Patrick McAvinue
A Perfect Fit Between Nashville and Baltimore
“I wanted to help bridge the connection between Nashville and Baltimore,” explains fiddler Patrick McAvinue about his latest album, Perfect Fit released in 2019. For many the relationship between the two cities might seem odd at first, but for Baltimore native McAvinue—who first cut his teeth as youngster in the city and its surrounding region’s long-standing bluegrass communities and then moved to Nashville to be a member of Dailey & Vincent—it represents a natural desire to bring his two homes together and highlights a connection to an older, deeper history between the two cities.
“There was Nashville and there was Baltimore,” answered Del McCoury when asked about his formative days as a musician. Much like McAvinue, McCoury spent the early part of his career playing in and around Baltimore before heading to Nashville to audition for Bill Monroe’s band. McCoury continues, “Baltimore was the really hot town for this kind of music…and when I got old enough I wanted to go down there and play there, and that’s what I did.”
While not as well-known for bluegrass when McAvinue first started playing as it was when McCoury started, it was still a “really hot town for this kind of music,” and like McCoury, McAvinue first played there as he began to establish himself. He eventually became one of the most dynamic young fiddle talents in the bluegrass world today, who was named the International Bluegrass Music Association “Fiddler of the Year” in 2017.
McAvinue got his start when he was introduced to the fiddle at six by a family friend, and immediately thought “this is what I want to do.” McAvinue quickly proved to be a special talent. In 2003, at age 13 he was named Delaware state fiddle champion, an honor he would win three consecutive years from 2003-2005.
During that time he joined Smooth Kentucky, a Baltimore based band, led by guitarists Cris Jacobs and Ed Hough, bassist Dave Freeman, and mandolin picker BJ Lazarus, after they announced they were looking for a fiddler while playing on local radio station WTMD. McAvinue, was a 10th grader at the time and had to be driven to his audition by his mom as he was still too young to drive. When he arrived, the older musicians in the band were skeptical of the skinny, baby faced fiddler as they felt his youth would be a hindrance, not only musically, but in where he would be allowed to play. Any fears of his age quickly evaporated. “All I did was hear him tune up and I was done,” says Hough. “He was that good.”
A few years after joining Smooth Kentucky, when McAvinue was sixteen, he was asked to join Audie Blaylock & Redline upon a recommendation from banjo picker, Chris Warner. McAvinue and Warner had met at a recording session McAvinue was part of for Bluestone, another band he played with occasionally at the time. Bluestone was made up of some of the legends of the Baltimore bluegrass scene including Russ Hooper, Carroll Swam, Tom Neal, and Dick Laird, and allowed the young fiddler prodigy the chance to develop his talents with an experienced veteran band.
Blaylock was looking for a new fiddler player and Warner, who was in Redline at the time, was impressed with the young McAvninue’s talents and thought he would be a great addition to the band. McAvinue joined the band in 2004, just prior to his seventeenth birthday. He would play with the band full-time while finishing high school, missing many days while on the road with Redline. After graduation he continued with Redline, even as he enrolled at Towson University in Baltimore to study music. After graduating in 2011 he would begin teaching music as he continued to play full-time with Audie Blaylock. He was with the band until 2016, recording seven albums with them.
Never one to sit still, while with Redline, McAvinue also found time to start another band, Charm City Junction, in 2013, with fellow Baltimore musicians Brad Kolodner (banjo), Sean McComiskey (accordion), and Alex Lacquement (bass). Charm City Junction seemingly went from standing still to running overnight.
“We wanted to play music, so we just made it happen,” says McAvinue, “Soon after forming we were doing like fifty, sixty shows regionally along with spots at Grey Fox and some larger festivals. We just kept hammering it and were booking up our schedules.” With their mix of old-time rhythms, Irish melodies, and traditional bluegrass they quickly found an audience and in 2016 were an International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum (IBMA) “Band of the Year” nominee.
McAvinue was also finding wider recognition and in 2015 when he won the IBMA “Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year.” “I kept things moving,” says McAvinue. “I was playing with Redline, I was doing some stuff outside of that, lots of fill in gigs, freelance work, and Charm City Junction. And I was still teaching thirty-five students a week at school. When you are a musician you have to wear many hats to make a living.”
