Bluegrass Fiddler Kenny Baker Dies from Stroke!

Kenneth Clayton "Kenny" Baker June 26, 1926 – July 8, 2011

A fiddle player who influenced more than one generation of bluegrass music has died from complications derived from a stroke suffered a week ago. Kenny Baker was 85.

Not originally a fan of bluegrass music, he played with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys for more than two decades and was the longest continuous member of the band.

..."God, what a touch he had on the fiddle." - Grand Ole Opry Star Bill Anderson...

Baker was a sideman for most of his career. But he recorded some 20 albums of his own and popularized instrumentals like “Jerusalem Ridge.”

He was known in the fiddle world for his “long-bow” and melodic style of playing. He famously called bluegrass “nothing but a hillbilly version of jazz.” He was added to the International Bluegrass Music Association’s hall of fame in 1999.

Born near Jenkins, Kentucky, Baker was a third generation fiddler but when music wouldn’t pay the bills, he’d return to Kentucky to work in the coal mines.

Baker died Friday at Sumner Regional Medical Center from complications of a stroke.

“For me, Bill Monroe never sounded as good as when Kenny was playing with him,” said Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson, who shared the Grand Ole Opry stage with Monroe and Mr. Baker on many nights in the 1960s and ’70s. “God, what a touch he had on the fiddle. He was just so good.”


Early on, he was influenced by the swing fiddler Marion Sumner, not to mention Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. After working for Bethlehem Steel in the coal mines of Kentucky, he served in the U.S. Navy before pursuing a musical career fulltime. He soon joined Don Gibson's band as a replacement for Marion Sumner. Baker who played western swing, had little interest in bluegrass music until he heard "Wheel Hoss" and "Roanoke". During a package show with Don Gibson, Baker met Monroe and was offered a job. He cut his very first recordings with Monroe's Bluegrass Boys on December 15, 1957.

Kenny Baker, Josh Graves and Groundspeed Live in Basel, Switzerland 1988.

Baker served more years in Monroe's band than any other musician and was selected by Monroe to record the fiddle tunes passed down from Uncle Pen Vandiver. After leaving the Bluegrass Boys in 1984,Baker played with a group of friends, Bob Black, Alan Murphy, and Aleta Murphy. Bob Black and Alan Murphy recorded and album with Baker in'73, Dry & Dusty. After the one summer with Black and the Murphy's Baker teamed with Josh Graves who had played dobro for Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs as a Foggy Mountain Boy. Baker teamed with Graves until Graves' death in 2006.

Baker is considered to be one of the most influential fiddlers in bluegrass music. His "long-bow" style added a smoothness and clarity to the fiddle based music of his boss, Grand Ole Opry member Bill Monroe. His long tenure with Bill Monroe included banjo player Bill Keith's development of the "melodic" method of banjo playing that included note for note representations of fiddle tunes on the banjo.

He was named to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1999.  He recorded many albums for various record labels, including County Records, Jasmine, Rounder Records and most recently OMS Records. His most recent recordings include "Cotton Baggin' 2000" and "Spider Bit the Baby" on OMS Records.

It was often mentioned that Kenny Baker's records were more popular at Bill Monroe concerts than the band's own releases. There were, and remain, hordes of Kenny Baker students of the bluegrass fiddle.

...BMI's database credits Kenny Baker with 82 published tunes (some are co-compositions), including:

• "Baker's Breakdown"
• "Big Sandy River"
• "Doc Harris The Fisherman"
• "Farmyard Swing"
• "First Day In Town"
• "Frost On The Pumpkin
• "High Country" 
• "Washington County"
• "Windy City Rag"...

Baker's son Johnny played guitar and sang tenor with the Dry Branch Fire Squad in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

From the International Bluegrass Museum Hall of Honor:

Kenny Baker is the son and grandson of old-time fiddlers. Family roots trace back to England, North Carolina and the coal-mining region of southwestern Virginia. By the mid-1920s his parents had settled on the Kentucky side of the state line. Kenny's first instrument was the guitar.

He learned to play a unique four-finger style in open G tuning, influenced by Ernest Johnson, a blind African-American musician who sold peanuts in Jenkins, Kentucky.

In his early days as a fiddler, though surrounded by bluegrass and the music that preceded it, Kenny preferred the jazz style of French violinist Stéphane Grappelli and Bob Wills' Western Swing. From such influences, he drew lifelong habits of listening intently to fellow musicians, responding to the emotional tone of the moment, and constantly building upon and varying his approach to a tune or break.