Introduction
Rayna Gellert (born December 15, 1975) is an American fiddler and singer specializing in old-time music. She grew up in Elkhart, in northern Indiana. Her father is the traditional fiddler and banjo player Dan Gellert. Originally a classically trained violinist, she took up the old-time fiddle in 1994, when she moved to North Carolina to attend Warren Wilson College. She received a bachelor's degree from Warren Wilson College.
Gellert is a former member of the Freight Hoppers. From 2003 to 2009 she performed and recorded with the all-female old-time band Uncle Earl. In 2003, she was a featured performer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She has also performed with the dance company Rhythm in Shoes, the West African-influenced band Toubab Krewe, Abigail Washburn, and Scott Miller. She has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Chile.
She has been a finalist at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, Fayette County, West Virginia several times.
Discography
As leader
- 2000 - Ways of the World
- 2012 - Old Light- Songs from my Childhood & Other Gone Worlds
- 2017 - Workin's Too Hard
With Uncle Earl
- 2004 - Going to the Western Slope (EP)
- 2004 - Raise A Ruckus (EP)
- 2005 - She Waits For Night (Rounder)
- 2007 - Waterloo, Tennessee (Rounder)
With Susie Goehring
- 2005 - Starch & Iron
With Scott Miller
- 2012 - CoDependents (EP)
With The Brothers K
- 2015 - Rayna Gellert & the Brothers K (EP)