FSFA is happy and excited to announce Tessa Dillon McCoy and Chance McCoy as our guest artists for our 2024 Fiddlers Convention, October 17-20 at O’Leno State Park. Tessa and Chance McCoy are contemporary masters of Appalachian folk music. Natives of West Virginia, they have been awarded the highest honors in traditional music, including a Grammy for best folk album through Chance’s work with Old Crow Medicine Show, and an exhaustive list of blue ribbon wins for Tessa as a champion fiddler.
Through an unbroken chain of traditional music, Tessa and Chance have been mentored by the true masters of West Virginia Old Time Music. Tessa traces her musical lineage through the Kanawha fiddle tradition of Bobby Taylor and Clark Kessinger. Her mastery of this unique and technical old-time fiddling style has positioned her as one of the most significant old-time fiddlers living in Appalachia today.
Chance was raised in a musical family in historic Harpers Ferry. His “rags to riches” journey that took him from living on food stamps to winning a Grammy is a testament to his exceptional talents as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and writer.
Chance’s roots as a folk musician have landed him collaborations with a diverse roster of legendary artists including Kesha, Tyler Childers, The Lumineers, The Black Crowes, Willie Nelson, Mumford and Sons, Rhiannon Giddens, NEEDTOBREATHE and more.
Tessa and Chance have rooted themselves in West Virginia, living on their farm along the banks of Indian Creek in Monroe County, where they have built a world-class music studio for recording new artists. They dedicate their lives as professional musicians to being torchbearers in the wider folk music scene as they continue to teach and perform locally and around the world.
Florida Fiddlers Association 