Sadie Compton
Sadie took up the fiddle relatively late in life, but her musical journey began long before she ever pulled a bow. Music has factored into everything Sadie has done. A child of the 1970's, born and raised in southern Louisiana, her early musical influences included The Balfa Brothers, KISS, Beethoven, Led Zeppelin, and Bessie Smith. Years of studying ballet helped Sadie develop a great appreciation for the oneness of dance and music. She then attended college in Alabama, where she seriously studied sculpture and painting, gravitating toward creating artwork with musical themes. It has been said that one can almost hear the music in her brush strokes. Today, Sadie continues to create paintings that sing. Post-college years found Sadie evolving into a bona fide Dead-head. Love of the Grateful Dead's music, and research into its roots, led her to a love of Bluegrass music and a consequent move to Nashville, Tennessee. During this time, she experimented a bit with clawhammer banjo and with mandolin, but once she discovered Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers and Old Time fiddler JP Fraley, Sadie had finally stumbled upon her true musical love: Old Time Appalachian fiddle music. So, at the late-blooming age of 26, she picked up the fiddle and began pursuing the good life of an Old Time fiddler, becoming friends with some of America's most gifted Old Time musicians along the way. When Sadie chanced to hear the music of the amazing Norwegian musician Anon Egeland, it totally changed her direction as a fiddler. She instantly fell head-over-heels in love with the voluptuous sound of the hardanger fiddle. Since Sadie has a natural affinity for the old cross-tuned fiddle tunes, she was overjoyed to discover that this gorgeous instrument is actually meant to be cross-tuned, and has sympathetic understrings which take cross-tuning into the stratosphere. She soon acquired a 1925 Joh. Lyngvaer hardingfele, and so began this Louisiana girl's journey to her own unique combination of musical styles. Sadie's music is a marriage of Appalachian soul and Cajun fire, which sings with the unique sparkle that only the beautiful Norwegian hardanger fiddle can impart. All told, Sadie's music makes for an interesting and enjoyable new voice in the realms of both Old Time and hardanger fiddle music.
Sadie has more recently revived her old love of clawhammer banjo, and has been learning guitar as well. She has written a good many Old Time and Blues influenced original songs and tunes since the release of her debut fiddle tune CD "Trouble Come Knockin'". Sadie is currently taking her sweet time compiling the new material, and polishing up a few favorite Old Time tunes, to begin recording a second CD. Please check back for updates!