Fiddle me this

Andy Carlson's concert at The Melting Point on March 19 will be about more than just the release of a new album.

It will be a homecoming and family reunion for the Athens native who has taken his fiddle across the country.

He's built a music education empire at the small Ohio university where he teaches. He's also built a reputation as being one of the best classical and bluegrass players around.

Next Friday, The Melting Point crowd will get a taste of both Carlson's classical training and his bluegrass upbringing. But it's his own brand of bluegrass, he says, that he is most known for.

"We cover some traditional Appalachia tunes, but we do a lot of progressive bluegrass, too," Carlson said. "It's mostly instrumental, but we have vocals on songs, too."

Carlson started playing fiddle at his grandfather's encouragement when he was 5. He won the Georgia State Champion Fiddler award twice and ended up recording string arrangements with several Athens bands, including R.E.M.

"Most of what I was doing, I was recording tracks for other people," he said. "I ultimately started making my own music."

While mastering the fiddle, he also picked up the classical side of the violin. He earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Georgia and started teaching the craft after getting his doctorate at the University of Iowa. He's been at Denison University in Ohio for 11 years now, enough time to lobby for a bluegrass music program. In addition to teaching violin and conducting the school's chamber orchestra, he also created and directs a bluegrass ensemble. The college

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