Rayna Gellert (born December 15, 1975) is an American fiddler, acoustic guitarist, singer, and songwriter specializing in

old-time music Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, contra dance, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering ...

. Gellert is a former member of the Freight Hoppers. From 2003 to 2009 she performed and recorded with the all-female old-time band Uncle Earl. In 2003, she was a featured performer at the

Smithsonian Folklife Festival The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, launched in 1967, is an international exhibition of living cultural heritage presented annually in the summer in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is held on the National Mall for two weeks around the Fo ...

. She has also performed with the dance company Rhythm in Shoes, the West African-influenced band

Toubab Krewe ''Toubab'' (alternatively ''Toubabou'' or ''Toubob'') is a West African name for a person of European descent ("whites"). Used most frequently in The Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, and also in Ivory Coast. The word can also be applied to any pe ...

Abigail Washburn Abigail Washburn (born November 10, 1977) is an American clawhammer banjo player and singer. She performs and records as a soloist, as well as with the old-time bands Uncle Earl and Sparrow Quartet, experimental group The Wu Force, and as a ...

, and Scott Miller. She has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Chile. She has been a finalist at the

Appalachian String Band Music Festival The Appalachian String Band Music Festival (often referred to simply as "Clifftop") is a weeklong gathering of thousands of string band musicians and their friends from across the country and around the world, who each year since 1990 have assemb ...

Clifftop, Fayette County, West Virginia Clifftop is an unincorporated community in Fayette County, West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.Th ...

several times.

Early life and education

Rayna Gellert was born on December 15, 1975. She grew up in Elkhart, in northern

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, formerly lived in

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populous city in Western North Carolina a ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, and is currently based in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. Her father is the traditional fiddler,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

player, and singer Dan Gellert. Originally a classically trained violinist, she took up the old-time fiddle in 1994, when she moved to

to attend

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a required course of study, work an on-campus j ...

. She received a bachelor's degree from Warren Wilson College. Gellert plays a fiddle that belonged to her great-grandfather, a Hungarian orchestral musician, and guitar.

Career

Gellert has played and recorded with

Loudon Wainwright III Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor. He has released twenty-six studio albums, four live albums, and six compilations. Some of his best-known songs include "The Swimmin ...

Tyler Ramsey Tyler Ramsey is an American singer-songwriter from Asheville, North Carolina. Career Ramsey's eponymous debut album was released in 2005. His second album, ''A Long Dream About Swimming Across the Sea'', was released on January 15, 2008, on Ech ...

Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Rowan Hitchcock (born 3 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano, and bass guitar. After leading the Soft Boys in the late 1970s and releasing the ...

, and others. She has appeared at music festivals including

Bonnaroo Bonnaroo (or Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival) is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Bonnaroo has taken place at what is now Great Stage Park, a 700-acre (280 ha) far ...

Telluride Bluegrass Festival Telluride Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado hosted by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of related genres. History The to ...

, and RockyGrass.

Discography

As leader

*''Ways of the World'' (2000) *''Old Light- Songs from my Childhood & Other Gone Worlds'' (2012) *''Workin's Too Hard'' (2017)

With Uncle Earl

*2004 - ''Going to the Western Slope'' (EP) *2004 - ''Raise A Ruckus'' (EP) *2005 - ''She Waits For Night'' ( Rounder) *2007 - ''Waterloo, Tennessee'' (Rounder)

With Susie Goehring

*''Starch & Iron'' (2005)

With Scott Miller

Extended plays

*''CoDependents'' (2012)

With The Brothers K

Extended plays

*''Rayna Gellert & the Brothers K'' (2015)

With Kieran Kane

*''The Ledges'' (2018) *''When the Sun Goes Down'' (2019) *''The Flowers That Bloom in Spring'' (2022)

Filmography

'' Killers of the Flower Moon'' (2023)

References

External links

Rayna Gellert's websiteRayna Gellert MySpace page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gellert, Rayna Old-time musicians Living people Appalachian old-time fiddlers Musicians from Asheville, North Carolina People from Elkhart, Indiana 1975 births Uncle Earl members Old-time fiddlers American fiddlers American women singer-songwriters Singers from Nashville, Tennessee Singer-songwriters from Tennessee 20th-century American violinists Singer-songwriters from Indiana Singer-songwriters from North Carolina 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews Jewish American musicians 20th-century American singer-songwriters 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American violinists 21st-century American singer-songwriters 21st-century American women singers