performer, teacher, and researcher
photo: Libby Rodenbough
Fiddler and banjo player Joseph Decosimo makes Old-time music and collaborates with musicians outside of the traditional music world. He studied under some great old traditional players in the South and has shared his music in lots of places. He also often makes fiddle, banjo, and music sounds outside of the traditional music scene, drawing on his deep knowledge of vernacular music traditions in Appalachian South and the broader American South to create fresh sounds. Joseph presents beautiful, rooted music in compelling ways, inviting listeners to encounter its creative power and unexpected complexities.
Rooted in the the banjo and fiddle traditions of Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, Joseph has shared and taught his music around the US, UK, Canada, Spain, and Australia. A national Old-Time banjo champion and prize winning fiddler, he is regarded as a deeply knowledgeable and powerful performer of this music. He currently performs in the Old-Time string bands the Bucking Mules and the Blue Ridge Broadcasters and in a trio with Cleek Schrey and Luke Richardson. Based in Durham, North Carolina, Joseph performs and teaches traditional music on the fiddle and banjo wherever folks are willing to listen and learn. Besides the many workshops at home and abroad, Joseph served on the faculty of East Tennessee State’s Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music program.
Beyond performance and teaching, Joseph has researched and written extensively about the music and the people who make it. He holds a PhD in American Studies and in MA in Folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation “Capturing the ‘Wild’ Note: Listening, Learning, and Connoisseurship in Old-Time Music” offers an ethnographic and historical exploration of Old-Time music making—listening, learning, recording, jamming—in East Tennessee and beyond, paying close attention to the role of sound technologies in this music.