The fiddler on the move

She started as a classical musician before she was swept up by a banjo player and hit the road with Australia's king of country music, Slim Dusty.

MICHELLE DUFF talks to renowned fiddler Colleen Trenwith before her concert at The Globe this weekend.

As a classical fiddler, 20-year-old Colleen Bain was doing quite well. A member of the New Zealand YouthOrchestra, she was starting to make a name for herself when she moved to Hamilton to start teacher's college.

That's when she met the banjo player.

Not long before, a young Paul Trenwith had become hooked on the theme of popular '60s television show The Beverly Hillbillies, The Ballad of Jed Clampett.

The words "Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed ..." were on repeat in his mind. He had a guitarist, and needed a fiddle player to make the bluegrass style of music work.

When he found Colleen, he knew he had struck black gold.

So the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band was formed, to give an outlet to the musicians keen on exploring the relatively new music genre.

Popularised in Kentucky in the 1930s by a man named Bill Monroe, bluegrass is a mix of blues, traditional string, and Celtic music.

After she was handed a stack of sheet music by Paul, Colleen taught herself to play the fiddle in the faster, gutsier style necessary for bluegrass.

The band gathered a strong following, and were chosen to play on new television show The Country Touch, before they were picked up to tour with Slim Dusty.

Colleen – who married Paul in 1970 – remembers playing shows six-nights-a-week across the dusty continent, travelling in caravans to reach aboriginal communities during their five-year stint.

"It was fantastic, we played on all his records and toured with him, he would do three-month tours into the outback of Australia."

Back in Hamilton, Colleen set up as a fiddle teacher and kept up her involvement in several bands.

She plays in five at the moment – that is, when she's not in the United States teaching fiddle at East Tennessee State University.

After she attended the university as a student, in 2007 Colleen was asked back as a lecturer. For the past three years, she has spent from August to May in America, their university year.

"I think it's quite unique having a New Zealander teach them their music, but it's because I've had years of teaching experience," Colleen says.

"I get on well with the teachers and other staff, so I'm rapt."

Being taught was quite a pleasant experience, she says.

"I enjoyed it, actually. I had taught myself pretty much, and it was nice to have someone else there to ask them questions.

"I learned a lot from watching them playing, because the musicians there are several levels above what you would get in New Zealand."

This Sunday, Colleen will play with The Legal Tender Band at The Globe Theatre from 3pm.

She'll be joined by vocalists Ian Campbell and Moira Howard, local drummer Earl Pollard, Graham Lovejoy, keyboardist Marylann Martin, and guitarist Ross McDermott.

"It's a kind of alternative, country, rocky style. I get to play a more rocky style of fiddle and they're good singers in the band and good friends as well. It's a very good line-up of music we are playing."

Tickets are $15 at the door.

- © Fairfax NZ News