Hillary Klug: "We Make Each Other Shine"
- Susan Marquez
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
Hillary Klug is a dancing fiddler who wows audiences wherever she goes. Recently, she was in New Orleans, along with Meredith Moon, where they had the crowd at the Cigar Box Guitar Festival on their feet for a power-packed show in the New Orleans Jazz Museum. “The organizer of the festival, Collins Kirby, wanted me to find an accompanist for my gig there. I met Meredith a while back, and we have been wanting to play together.”
As fate would have it, Meredith, the daughter of Gordon Lightfoot, was going to be in New Orleans at the same time. “We hung out and worked on a show,” says Hillary. “She is so incredibly talented. I believe we make each other shine.”
Which came first?
The first question I had for Hillary was which came first – dancing or fiddling? “I have been dancing since I can remember,” says Hillary. “Growing up in Fayetteville, Tennessee, my parents had big mirrors on their closet doors. I loved to dance so much. I had a little CD player, and I would choreograph dances all day.” She listened to mostly pop and mainstream country music.
“No one in my family plays or dances. My first exposure to bluegrass was from the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? When I was eight years old, I joined the clogging team. I saw a girl clogging to a pop song, and I wanted to give it a go.” Hillary loved it.
When she was 13, she had the opportunity to take up the fiddle. “I had a friend who was taking a violin class, and she invited me to join her. We couldn’t afford it, but my mother made it happen, and she said if I quit playing I’d have to pay her back for the fiddle.”
She was teaching fiddle and dancing while she was still in high school. Hillary began going to a local square dance every other week. “I ended up playing fiddle for the square dance, and I also clogged while fiddling to some of the songs.” As she learned about festivals and other artists, a whole new world opened up for her. “I was a street performer for 15 to 20 hours a week, every weekend. That was where I really honed my skills.”
She began busking in 2016 when she was a freshman in college at MTSU. “I was on Broadway in Nashville to go to a fiddle contest, and it was my first time driving downtown. Parking was $20, and I didn’t have it. I decided to play on the sidewalk and I got enough to get my car out of the garage. I didn’t set out to be a busker; it just happened. “I met other street performers and learned from them as well. But I was wondering if anyone would actually pay me to do this.”
“Discovered” Through Social Media
“I began posting videos two and a half years later, and that led to getting inquiries,” recalls Hillary. “I used social media to my advantage, and I was in the right place at the right time to get noticed. I posted on Facebook around the time they wanted more videos to keep people engaged.”
Hillary didn’t set out to build a big brand for herself. She was already a national buck dancing champion. She says her success came organically. Her first viral video just happened to come out the same time her first CD was released. At first, she was amazed that people from around the world – places she’d never been – were ordering her CD.
Her hard work and dedication to her dancing and music have paid off. Success has followed Hillary. Her viral videos opened doors for her to play across the United States and in Europe.
She learned about homemade instruments when her neighbor down the road, Steve Holladay, who makes all sorts of homemade instruments. “He shares them with folks by bringing them to festivals and letting people play them. I got to play some of his incredible homemade cigar box instruments with friends at some festivals and jam sessions,” says Hillary. “We posted some videos, and they went viral. Then we had the idea to film a video for the Cigar Box Guitar Festival using his instruments. We won second place in the competition, and I was invited to perform the following year.”
Hillary’s first two CDs climbed to the number three spot on the Bluegrass Billboard chart. She has conducted residencies at Dollywood and Silver Dollar City, and she was featured in an award-winning independent film, Wild Rose. The movie’s soundtrack includes Hillary’s original music. Her unique dancing-while-fiddling talent has been recognized by Cirque du Soleil for their new show, Songblazers, which combines circus with country music.
Hillary and her long-time beau, Evan Winsor, married in a small ceremony in Connecticut in 2023. The couple resides in Nashville. Also a musician, Evan plays with Grand Ole Opry member Josh Turner and has performed with luminaries such as Rhonda Vincent, Doyle Lawson, and Billy Ray Cyrus, among many others. As for Hillary, her role as new wife has not diminished her ambitions – be on the lookout for her new CD coming out later this year.
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