In the fall of 2016, McAvinue continued to wear many hats. He was teaching, playing around 175 shows a year, and had recently taken up cycling. One day he was out for a ride when his phone rang. McAvinue remembers, “I see a 615 number, and I thought it’s Nashville, it might be a friend, so I pulled over and answered the phone.” It was actually Darrin Vincent from Dailey & Vincent, and he was calling on a recommendation of outgoing fiddler B.J. Cherryholmes to see if McAvinue wanted to audition for the open fiddle spot in their band. McAvinue says he did not really know Vincent, having only met only in passing, but that he had known Vincent’s bandmate, Jamie Dailey, since McAvinue was fourteen. “We were jamming in a circle and he would always throw solos to me. He was so cool. I always had a soft spot in my heart for Jamie.”
McAvinue auditioned shortly after the call and was offered the job. “My first gig with them was on the Opry Stage at the Ryman, December 30, 2016,” remembers McAvinue. “That same night we played with Marty Stuart. My first time playing on the Ryman Auditorium stage was just huge. That night they were invited to become Opry members. That is why Marty was there, to invite them.”
A few months after joining Dailey & Vincent, the recognition of McAvinue’s transcendent skills gained even wider acclaim when he was named the 2017 IBMA “Fiddler of the Year.” “I honestly did not think I had a chance,” laughs McAvinue. “It was funny, I played on the award show and I was standing backstage as they were going through the “Fiddler of the Year” nominations and they came to me. I couldn’t hear the name of the winner. I was standing with Mike Cleveland and Becky Buller and all of sudden Becky grabs me and was like ‘you have to go’, and Mike looks at me and is like ‘go’! They pulled me onstage.”
McAvinue, who had no speech prepared, had to come up with something on the spot. “To win was so very, unbelievably, humbling,” declares McAvinue. “It is really nice to be thought of that way. Every time I play, I try to be the best I can be. There is a level of acceptance and of being appreciated by your peers that comes with the award. It was so humbling.”
McAvinue did not slow down. He had started work on Perfect Fit, his third solo album, a few months before winning “Fiddler of the Year.” Originally he had hoped to have the album out at the end of 2017, but McAvinue’s relentless schedule that year, which saw him move from Baltimore to Nashville, included 120 shows with Dailey & Vincent throughout the U.S., Japan, and Europe, tapings for the Dailey & Vincent TV show, and sporadic dates with Charm City Junction, left precious little time to devote to a new album.
He found it difficult to build momentum in the studio. Still he continued to work on the new album during any down time he could find. When he did find time to get into the studio, he made sure he was thoroughly prepared so as to take advantage of any time he could carve out to work on the album. He explains, “I would work myself into a fever and get a bunch of stuff done and then have to sit on it for a while. Not that I was sitting around doing nothing, I just had so much else going on that my attention would be over here with Dailey & Vincent or over here with something else. It was nuts. I wanted to get it out the year I won, but I had to take the time that I had to take. I wanted to make it the best I could.”
Dailey & Vincent were supportive of their fiddler’s endeavors. “That’s the beautiful part of Jamie and Darrin, they recognize the importance of me representing them in all I do. They understand having a career outside of this job. They understand anything I do outside brings attention and attraction to them. They support all my solo stuff. When they introduce me, they tell the audience about my solo album. They use it as other feathers in their cap and how it makes them look better. They promote their sidemen and want them to be successful.”
With his schedule never slowing down, McAvinue worked on the album between 2017 and 2019. He wanted to put together a collection that he felt would showcase his musicial ability, his music, and he says most importantly be composed of his own music. “That was really important to me. It was important to be cohesive and show my skills set. I have worked on playing mandolin. I have worked on singing. I have worked on composing intricate classical music and extended harmonies. I wanted to showcase all of that and make it a cohesive vision, and still think outside the box and be creative with it. I wanted to take off the chains of worrying about what it is and just play and create and form the compositions around what the song or tune needs. That was my vision for Perfect Fit,” he says.
That vision was realized. The album, like McAvinue, easily crosses musical boundaries, seamlessly gliding from the more straightforward bluegrass of “Voice In Your Ear,” and “Burke House Fever Chills,” to the Irish-jig infused “Waltz for Kelly,” to the jazz-inspired “Ballou”, to the Latin-tinged, “Claro Que Si,” to a grassed-out version of Radiohead’s “Gagging Order.” “I called it Perfect Fit because it crosses the gamut of what I do,” explains McAvinue.
