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Earnie Taft,

Old Timey

Fiddler

Earnie Taft is Texas

born and has been

fiddling for over 50

years. He’s a self-taught,

“short bow” fiddler, and

has been active in the

Dallas-Fort Worth folk

music scene for most of

those years.

In 1970s, while he was in college at North Texas State University, he

was the founding member of the Saltlick band that haunted the Fort

Worth Stockyards area and at the White Elephant Saloon for over 20

years.

In that same period of time, he helped to form the New Dallas

String Band that specialized in 18th and 19th Century country

dance music. This band and its talented musicians actively inspired

the local resurgence of a style of music now referred to as “Old

Timey” music.

Earnie later developed an interest in Irish music and played with

Tinker’s Dam, an Irish Ceili band that helped to initiate the early

growth of Irish music and cultural awareness in Dallas in the 1980’s.

In 1993 he joined the Irish Rogues, Dallas’ “Premier Pub Band.”

A photo of the Irish Rogues in 1993 showing Earnie Taft with his

fiddle, John Hodgins on his accordion, Harold Harrington on

banjo, Red McWilliams on guitar.

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