George Ainley

Beautiful video portrait of fiddler George Ainley, of Perkinsville, VT, filmed on his farm by Nikolai Fox.

See also here.

Corn Dodger Special #1

George Ainley (b. 1948) was raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut. George completed an undergraduate degree at Dartmouth in 1970, the same year he bought his first fiddle at a hardware store. He was an itinerant musician from 1970 until 1975. In 1975 George moved to Vermont where he worked for years as an apple picker before beginning a career as a Windsor chair maker. George is well known for playing with the Corndodgers (Ahmet Baycu, fiddle & banjo, William Wright, guitar). George learned to fiddle by listening to records of southern old-time music such as The Georgia Yellow Hammers, Camp Creek Boys and The Skillet Lickers. In the 1970’s George would hitchhike from Vermont to attend southern festivals. He now lives outside Springfield, Vermont with his family where he continues to make Windsor Chairs.  (from http://www.vmls.org/)

George Ainley and friends at the John Putnam Fddler’s Reunion, 9/17/11. Photo by Geoff Bluh

The Corn Dodgers play “Nobody’s Business”: