Owen Kennedy and Benjamin Foss are a Maine-based trad duo who deliver high energy tunes in the Celtic tradition, featuring music from Appalachia to Scandinavia. Kennedy and Foss play traditional New England favorites, energetic dance tunes on guitar and fiddle, tastefully accompanied songs, and close harmony twin fiddling. Find them on YouTube.
Summer 2026 events coming soon!
Maine musician Owen Kennedy is an award-winning fiddler rooted in the Maine Maritime and Scottish traditions. After two years splitting time between Maine and Cape Breton to study Gaelic language, culture, and music at Beinn Mhàbu, Owen is back home in Maine. Benjamin Foss is a musician and luthier based in Brooks, Maine. Benjamin grew up in southern New England attending and playing for contra dances and building fiddles and banjos. Filtered through Owen’s famously precise fiddle style supported by Benjamin’s exciting and harmonically-nuanced guitar playing, Owen and Benjamin’s music reflects their experience and accolades within their various traditions while respectfully playing around the edges of convention.
Benjamin and Owen played at the Maine Celtic Celebration, in Searsport and Dexter, and for several dances in 2025. Past performances also include an official showcase at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance conference, sets at Waldo Fiddle Fest, the Windjammer Festival, at the Farnsworth in Rockland and at Maine Fiddle Camp.
Benjamin Foss is a musician and luthier based in Brooks, Maine. Benjamin grew up in southern New England attending and playing for contra dances and building fiddles and banjos out of everything he could find. He is passionate about continuing the traditions of New England tunes, songs and dances and is always excited to share tunes and knowledge with the people around him. Benjamin plays in several contra dance combinations on fiddle, guitar, tenor banjo, and on rare occasions can be found calling dances. Benjamin has taught at many music camps and weekends and also teaches private lessons, both in person and online. When he’s not playing, he’s building and restoring guitars, banjos and mandolins in Brooks. His solo album, The Old Favorite, a collection of favorite old tunes in the New England contra dance tradition, includes Benjamin on fiddle, guitar, tenor banjo, mandolin, and button accordion, and is available on Bandcamp. For more information on Benjamin, go to www.benjaminfoss.com.
Maine musician Owen Kennedy is an award-winning fiddler rooted in the Maine Maritime and Scottish traditions. Owen's love of traditional music and enthusiasm for performing has taken him all over New England, up to Nova Scotia, and over to Scotland and Shetland, where he has played with the Pineland Fiddlers and the Young Tradition Vermont Touring Group and in duos with Benjamin Foss, Ethan Tischler, and Seán Heely. Owen was selected for the 2025 Scottish Performing Arts Classic, is the 2022 New England Regional Open Scottish Fiddle Champion, and the 2021 Junior US National Scottish Fiddle Champion. His debut album "Oh When: Now" was recorded with Owen Marshall and released in 2023. To keep in touch with Owen, visit www.fiddlerokennedy.com or find him on social media @fiddlerokennedy.
