Nashville, Tennessee
Music with Flavor!
Bluegrass · Jazz · Country · Celtic · Classical
🏆 ICMA 2017 Musician of the Year Finalist — Awards held at the Grand Ole Opry.
🏆 ICMA/CCMA 2016 Musician of the Year + Inspirational Bluegrass Artist of the Year.
🏆 CCMA/ICM 2015 Musician of the Year Finalist.
Performing weekly with Jesse McReynolds & the Virginia Boys at the Grand Ole Opry.
Travis Wetzel — The Mad Fiddler
Travis Wetzel is a dynamic musician, songwriter, and vocalist. His music has many folds including bluegrass, jazz, swing, Celtic, Klezmer, Native American, gospel, country, and classical. He is lead fiddler/violinist on countless recording projects ranging from country to rock. He has performed and recorded with artists such as Bill Monroe, Jesse McReynolds, Bill Harrell, Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Fortune, John Schneider, and David Frizzell. Jazz legend Stephane Grappelli invited Travis to perform the Rogers and Hart classic Where or When at Kutztown University with him.
Travis played at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Senator Rayburn Building in Washington DC with Congressman Ben "Cooter" Jones of Dukes of Hazzard fame for the House of Representatives. He and Cooter also produced a CD entitled Ghosts of Dixie Vol. 1.
Travis had many engagements on the radio program Echoes of an Era with Franny Beecher, former Benny Goodman guitarist and an original member of Bill Haley's Comets. His jazz group The Mad Musical Gang was featured a number of times on the show hosted by Chuck Irwin.
Travis has worked for charitable organizations such as HALTER Therapeutic Riding Program with Wynonna Judd, The Parent Project with Charles Osgood of CBS's Sunday Morning, and the VSA Arts of NJ.
Guitar legend Bob Saxton invited Travis to play at the Chet Atkins convention. Travis also had a lead part in the Johnny Cash musical Ring of Fire at the Roxy Theater in Clarksville, TN.
Travis can be seen and heard almost every week on the Grand Ole Opry with legendary instrumentalist and singer Jesse McReynolds. Jesse first introduced Travis to the Opry with Jim and Jesse in October, 2002.
The Travis Wetzel Trio
On April 1, 2009, we lost a tremendous musician and an even greater friend. Frank Whalen's long history included playing electric guitar, electric bass and keyboard in a mixed venue — the 424th Army Band — as well as in a Dixieland band and a 17-piece dance band. He played for top 40 band clubs and appeared on the "Stella Saturday Night Dead" TV show with the house band. He performed for over 50 years. Rock and roll, jazz, swing, pop, country, bluegrass, Celtic, and Latin — Frank did it all. We are proud to have known him as a brother musician and one of our best friends.
Ron Greenstein began his career playing bass for a local Philly band, then moved on to play with the legendary Tanner Brothers, Bucks County Grass, Skookil Express, and Borderline. He has toured Europe and the US with the Lewis Brothers, has played bass for folk icon Tom Paxton, and is a member of The Chad Mitchell Trio. He currently plays with the Magnolia Street String Band and folksinger Spook Handy.
Bob Sutor has been playing 5-String banjo for over thirty years. He is a member of the bluegrass band Borderline and still finds time for a steady amount of studio work. He was recently a cast member in the show Nashville City Limits at the American Music Theater, where he played banjo, guitar and dobro. Look for hot banjo solos and creative playing in overdrive.
Acoustic guitarist Bob Harris has performed, produced and recorded nearly 1,000 albums and sessions with some of the industry's top acoustic and country musicians. A member of fiddle legend Vassar Clements' band for 15 years, Bob was also the first place winner of Guitar Player International's "Ultimate Guitar Competition" in 1992.
