NC; Augusta Heritage,
Davis-Elkins College, WVa and at Banjo Camp North.
Off the stage, Rebekah has driven hundreds of miles to spend
time studying and documenting the many greats of traditional music
from Wade and Julia Mainer to The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers and many
other wonderful artists.
