Life In The No Fret Zone

In 1984, as red-hot supergroup Alabama prepared to record their new tune “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band),” they knew they better get a red-hot super fiddle player into the studio to contribute some magic to that track. 

Who was the fiddler who helped turn that tune into Billboard’s Hot Country #1 Single that year? 

Meet Platinum Award Winning Blaine Sprouse.

Originally from West Virginia, Blaine Sprouse is the son of a clawhammer banjo player who taught six-year-old Blaine a few guitar chords when he showed some interest. The young musician soon turned to the fiddle, beginning to teach himself on a glued-together instrument he’d found in a dumpster.  Because he didn’t have a bow, Sprouse had to make do at first with plucking tunes.  When finally optained a bow, he began mastering bow techniques and working tunes up for local dances.

As a budding fidder his father took advantage of every available opportunity to take the boy to regional bluegrass festivals that happened near his hometown. Whenever Bill Monroe was part of a festival’s lineup, Sprouse knew Kenny Baker would be there, too.

“Kenny was my inspiration,” Sprouse recalls, all these years later.“He made the fiddle sound like no one else, and I wanted to find those same deep warm tones. I was hooked!”

Before he turned eighteen, Sprouse abandoned his education and fast-tracked his professional career by joining Jimmy Martin as a Sunny Mountain Boy and touring the United States and Japan. After a move to Nashville, he left Martin to fiddle for Bill Monroe’s son, James, as part of his band, the Midnight Ramblers. Close proximity to Kenny Baker allowed Sprouse to enjoy the kind, generous mentorship of the master fiddler; the two also became lifelong friends. 

When a hand injury sidelined Kenny Baker and forced him to temporarily stop working for Bill Monroe, Sprouse wore a Blue Grass Boy hat for several months, a role he repeated several times on subsequent occasions. Subbing for Eddie Stubbs, Sprouse later joined the Johnson Mountain Boys for their tour of Moscow. Much in demand as sideman and session player, he toured everywhere from Africa to Japan and recorded with a stunning array of legendary bluegrass and country artists, including but not limited to, Charlie Louvin, Jim and Jesse & the Virginia Boys, the Osborne Brothers, Randy Travis, Pam Tillis, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Glen Campbell, and often performing at the Grand Ole Opry where he had earlier fiddled for Jim and Jesse & the Virginia Boys, Charlie Louvin, the Osborne Brothers, and the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys.

In 1981, Sprouse joined banjo innovator Butch Robins to found The Bluegrass Band, poised to become “one of the most important acts in bluegrass music,” as Robert K. Oermann noted in his review of their debut album, Another Saturday Night. Unfortunately, the ensemble proved short-lived when Sprouse departed to join the Osbornes, and bandmate Alan O’Bryant left to form the Nashville Bluegrass Band. 

Performing with both Grand Ole Opry members and the “young Turks” of bluegrass, Sprouse continued to carve an impressive niche for himself as a fiddler, working with many artists and appearing regularly at Nashville’s world-famous Station Inn: The Roland White Band, The Dreadful Snakes, The Nashville Jug Band, and The Cluster Pluckers with whom Sprouse also appeared on Austin City Limits and entertained former President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore when they visited Nashville on the campaign trail. 

Sprouse’s four critically acclaimed solo recordings include the twin fiddle album Indian Springs, produced on Rounder Records in 1989. This glorious recording, which Sprouse made with Kenny Baker, is a wonderful example of the intuitive musical chemistry shared by the two fiddlers. 

In 1986, Sprouse fulfilled a lifelong desire to return to school to complete his formal education due to a family tragedy a year earlier. He ultimately earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1994 and began to practice law.  During his tenure at the Tennessee State Department of Labor and Employment Development another life changing event occurred with the birth of his son, Elijah Blaine Sprouse, Jr. which relocated Sprouse to California

In 2009, his interest in music resurfaced when his fourth solo recording, Dogwood Winter, was reissued as Appalachian Mountain Fiddler.

Most recently, Sprouse worked as Peter Rowan’s primary fiddler, making appearances with Rowan at events like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, MerleFest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, RockyGrass, Gathering of the Vibes (subbing in for the late, great Vassar Clements) in a reunion of Old & In The Way featuring Peter Rowan, David ”Dawg” Grisman and the String Cheese Incident, A Prairie Home Companion, and many more. After nearly a decade, Sprouse made the decision to return to West Virginia to be closer to family when COVID changed the trajectory of his musical life once again. 

Since 2020, Sprouse has become a respected fixture in West Virginia bluegrass music as a distinguished judge in fiddle contests, as well as appearing at local and regional events with the longest continuously performing bluegrass band in West Virginia, Richard Hefner and the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys. He remains open to recording projects, private fiddle lessons, and performances with old and new friends.

In addition to being a gifted fiddler, he is also a mandolin and guitar player. Sprouse is equally at home with bluegrass, country, blues, swing, Western Swing, and old time music.  As he once told a reporter for Frets Magazine, “Music is my life. I just love to play.” 

His heart continues to answer the fiddle’s call.