Jonathan Allan "Jody" Stecher (born June 1, 1946) is an American singer and musician. He is best known as a bluegrass and old time musician, playing

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, fiddle and guitar and two of his albums with

Kate Brislin Kate name may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kate (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Gyula Káté (born 1982), Hungarian amateur boxer * Lauren Kate (born 1981), American autho ...

have been finalists for the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. He also plays

sursringar The sursingar (IAST: ), sursringar or surshringar (Sringara: Pleasure in Sanskrit), is a musical instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent having many similarities with the sarod. It is larger than the sarod and produces a deeper sound. ...

(a relative of the

sarod The sarod is a stringed instrument, used in Hindustani music on the Indian subcontinent. Along with the sitar, it is among the most popular and prominent instruments. It is known for a deep, weighty, introspective sound, in contrast with the sweet ...

) in the

Dagar gharana The Dagar gharana (or Dagar vani) is a tradition of the classical dhrupad genre of Hindustani classical music spanning 20 generations, tracing back to Swami Haridas (15th century), and including Behram Khan of Jaipur (1753-1878). For some generation ...

tradition of

dhrupad Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music from the Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest known style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, Haveli Sangeet of Pushtimarg Sampraday and also related to the South Ind ...

Early life

Jonathan Allan Stecher was born on June 1, 1946, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York. At the age of twelve he found a dusty fretless Gatcomb banjo in an

antique shop An antique shop (or antiques shop) is a retail store specializing in the selling of antiques. Antiques shops can be located either locally or, with the advent of the Internet, found online. An antiques shop can also be located within an anti ...

and bought it for two dollars. After gaining a solid grounding in bluegrass, cajun, blues and Scottish folk music, he studied

Hindustani classical music Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, sita ...

for 3 years with Ali Akbar Khan and for 10 years with

Zia Mohiuddin Dagar Zia Mohiuddin Dagar (14 March 1929 – 28 September 1990), popularly known as Z. M. Dagar, was a North Indian ( Hindustani) classical musician, one of the 19th generation of Dagar family dhrupad musicians. He was largely responsible for the r ...

Musical career

He has collaborated with

Krishna Bhatt Krishna Mohan Bhatt (born 1949) is a sitar player, teacher and scholar from Jaipur, India. Background He comes from a family of musicians in Jaipur. His father, the late Shashi Mohan Bhatt, a sitarist of great repute and a professor at the Un ...

on an unusual album of fusion music, ''Rasa'' (1982). He met Kate Brislin (a former member of Any Old Time String Band) in 1974, and they started performing actively as a duo in 1985; they married on 29 July 1987. He is regarded as one of the leading traditional folk artists in America, and his recordings have served a large and diverse group of musicians, including Jerry Jeff Walker,

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

David Grisman David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...

, Peter Rowan, Martin Simpson,

Seldom Scene The Seldom Scene is an American bluegrass band that formed in 1971 in Bethesda, Maryland. The band's original line-up comprised John Starling on lead vocals and guitar, Mike Auldridge on Dobro and baritone vocals, Ben Eldridge on banjo, Tom Gra ...

Laurie Lewis Laurie Lewis is an innovative American singer, musician, and songwriter in the genre of bluegrass music. History Laurie Lewis was born in Long Beach, California on September 28, 1950. Her family moved regularly from place to place until she w ...

, Kathy Kallick,

Alasdair Fraser Alasdair Fraser (born 14 May 1955, Clackmannan, Scotland) is a Scottish fiddler, composer, performer and recording artist. Fraser operates Culburnie Records and is a leading artist on the label. He has founded five summer fiddling programs: ...

and Hot Rize. He has also written liner notes for many albums. He recorded the field recordings (with Peter K. Siegel) and wrote the liner notes for the record ''The Real Bahamas''. David Bromberg once said, "Jody Stecher was basically my teacher. He opened my ears to more beautiful music than anyone else ever did... more than I ever knew existed. He is also one of my favorite musicians on Earth to play with. I have never known anyone so intensely and completely enveloped in music. It's my suspicion that if you drained all the music out of Jody, you could carry what was left around in an eye dropper." Jody has been twice nominated for a Grammy with his wife Kate: in 1993 for ''Our Town'' (Best Traditional Folk Album), and again in 1998 for ''Heart Songs: The Old Time Country Songs of Utah Phillips'' (Best Traditional Folk Album of 1997). More recently he has devoted albums to singing traditional folk songs. Jody Stecher's sister, Janet Stecher, is a professional singer in the duo Rebel Voices and leads the Seattle Labor Chorus.

Discography

Solo albums

* ''Snake Baked a Hoecake'' (1974) * ''Going Up on the Mountain'' (1977) * ''Oh the Wind and Rain'' (1999) * ''Wonders & Signs'' (2012) * ''Dreams from the Overlook'', 2 CDs (2020)

With Krishna Bhatt

* ''Rasa'' (1981)

With Kate Brislin

* ''A Song That Will Linger'' (1989) * ''Blue Lightning'' (1991) * ''Our Town'' (1993) * ''Stay Awhile'' (1995) * ''Heart Songs: The Old Time Country Songs of Utah Phillips'' (1997) * ''Songs of the Carter Family'' (2000) * ''Return'' (2010)

With Alasdair Fraser

* ''The Driven Bow'' (1989)

With Bob Black, Chris Brashear, Peter McLaughlin, Ed Neff, and Forrest Rose

* ''Perfect Strangers'' (2003)

References

External links

*
DawgnetAppleseedInterview from Utsav 2006, SeattleAward & Pictures from Union Grove Fiddler's Convention 1967Award & Pictures from Union Grove Fiddler's Convention 1968Jam Session Photo from Union Grove 1968
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stecher, Jody American folk musicians American folk singers American male singers 1946 births Living people Fingerstyle guitarists Claddagh Records artists