McAvinue also has the stated goal with Perfect Fit of wanting to help bridge the connection between his hometown of Baltimore, where he grew up and developed his unique fiddler style from time spent playing with bands and musicians from the area like Cris Jacobs, Mike Munford, Bluestone, Chris Warner, Charm City Junction, and Smooth Kentucky, and his new home of Nashville, where he has established himself as one of the premiere fiddle talents in bluegrass.
“I wanted to incorporate my best friends from Baltimore and all my new friends from Nashville,” says McAvinue, “and get them working together and see what could be made. I had always wanted to work with Cody Kilby and it took a long time to make that happen. I knew Mike Cleveland would be in if I picked up the phone. I met Ethan Jodziewic a few years prior. It took time to put it all all of them together between playing and touring.”
McAvinue helped bridge that connection by recruiting an All-Star roster of talent from his two home cities. In addition to Kilby, Cleveland, and Jodziewic, Perfect Fit features a number of musicians who have been instrumental to McAvinue throughout his life, including Charm City Junction bandmates Alex Lacquement and Sean McComiskey, Cris Jacobs, Audie Blaylock, Letitia Van Sant, Bob Mummert, Shaun Richardson, Gaven Largent, Aaron McCune, and Savino Palumbo. The album also received a huge assist from producer Scott Vestal, who played on a number of tracks, and who McAvinue had worked with since 2008 after first meeting on a recording session for an album by Audie Blaylock.
“I have always wanted to do an album with Scott,” says McAvinue. “It finally struck me in the face that I need to do this. I have this amazing engineer, player, and big fan of me who wants me to succeed. He treated this album like it was his own baby.” Vestal’s guidance, playing, and most importantly his deep belief in McAvinue helped guide Perfect Fit through its slow growth that spanned many years and many sessions that were squeezed in between McAvinue’s busy schedule.
The resulting album speaks to not only the genius of his playing, as his versatile musicianship shines through as he leads the way on fiddle, mandolin, and vocals, but also the deeply personal nature of the album. While the recording of the album was begun in 2017, the roots of it stretched back much further and are a reflection of his life journey. Patrick says, “It takes me a long time to write. A lot of the tunes on Perfect Fit are older. Some of the writing on here is as old as 2011-12. I have been through a lot of things in my life in the last ten years and I wanted to make something that was real and represented that. I wanted it to be a personal statement of where I have been and my development. There were a lot of celebratory moments along the way, along with getting kicked around by life.”
As 2020 dawned it seemed as if the world was kicking everyone around due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For McAvinue it was a chance to reevaluate his career path. He knew that music was life, but had other professional aspirations as well. “I’ve considered joining the military since I graduated high school,” says the fiddler, “but the path I’ve taken has led me to be a professional musician. Much of my family are active duty or have had military careers. My grandfathers served in the Air Force and Navy, my great uncles were in the Army, Air Force, and Navy, two of my uncles and a second cousin served in the Marines and Air Force, and three of my cousins are active duty Marines.” For McAvinue the question had always been how to be able to combine serving his country and still staying true to his desire to play music in a professional setting. Those opposing desires presented themselves as a unified opportunity when Pat White, the current fiddler of the United States Navy bluegrass band, Country Current, announced he would be retiring, and McAvinue decided to enlist in the Navy and join the band.
He explains, “I’ve always found the military bands to be fascinating opportunities to serve your country, while being a full-time musician. The selection process is highly competitive and the military hires some of the best musicians in the world. In my experience, there are not many jobs in the music industry that provide health care & retirement benefits. I view this opportunity as a career move. I plan to follow in Pat’s footsteps and retire with the position. It has huge advantages. For instance, many of the U.S. Navy Band members perform & teach outside of their duties. I plan to do the same. I’ll continue to release new music, teach students, and perform/record with my civilian colleagues as much as my schedule will allow.”
McAvinue says even with his longtime desire to join the military, it was an extremely difficult decision to leave Dailey & Vincent. “They’ve given me opportunities that I could only dream of. Jamie and Darrin showcased my original music on their TV show, plopped me on the Grand Ole Opry stage to play for millions of WSM listeners, and took me around the world with their top-notch band. The group’s musicianship is mind blowing and inspired me to deliver my best at all times. Above all else, they treated me and my wife as family. They are my family, and always will be.”
Even with the difficult decision to leave Dailey & Vincent, McAvinue is nothing but excited to be joining Country Current, calling it a “new adventure.” For McAvinue his decision to join the Navy and Country Current will be no different than his time with Smooth Kentucky, or Audie Blaylock, or Dailey & Vincent. It will be another perfect fit.
