Rachel Eddy

It was 1985 when Rachel first took the stage with Mom on dulcimer and Dad on guitar to sing Old-Time songs. Her thick, four-year-old Appalachian drawl warmed each phrase quite adorably - I can lug out the BetaMax player to show you. She even conquered the pitch and timing of each of the standards sung often to her since birth. The square dancing her mother did every weekend until the day she was born probably gave her a head start. Mom also taught little Rachel songs in her vinyl collection, from Norman Blake and the Carter Family to John Hartford and Crosby Stills & Nash. In their holler, far outside of Morgantown, WV, the Eddy family had one fuzzy television station and weak radio reception. Rachel really wasn't that aware of modern mainstream music and has only recently begun soaking up popular hits of the last 30 years. Every bit of music she came to know was passed to her the same way folks in Appalachia have learned it for hundreds of years. Today, Rachel Eddy continues to espouse the spirit and culture of traditional mountain music. Beginning with fiddle at age nine, she eventually graduated to guitar, mandolin and tenor banjo until finding her latest love, clawhammer banjo. Rachel now teaches and performs full-time. She keeps a long list of students and weekly sessions to help others learn to appreciate traditional music. You can often catch up with "Rachet" (a nickname given to her at sessions when she was little) leading various groups of musicians at festivals, clubs, weddings, music camps, and local classrooms and hospitals. In the summer of 2003 Rachel was invited to join the staff of instructors at the Augusta Heritage Center, the noted traditional music and arts camp in Elkins, WV. Rachel plays mostly a mix of Old-Time and Celtic influenced music. While the Appalachian influence comes from a lifetime of exposure to it, she learned much of her Celtic style from lessons with renowned players like Winifred Horan and Brendan Mulvihill. She is fluent and at ease in tight Irish and Scottish sets or in jangly mountain tunes. Her sets are usually one or the other, or both! She even includes French-Canadian and Cajun tunes, depending on the occasion. On the rare occasion, she'll dip her toe in the Bluegrass pool. Though she annually does children's concerts and appearances singing holiday songs, the shows to catch are when she's vocalizing Carter Family songs. Home... meaning West Virginia... is host to a number of excellent events that either center on, or are proud to include, traditional music. We have Augusta, Clifftop, Vandalia, the Folk Festival, and other large events to look forward to every year. There are even dozens of local festivals within a few hours in almost any direction. Rachel sometimes has to make tough decisions about which events to go when there are conflicting dates. Sometimes she goes to play, sometimes just to listen, but always to with instruments in tow... just in case. A while back, you may have seen a young woman that fits Rachel's description under the name "Dilly Sue Fusky, the Sweetheart of Patsy, Montana" playing Old-Time fiddle with Clete Sawyer & the Buzzcuts - I tried to confirm if it was her, but Clete done "R-U-N-N-O-F-T" again. Lately, she's been playing out with her closest buddies as Rachel Eddy & Friends. She's even done a number of dates with Curmudgeon's Monica Andis. Some of her favorite local events to play are the Friends of the Cheat River Benefit Festival and annual festivals to honor Patty Looman and Worley & Margaret Gardner, folks we can credit with keeping regional traditions alive. Home... Morgantown, West Virginia that is... is pretty nice place to live. The musical friends and neighbors here help keep the traditions going. Nearly any night you can find some place to gather and play. From Wednesday nights on the deck at the West Virginia Brewing Company ("the Brew Pub" for short, of course) to the Percival Hall Pickers session on WVU's campus, to Sunday afternoon on the porch, there are options. These occasions exist to welcome newcomers to the "ol' timey" music and invite them to give it a try. To extend this effort, Rachel added an evening kid's session on Tuesdays at Percival Hall to give them young'uns a chance to start jamming early.