BETSE ELLIS, FIDDLER:

When I fell in love with fiddle music, I fell so hard, and I turned away from pretty much all other genres of music for years. And it was only a few years into that first flush of loving traditional fiddle music that I met Violet.

And I hadn't spent too much time with elder generation players before that, I had met a few. I had been really excited by some of those meetings and inspired by other Ozark fiddlers in particular, actually, but I didn't have that many inspirations who were female.

And meeting Violet and this really strong lady, that first meeting was so impactful and she was so welcoming, and she cared enough to spend time with me.