Madeline Dierauf grew up watching the women in church playing the fiddle and singing. Now she does the same in her bluegrass band, The Wilder Flower.
She’s a Brevard native who is wrapping up her time at Davidson College after earning one of the most competitive scholarships in the world.
This fall, she’ll travel to the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. There, she plans to study how folk music in England shaped the music she grew up listening to – and still plays.
BPR’s Gerard Albert III spoke with Dierauf about the links between the two, what she hopes to learn abroad, and how her upbringing in Western North Carolina shaped her music.
You can listen to their conversation – which has been edited for time and clarity – by clicking the LISTEN button below the headline.
