Dirk Powell

Overview

Dirk Powell (born 1969) is an American fiddler, banjo player, and singer. He was born in Oberlin southwest of Elyria, Ohio into a family with deep Kentucky roots. He has lived in Louisiana since 1992. He is considered one of the world's leading experts on traditional Appalachian fiddle and banjo styles.^[1] Powell is also a recording engineer, producer, and owns a studio, the Cypress House, in Breaux Bridge near Lafayette, Louisiana. The studio is in a converted 1850s Louisiana Creole home on Bayou Teche and focuses on vintage gear and audio..^[2]

Powell has won four Grammy Awards and has been a guest on television shows including Late Night with David Letterman, the Today Show, and American Masters. For ten years, he was Joan Baez's "band." He was a longtime member of the Cajun band Balfa Toujours. He performs as a solo artist, as a featured artist with Transatlantic Sessions, on tour with Mary Chapin Carpenter, and as a duo with Rainy Eyes. Powell has recorded with Rhiannon Giddens, Loretta Lynn, Irma Thomas, Tim O'Brien, the Raconteurs on their record “Consolers of the Lonely,” and Eric Clapton.^[1][3]

Powell has scored and worked on numerous films including Cold Mountain, In the Electric Mist, Stevie, and Ride with the Devil. He collaborated on the score for Sundance award-winning documentary Descendant.

Discography

• If I Go Ten Thousand Miles (Rounder, 1996)
• Songs from the Mountain (Howdy Skies, 1999) - Dirk Powell, Tim O'Brien & John Herrmann
• Tony Furtado & Dirk Powell (Rounder, 1999)
• Hand Me Down (Rounder, 1999)
• Time Again (Rounder, 2004)
• A Fret Free Christmas (Valcour Records, 2010)^[4]
• Walking Through Clay (Sugar Hill/Welk Music Group, 2014)^[5]
• I Wanna Sing Right: Rediscovering Lomax in the Evangeline Country four-EP set - various artists (Valcour Records, 2015)^[4]
• Cajun Accordion Kings (and the Queen) various artists (Valcour Records, 2015)^[4]
• When I Wait for You (Vertical Records, 2020)

See also Balfa Toujours.