“I can’t ever remember not being around music,” says Brien Fain, who is at least a seventh-generation mountain musician. “That’s as far back as I’ve traced it.” The rich musical tradition in Brien’s family dates back to the 1760s in Patrick County, in southwest Virginia near the North Carolina border. Brien has fiddles that were played by his father and grandfather, and one built by his great-great grandfather in the 1830s. His mother also had a musical family, and Brien had lots of musical inspiration and mentors. “I’m the youngest of 32 grandchildren on my daddy’s side, and the youngest of 48 grandchildren on my mama’s side,” Brien says, “And half of the people on my mom’s side play and 75 percent of the people on daddy’s side play.” Brien parent’s fashioned him a banjo-ukulele with an open tuning when he was just two years old, and Brien remembers playing along with his father at dances by the time he was five. His mother’s father was an elder at the Primitive Baptist church. “He always led the singing,” Brien remembers. “He would sing those old mountain gospel songs and hymns.” At ages seven and eight, Brien started playing the guitar and mandolin, and he focused on those instruments until he was a teenager, accompanying his father at dances and community gatherings. Brien recalls, “Daddy was always wanting me to play the bass-run style on guitar.” After his father passed away, 15-year-old Brien mostly quit playing music for a couple years and focused on racing cars and mechanics, a passion that led to his career as a machinist building motors for race cars. Brien started music again at age 17, taking up the fiddle and banjo. While he mostly plays fiddle at home and with informal music sessions with friends, Brien has become a champion banjo player. He has one first place in the oldtime banjo competition at Galax four times, three times at Clifftop, and more than 300 prizes in total. Over the years, Brien has been quite active performing solo and with numerous groups, including playing guitar with Raymond Fairchild, leading the Rock Mountain Ramblers, joining Mike Seeger, playing bluegrass gospel with the Mayo Mountain Boys, presenting historically-informative fiddle-banjo duet performances with Stu Shenk, and playing clawhammer banjo at fiddlers conventions around the region. Brien has performed at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and National Folk Festival, and he has taught workshops at the Blueridge Folklife Festival and Augusta Heritage series.