In 1991, Bob signed with Tree Publishing (later known as Sony Tree) as a staff writer. In 1993 Bob wrote for Movieville Music and then Galen Productions with Country Music Hall of Fame writer Jerry Foster. Founder of Ampersand Records, Bob continues to record and produce music for both major and independent record labels, including a recent production credit for Johnny Cash — "The Great Lost Performance."
Originally from Oklahoma, Perry Miears has lived in Nashville since 2009 working as a songwriter, demo singer, worship leader and performer. During his extensive career, he's had the opportunity of writing with some of Nashville's biggest writers as well as performing at prestigious venues such as the legendary Bluebird Cafe and The Ryman Auditorium.
Perry has also enjoyed the honor of opening for amazing talent such as Confederate Railroad, Vince Gill, Toby Keith, Bryan White, Jimmy Webb and many others. In 2007, he was selected as one of the only solo artists to represent the state of Oklahoma at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center International Food and Wine Festival. He has an impressive range of vocal and music ability including bluegrass, country, gospel and even blues/soul — a dynamic performer that always leaves his audiences amazed and hungry for more!
Featuring "Unbroken Circle"
A Tribute to Travis' dad, Lamar.
Collaboration with Mandolin Legend Jesse McReynolds.
Listen to archived Opry shows at wsmonline.com — click "Audio Archives" and scroll to:
Travis completed a recording with Ben "Cooter" Jones (Dukes of Hazzard) and Tim White.
Watch on YouTubeTravis appears as a character in Vision of Arrowfire by Nelson Sears. Purchase at wcpatv.com — click Vision of Arrowfire, then Sales Partners.
Watch live concert clips on YouTube.
Travis Wetzel is a man to the fiddle what Dale Earnhardt Sr. was to stock car racing.
Working with Travis has been one of the highlights of my musical career. He is the greatest.
He's phenomenal. One of the best fiddlers I've ever heard.
He is versatile, original and thoroughly enjoyable.
That's BRAW! I'm lapping up yer fiddle playing, a fair bit o' Gypsy influence ye have great style Laddie, ye make that box sing!
A Presenter knows they've done a great job when the audience wants to know when the artist is returning. That is what happened when Travis performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
He is an amazing talent.
Electrifying concert performance. With every sinew in his lean muscular frame taut, Wetzel drove a furious energy into Klezmer dances with hypnotic fiddling and foot stomping percussion. The mesmerized audience responded with a standing ovation, cheering and cries of exultation.
He's one fantastic fiddler... Power, drive, clarity, taste... Wetzel's fiddling has a rich tonality and an unerring rhythmic sense.
'Huka-Hey' and 'Dance of War' are native American war dances which Wetzel performs on the fiddle with a passion springing from his Shawnee and Cherokee forebears.
Today I attended an intimate concert where my friend Travis Wetzel played fiddle and mandolin. For those of you not familiar with Travis, he is one of the finest fiddle players EVER! He should be a household name one of these days. He lives in Nashville and frequently plays with Jesse McReynolds' band on the Grand Ole Opry. Travis is capable of playing Bluegrass fiddle, Irish fiddle, Western Swing fiddle — all played in a very authentic manner. His forte is jazzy swing in the manner made famous by Stéphane Grappelli, who held the fiddle chair in Django Reinhardt's Quintette of the Hot Club of Paris. Bucky asked Travis to sit in for some hot swinging jazz tunes. The music was transcendental — those beautiful Jazz guitar lines, and those Grappelli-like violin improvisations flowing off of Travis' bow. DO NOT PASS UP AN OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR TRAVIS IF HE IS EVER IN YOUR AREA!
Bluegrass ensemble puts on memorable show
By Susan L. Peña — Reading Eagle Correspondent
Opening for Rhonda Vincent was Berks County's own East Side Dave and the Mountain Folk Band. Joining him were his son, Dane Kline, on bass; fiddler Travis Wetzel, whose astounding performance of "Orange Blossom Special" was the evening's highlight; Mike Hertzog on banjo; and Bob Entler on mandolin.
