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Duncan devoted himself to the fiddle, to the near exclusion of all other musical instruments, for the better part of the next decade.

"I pretty much concentrated on fiddle until I was about 24-years-old," Duncan said. "When I moved to Nashville, I started playing the other instruments again because there was so much work for a multi-instrumentalist, so I was glad to be able to do that. It also makes things more interesting for me as a musician, because when I hear a song in the studio, I may hear a mandolin part in my head that would really work, but I still play fiddle about 95 percent of the time."


Duncan has worked steadily as a session musician since the early 1980s. At the time he was playing with Monroe, and on some of producer Emory Gordy's projects. Work quickly followed with other producers including Tony Brown, Richard Bennett and Jimmy Bowen. Duncan also found work on demo sessions and is fond of playing on demos.

"When you play on a song demo, a lot of times the things that you play will be repeated on the actual album track. The producer and the singers hear the demos, and tend to identify the fiddle licks with the song and just keep them in there when they make the record," he said.

Duncan performed on the road with The Kendalls, Jim & Jesse, The Osborne Brothers, Reba McEntire and Mark Knopfler, but he prefers the recording studio to life on the road.

"I love studio work," he said. "The crafting of the parts, and the discovery of it. Duncan works four or five days each week, on average, playing about 400 sessions a year.

Duncan has stopped touring completely with the exception of dates with Scruggs, which he does out of his deep respect and admiration for the banjo master.

"Earl Scruggs is just the way you'd hope your musical hero would be if you got to meet them. He's such a great example of how to grow as a musician. From his early work with Monroe, to his time with Lester Flatt, to the Earl Scruggs Revue in the '70s, he was always growing and changing."

Scruggs is as effusive in his praise for Duncan.

"I've been in this business since 1945 and Glen is beyond a doubt one of the best fiddle players I've ever played with or even heard play," said Scruggs. "There's two things I won't go on the road without - ? a credit card and Glen Duncan."

Until last year, Duncan was a part of the bluegrass band Rock County. While he loved playing with his band mates and "recapturing his youth" by playing festivals, being a member of a working band didn't dovetail well with his studio schedule.

"Being in a band takes you away from the core of what a musician does, playing music," Duncan said. "In a band it's 80 percent traveling or doing other stuff and 20 percent playing the fiddle, which is why I prefer the studio."

Duncan has sage advice for anyone who'd wish to follow in his footsteps as a studio musician.

"Be as musically broad as you can, learn as much as you can," he said. "And try to be near people who play the way you'd like to play, so you can watch and learn and always be building upon a successful model."