Corrina Rose Logston has released her latest project, Bluegrass Fiddler on Patuxent Music. Fiddler, singer, songwriter, and creative enthusiast, Corrina Rose Logston is a fresh, exciting force in music today. She is most widely known for her lively and versatile fiddling and tenor singing rooted in traditional bluegrass music. She has performed regularly with David Peterson & 1946 and Chris Henry & the Hardcore Grass, among many other artists and bands in her freelancing. She’s worked with artists such as Jim Lauderdale, Jesse McReynolds, Melvin Goins, and the McCormick Brothers, and she’s been a guest on stage with the likes of Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Alison Krauss, Charlie Louvin, and Bobby Osborne.
A 2012 graduate of Belmont University, Corrina placed 1st in the Bluegrass Fiddle category at the Galax Old Fiddlers’ Convention of the same year. Corrina currently pursues her freelance fiddling/singing alongside songwriting and development of her own unique music, as well as performs regularly in the award-winning traditional bluegrass band she helped create, High Fidelity.
My first meeting with Corrina Rose Logston was when she came to Glenville, West Virginia in 2007 to check out our new bluegrass degree program at Glenville State College. I had heard about her fiddling expertise from Megan Murphy, Dr. Megan Darby now, who is currently the director of that program. It so happened that the two of them had grown up together musically, attending Bean Blossom every year. I immediately arranged for a meeting 1 was so impressed with her background, her playing and her professionalism that a few months later I asked her to join Ashley Messenger and me on a recording in tribute to Reno & Smiley! Smartest thing I ever did! Following that, and knowing she had studied with the great Jim Buchanan, I recommended her to Jesse McReynolds for an Illinois date I couldn't make and he was so impressed with her talent that now she's doing the Grand Ole Opry with him every week! Am I proud of her? You know it!
So, I just now put Corrina's new CD on so I could listen as I wrote these notes. Well the first tune came on and her notes sort of distracted me from my notes for a moment or two! Am I surprised? Not really. I've come to expect the unexpected from Corrina over the past few years and boys, let me tell you...that right there is the genuine article! Immediately, in this work, I was captivated by her depth of style, her feel for the traditional and her flare for human musicality. In this album, which easily could be (but probably won’t yet be) her magnum opus, one can feel the emotion, the love of purpose and the straight—ahead, heart rendering warmth not found in many of the fiddle CDs flooding the market today. (There. I said it and I ain’t taking it back?)
Clearly, Corrina has studied the masters — Kenny Baker, Jimmy Buchanan, Howdy Forrester, Clark Kessinger, Buddy Spicher and a host of others, known and unknown. Then, suddenly (dramatic theatrical music stab right here) I heard a tune which made me think, “How did I miss that tune? I need to learn that!” So I called Corrina to see who wrote it. It turns out that she wrote it. I should have known. Later in the CD, the same scenario repeats itself. She contributed two masterful tunes to this recording, “Sandridge” and “Honeycat Hompipe,” Add to what I said in the last paragraph that she can also write fiddle tunes which can fool us into thinking they came from a master composer. Well, they did!
I was about ready to wrap up the “fiddle CD" notes when boom! Another surprise! Corrina’s fiddle was playing a somewhat familiar melody. Then I heard this great singing! Of course I know she could sing, however, the selection of this song, correction, these two songs, the Cowboy Copas soul searcher "I Don’t Blame You“ and the Carter Family classic “Foggy Mountain Top,” put the icing on the cake for this CD making it a total package. Since Corrina’s new CD is in your hand, slip it into your CD player and experience for yourself what I‘ve been trying to tell you.
You’ll enjoy it! - Buddy Griffin
Corrina was born and raised about 40 miles south of St. Louis, Missouri, near the town of Red Bud, Illinois. Corrina’s parents, both ardent bluegrass fans who had their own band in the 1980s, always had a record or cassette playing while Corrina was growing up. ““My first favorite record, when I was 3 years old, was Jim & Jesse’s In The Tradition,” Corrina says, “but my first favorite singer was a toss up between Jim McReynolds and Del McCoury.”
Corrina began playing guitar when she was around 8 years old and started picking banjo shortly after that, jamming with her parents and occasionally in local jam sessions, but interest was by and large fickle. When her parents revived their band in her early teens, Corrina’s interest in playing became greater. Harmans playingOn her 14th birthday, Corrina received a fiddle.
“I really didn’t know what to say when I got the fiddle,” admits Corrina, “cause I was kind of hoping for a Fender Stratocaster.” Nevertheless, there was a fiddle. “I was into a lot of different things at the time. I was playing punk rock guitar half the time and Don Reno banjo the other. But I thought since I had it, I’d give the fiddle a try.”
Artists on Bluegrass Fiddler include:
- Corrina Rose Logston — fiddle, vocals
- Casey Campbell - mandolin
- Jeremy Stephens — guitar, vocals
- David McLaughlin - mandolin
- Kurt Stephenson - banjo, vocals
- RJ. George - bass