Chip "Dr. Horse-Hair" Cohen


 

Fiddler and guitarist Chip Cohen first broke into show business as a ventriloquist. A child prodigy, he appeared on both the Tonight Show and the Ed Sullivan show before his sixth birthday. At age nine, disillusioned with ventriloquism and its accompanying lifestyle, he quit to pursue his first love, roller derby. Twelve years later, at the peak of a brilliant career, he lost three toes to frostbite while panning for gold in the Yukon, never to skate again. He reluctantly returned to ventriloquism and began touring with Milli Vanilli. Between shows he taught himself to play the fiddle, and soon left Milli Vanilli to join Jim and Van Morrison's short-lived band, the Van Doors. He went on to record with George Strait and Marvin Gaye on their classic album, "Strait and Gaye".


      After working for years as a sideman, Cohen finally realized his true musical vision when he struck out with his own band, Barney Rubble and the Cosmic Cavemen. The Cavemen, later to achieve intergalactic prominence under the more commercially palatable name Philip Space and the Celestial Meatballs, pioneered the sound which has come to be known as neo-classic post-modern old-time new-age klezmer-cajun-surf-punk-grass.

     Chip currently resides in Eugene, Oregon with his three wives and eleven children. In his spare time he collects celebrities' toothpicks and raises weasels.
 
 

      But seriously, folks... Chip Cohen has been fiddling for audiences across the United States since the 1970s. He has performed with artists including the Holy Modal Rounders, the Johnson Mountain Boys, Ferlin Huskey, and Michelle Shocked..

     After taking violin lessons as a youth in Maryland he travelled to the Great Smokey Mountains, immersing himself in bluegrass and old-time fiddling. He has since added a wide variety of musical styles to his repertoire, including Celtic, Cajun, and Klezmer.

    An Oregonian since 1984, Chip currently lives in Eugene. He teaches fiddle at Lane Community College. He travels the Northwest with the Klezmonauts and the Conjugal Visitors, and performs as a soloist on fiddle and classical guitar. The Visitors were voted best acoustic band in the 2008-2009 Eugene Weekly readers poll.

    Chip has recorded with numerous groups. He has one solo CD, "Horsehair", which was hailed by the Eugene Weekly as a "musical masterpiece".

Discography

Chip Cohen, "Horsehair"
Bayou Cadillac, "Mixed Bag"
The Klezmonauts, self-titled
Sharon Rogers and Chip Cohen, "Old Time Music"
Cascadia Folk Quartet, self-titled
Holy Modal Rounders, "Are They Gone Yet?"
Crawdads of Pure Love, self-titled
Crawdads of Pure Love, "Electric"
Epicenter Stringband, "Harmonic Tremors"
Conjugal Visitors, "Satchel's Rag"

To hear Chip's music, go to Chip's "myspace":
http://www.myspace.com/chipdrhorsehaircohen

Page last revised, Feb 19, 2010


 
 

You can contact Chip at:
172 N. Grand St.
Eugene, Or. 97402
(541)484-9818


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