Judges

Ed Carnes

     Ed Carnes was born and grew up in Leitchfield, Kentucky, and has been playing the fiddle as a hobby since 1977. He began playing as a charter member of the Grayson County school orchestra and learned to play fiddle with several other students who also became champion fiddlers.

     Fiddling is strictly a hobby for Ed. He was worked for companies such as EDS, Perot Systems, NCR and Dell and currently owns his own Technology Company, Carnes Group LLC (www.carnesgroup.com) based in Franklin, TN. These jobs have taken him from KY, to IN, to TX, to OH, to England, back to OH, and now to TN - where he says he will stay put for a while.

     Along the way, Ed has won fiddle championships in 5 states - KY, IN, TN, AL, OH , and placed as high as Runner-Up in the Grand Master Fiddler Championship. He has won numerous other championships, such as the Mid-America Championship (5 times), Empire State Championship, Western KY Championship and many others. Ed has fiddled all over the US, and also in Canada. An accomplished and certified fiddle judge, Ed has judged the KY, TN, and State Championship several times, the U.S. National Contest in Weiser several times, ID, the Western Open Contest in Redding, CA, and many other contests. Ed has two solo recordings of his music available, and has been featured on several collections. Ed is also one of the organizers of the Grand Master Fiddler Championship competition, the most prestigious fiddling competition in the world, and serves on its Board of Directors.

     Ed holds a BS degree from Western Kentucky University and a MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is married to Teresa and has two sons, Jared and Jason.