Brittany Caroline Haas (born 1987) is an American
fiddle player, who also sings and plays the
banjo. She is a member of the
Boston-based
alternative bluegrass band
Crooked Still, which is currently on hiatus. She is a regular performer on
Live From Here.[2] She tours with the Haas Marshall Walsh and Haas Kowert Tice trios, and participates in many international fiddlecamps, including the Ossipee Valley Music Festival. As of 2018, she is a member of Hawktail, which includes Kowert and Tice, as well as mandolinist Dominick Leslie. In June 2023 she was announced as the new fiddle player for Americana band
Punch Brothers, replacing founding member
Gabe Witcher. Her sister
Natalie Haas plays cello with a similarly diverse group of musicians.
Early life
Haas grew up in
Menlo Park, California. When she was eight years old, her violin teacher gave her some bluegrass sheet music to practice sight reading. For the next five years she took both classical violin and bluegrass fiddle lessons. When she heard
Bruce Molsky, she recalls: "I was like, 'That's what I want to do.'". At 13 years of age, she switched to the fiddle as her primary instrument.[3]
Haas,
Sierra Hull (mandolin),
Alison Brown (banjo),
Todd Phillips (bass), Andy Hall (Dobro), Matt Wingate (guitar) were members of the Porchlight Band, the house band for the bluegrass documentary Porchlight Sessions (cira 2011).[5]
In 2015 she and Lauren Rioux recorded a video together on the Roots Channel and often join other groups.[6]
Haas went on tour as part of the band
Dave Rawlings Machine, in support of their album
Nashville Obsolete. Haas appeared on multiple tracks as a guest performer. The tour started in November 2015 and continued through April 2016.[7]
From 2003 - current, Haas performs with the Haas Kowert Tice trio, with
Paul Kowert on bass and
Jordan Tice on guitar. The group was renamed Hawktail with the addition of Dominick Leslie on mandolin.
Haas appeared on the
David Rawlings' Band Acony Records release Poor David's Almanack.