DAN LEVENSON

A Southern Appalachian native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Dan was raised with Old   Time Music. He has become a true master musician and teacher in both the Clawhammer Banjo and the Appalachian Old Time Fiddling styles. Dan’s parents were Pittsburgh natives as well and they raised him with the music he has come to perform. His father, Fred, called dances and his mother, Naomi, played piano, guitar, and sang in several musical groups in the Pittsburgh area including her temple choir. They even met at a square dance!

Dan is a modern day troubadour in the truest sense of the word. Dan has traveled this country with banjo and fiddle singing songs and telling stories on the road as a full time musician for over 20 years and part time for at least 10 more before that. A performer, teacher, Mel Bay author, writer and editor for Banjo Newsletter’s Old Time Way and master musician well known as the banjo player for the Boiled Buzzard Old Time Stringband and now solo performer and stalwart traveler.

His stage show, An Evening with Dan Levenson, combines old time fiddle, Appalachian banjo and song in a storytelling format to tell the audiences about a life growing up with music through stories of the roads of America and the music of our country. He is an accomplished and dynamic fiddler who has taught himself to fiddle and clog at the same time—a real treat to see! He was voted one of the top 10 clawhammer players by Banjo Newsletter readers and Bluegrass Unlimited has called his playing “melodic, meticulous and uncluttered.” Audience participation and occasional guest performers figure strongly in his shows and children won’t let themselves be left out of the fun!

Dan is a native southern Appalachian style fiddler and banjo player, though his playing today relates the many traditions he has been exposed to over his lifetime. A part of his show is telling the story of each of his instruments, their respective tunings, their makers and playing style. Drop thumb, slides and clawhammer, double stops, special effects, and exquisite bowing round out his style and make him an exciting visual as well as listening experience.

Once upon a time, Dan went contesting a little and over the years has won the Old Time Fiddle contest in Coshocton, OH and took second place at Ohio’s Caesar’s Creek Old Time Music Festival. He has also won awards in Arizona including the Ajo, AZ Fiddle Contest Grand Championship and first place in his division (adult) in Yuma, AZ as well as repetitive first place winnings in the Trick and Fancy division there.

As a teacher, Dan is second to none! He has taught banjo, fiddle, string band and performance workshops at festivals, and camps throughout the world, and his private students come from all across the country as well as around the world. And whether the student is a pre-beginner or performance level musician they always learn something new.

Dan combines superb musicianship with the ability to teach what he knows in a way folks can understand and apply to their own playing. And Dan’s relationship with the older generation of musicians and builders is also part of his story as conduit of the music and keeper of the tunes.

His playing experience includes his founding and development of The Boiled Buzzards Old Time String band, creation of Meet the Banjo ™ – an innovative 3 hour hands-on workshop where he brought the banjos to teach the history of the instrument and introduce both bluegrass and clawhammer styles to folks who may have never ever played any music before in their life!

As a Mel Bay Author Dan has written 13 books from his beginner’s clawhammer instruction book and DVD – Clawhammer Banjo From Scratch: A Guide for the Clawless (the first new old time clawhammer banjo instruction manual in over 20 years) and it’s fiddle companion, named ironically enough – Fiddle From Scratch – to his various repertoire books for banjo, fiddle and mandolin (his most recent being Old Time Favorites (available for both Clawhammer Banjo and in a Fiddle/Mandolin format) to his Clawhammer Masters series with co-author Bob Carlin.

Other writing projects include writing and editing the quarterly Old Time Way section of Banjo Newsletter and articles for The Old Time Herald. His recordings include those with his band, The Boiled Buzzards as well as a solo Clawhammer recording, Bare Naked Banjos, a couple of solo tune and song recordings (well, with a couple of friends on board) and even one featuring Chinese music – recorded with Kim Murley back in 1995 all of which received exceptional revues from Banjo Newsletter, Bluegrass Unlimited and Sing Out!

AND, throughout all of that he found the time to found Folknet, Inc. – Northeast Ohio’s folk and traditional music and dance society as well as hold office in several local and state music organizations.

Today Dan is a sought after performer and workshop leader who is becoming known for his workshops in Appalachian banjo and fiddle styles including his innovative Meet the Banjo ™! Banjo Newsletter’s R.D. Lunceford describes Dan “as an interpreter, rather than a music recreator”. Fiddler Magazine’s Bob Buckingham describes him as “an accomplished fiddler and ...one of the best clawhammer banjo players in the country” and The Devil’s Box magazine claimed that his band was “the most influential string band since Highwoods!” Dan is one of the undisputed influences on today’s old time music aficionados and masters of Old Time Music.

Dan currently makes his winter home in Tucson, Arizona and maintains an old homestead in Gallia County in the Southern Appalachian region of Southeastern Ohio where he spends the summer teaching, writing and tending his garden.

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