Kenny Kosek: Tales From The 'Fertile Crescent Of Fiddle Music'

It was nearly a half century ago that Breakfast Special swung by the Rutgers University student center for a performance at the Tuesday Night Folk Music Concert Series.

- Peter Anick

For a young musician just beginning to wrap his fingers around “roots music,” the show left an indelible impression, well worth the 50 cent price of admission. The band featured some of New York’s finest bluegrass pickers: Tony Trischka on banjo, Kenny Kosek on fiddle, Andy Statman on mandolin, Stacy Phillips on dobro, Jim Tolles on guitar, and Roger Mason on bass. Their zany antics and adventurous repertoire became a blueprint for my own fledgling sorties into bluegrass music.

Thus, it was a bittersweet pleasure to see Kenny Kosek and Tony Trischka reunited on the stage of the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival last February, playing some of the Breakfast Special repertoire in homage to their bandmate Stacy, who was receiving a posthumous Heritage Award from the Boston Bluegrass Union. Kenny and Stacy co-authored the first in-depth study of bluegrass fiddle styles for Oak Publications in 1978. Since then, Kenny has remained active in the New York music and comedy scenes, contributing to the Citizen Kafka radio show, the iconoclastic Wretched Refuse String Band, and countless film, television, and album studio sessions. I enjoyed the chance to chat with him about his own initiation into the New York roots music scene.

Believe it or not, you were probably one of the first fiddlers I ever heard, on (New York progressive radio station) WBAI.

Are you a New Yorker?

A New Jerseyer.

The first time I played, ever, outside my junior high orchestra, was at a fundraiser for WBAI. They were soliciting talent – anyone who wants to come down to the station. So my 15-year-old bandmates and I, the Star Spangled String Band, in 1965, went to WBAI and got to play on the air. Then we had an association with WBAI through Tom Whitmore, who was the chief engineer. Tom was also the host of the old time country music half-hour show. So we got to know him, and we played on his show.