Spencer & Rains

Spencer & Rains play old time music. Tricia Spencer is a Kansas fiddler who grew up learning the tradition of old-time music from her Grandparents. Howard Rains is a Texas artist and fiddler whose twin obsessions are painting and playing traditional American fiddle music. Together, Spencer & Rains play old time fiddle tunes and sing old songs in the style of their home states while also exploring other American regional styles of fiddling. Both multi-instrumentalists deeply absorbed in traditional music, Howard and Tricia preserve, present, and teach old time music while at the same time making it their own. Not only have they played dances, festivals, and house concerts across the country and across the globe, Spencer & Rains are highly sought after as instructors and love to teach old time music at camps, workshops, and private lessons.

Tricia Spencer & Howard Rains perform old time music from Kansas and other parts of the midwest. Both multi-instrumentalists, their performances include fiddles, guitars, banjo-uke, mandolin, sometimes accordion, and always lots of harmony singing. Spencer & Rains are essentially musicologists who have learned their craft from the many generations of family members and mentors who have played music before them and their performances are much about the history and preservation of regional music as they are entertainment.

• $1,000 for performance, fiddle/guitar workshop, and a showing of their folk art depicting family members and mentors they learned their music from.
• Travel and lodging compensation if performance or workshop is a distance that requires overnight stay.

Tricia and Howard get great joy in playing for parts of the community that might not otherwise be exposed to their own heritage and take any and all opportunities to expose the community at large to this old style of music.

Tricia and Howard’s performances and workshops are as much a lesson in the history of American and midwestern fiddle and folk music as they are musical entertainment. Their performances are filled with personal stories and histories of the music and musicians from Kansas and surrounding states. Their art work depicts these same musicians in their unique, folk art style. To see some of the workshop descriptions Tricia and Howard have done across the country and across the globe click on the links below. Spencer & Rains have taught workshops and classes at the UCLA School of Music, UC Berkeley School of Music, Columbia University, The Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, The John C. Campbell Folk School, The Alabama Folk School to name just a few examples.

• http://www.greatermankatoevents.com/events/fiddling-workshop-beginners
• http://oldtimetikiparlour.com/2015/03/spencer-rains-wjohn-schwab-at-the-tiki-parlour/
• https://lfootm.org/calendar/twinfiddling2018
• https://sites.udel.edu/tmr/2014/11/11/spencer-rains/
• https://frontporchcville.org/event/old-time-fiddle-repertoire-and-technique-with-tricia-spencer-howard-rains/