Brittany Haas: Finding the Space Between Notes

Crooked Still, Punch Brothers, and Hawktail fiddle player Brittany Haas continues to push creative boundaries. Her latest is pairing with Dallas/Fort Worth native guitarist and composer Ben Garnett on his new album Kite’s Keep.

Haas, who appeared on Garnett’s debut album Imitation Fields, says the pair have agreed to form a trio. “We just kind of developed a friendship,” Haas points out. “There is that moment where we thought, Shouldn’t we also play together professionally?”

She said she really liked Garnett's music and thinks it’s super creative and beautiful! "It has a lot of space in it for me to grow and also to be showcased as a fiddle player."

He wanted to do something a little bit different than his first album, Haas explains. She was among the studio musicians who played on Garnett’s 2023 release.

“He was thinking more along the lines of a steady band. He was starting to conceive of the idea of touring as a trio, with fiddle and bass—which is an instrumentation that I am very used to from my time in Hawktail.”

Haas says that Kite’s Keep is a mix of charts and improvisation. “Some of it was prescribed by Garnett, such as a melody part; then there are a lot of open solo sections as well,” Haas describes about her fiddle lines.

“He has the form all figured out, and then he’s like, ‘Now you take a fiddle solo.’ … That’s a cool thing about his musicianship. He wants to capture a moment and for the musician to be themselves.”

The songs on the album were rehearsed in front of audiences before going into the studio. “We would play some local gigs to test some stuff out,” recounts Haas.

Kite’s Keep provided another opportunity to work with an old pal and mentor, Darol Anger.

“He’s my hero! I met him when I was ten years old,” remembers Haas, who plays a fiddle duet with Anger on Kite’s Keep. “Anger was around California at the time, and that is where I grew up—so I got to see him play.”

Anger asked then fourteen-year-old Haas to join his band, Republic of Strings.

“That was a quartet with the great bluegrass guitar player Scott Nygaard and Rushad Eggleston, who was also in Crooked Still. It was my first professional opportunity,” recalls Haas. “Getting to play twin fiddles with him was a really cool way to learn!”

Turning her attention to another close friend, Haas says it was Bruce Molsky that made her want to become a fiddle player.

“I was pretty obsessed with his music and learned so much from listening and being around him,” recalls Haas, who saw Molsky for the first time while attending a fiddle camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. “We are going to play a show together at Wintergrass Festival this coming February. He is such an incredibly deep musician with a beautiful ethos around traditional music.”

Haas shares that she and her sister, cellist Natalie Haas, will be recording their second album.

“We’ve done a couple of gigs this summer where we were trying out new material we’ve been writing over the last year.” Although Natalie lives in Spain, most of her shows are in the U.S. “We just try to tack on a few days to work on music. We are going to record in early January.”

Winner of the 2025 Eisenson Family Prize for American Roots Music, Haas says the fiddle has been a lifelong companion.

“I would say it is one of the things that shaped my life the most. It brought me to so many cool places and communities. I like the fact that we are all the same—we all have the same desires and needs, and music is such a great way to connect with people."

She said it is also how much of a bond it creates. "You can go halfway across the world and meet another fiddle player and sit down and play a tune. That feels so good!”

Haas is featured on countless albums and describes herself as a team player.

“I love being supportive; I love being part of a band. I like to make everyone else sound as good as they can. That is the fun part about it for me!”