Alex Genova

Alex Genova plays banjo in the band Jason Carter put together after leaving the Del McCoury Band. Before that he spent six years in Fireside Collective, which is where Trevor first heard him.

Piano, guitar, then the banjo

Alex grew up in Wisconsin, in Waunakee. His grandparents lived next door when he was small, and his grandmother gave him piano lessons from a very young age. It did not stick then. As an adult he has gone back to it and is teaching himself.

The first instrument that took hold was a guitar he found in his grandparents' closet. It had belonged to his mother. He took lessons and played electric guitar in school bands and rock bands through middle school.

Around the end of middle school he found jam bands: Phish, the Grateful Dead, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. That led to Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth and Hot Buttered Rum. At the same time he joined the school orchestra and took violin lessons. His teacher also taught fiddle and burned him CDs of roots music, Crooked Still and Bruce Molsky among them.

Fiddle looked hard. Banjo looked closer to what he already knew.

"I thought that banjo might be easier to learn for me than fiddle, since I had a guitar background. A little more similar. No bow involved."

Berklee, the road, and Johnson City

He started banjo in high school and went to Berklee College of Music for a year while he was still a beginner. He learned a lot and met players who are now familiar names, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and Sierra Hull among them. Around 2010, that was.

After Berklee he took time off, played with bands around Wisconsin, and went back to school to start a jazz guitar degree at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point. Then a Seattle band, the Blackberry Bushes Stringband, hired him. He left school again and toured with them for close to two years.

Next came East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, where he earned a degree in bluegrass. In class he met Joe Cicero, the guitarist in Fireside Collective. Alex had already crossed paths with the band once, on a shared bill in Fort Collins, Colorado, during his Blackberry Bushes days. One summer Joe called. The band was looking for a fifth member and wanted him to come down and play some shows around North Carolina. That was the audition.

Six years with Fireside Collective

Alex played banjo with the Asheville band from 2017 to October 2023. His last show with them was at CaveFest, at The Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee. Trevor was in the crowd.

RockyGrass in Lyons, Colorado, holds a special place. Alex went there for years, first for the band contest and then for the banjo contest, which he won. Later he came back with Fireside Collective as a main stage act, one of the high points of his time in the band.

The road had its moments. One night at three in the morning the band pulled into the driveway of a friend who had left a door open for them. It was the wrong house. An angry neighbor in pajamas came out to ask what they were doing. They backed the van out, found the right house next door, and left their host a pile of CDs, merch and a poster by way of apology. Another time a slow leak and a snowstorm nearly cost Alex and Joe Cicero a flight out of Denver. They made it, on a nearly flat tire.

After Fireside, Alex finished what he had started almost ten years earlier. He earned a master's degree in jazz guitar at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

The call from Jason Carter

In the summer of 2025, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes asked him to fill in on some dates with her new solo band. Jason Carter called shortly after. Jason had left the Del McCoury Band and the Travelin' McCourys and was building his own group, and he did not have a banjo player yet. Alex has played with him ever since. It is now his full-time gig.

The band is new enough that it has not recorded together yet, though Alex expects that to change. What he likes most so far is the company. Jason came up among the first generation of bluegrass players, and he has stories about all of them.

"Him and Bronwyn both are great band leaders, and make sure everybody's as comfortable as possible when we're spending that much time on the road."

At some of Jason's Nashville residency shows, Michael Cleveland sat in for the second set. Alex calls it a pinch-me moment and admits he still watches the videos.

"Playing banjo behind Jason and Michael Cleveland twin fiddling, that's like a dream come true for any banjo player."

Another highlight: a run of shows with Bryan McDowell, Jacob Jolliff, Mark Schatz and Jake Stargel, all players he calls heroes. He has not played the Ryman or the Grand Ole Opry yet. He would like to.

Back at ETSU

Alex lives in East Nashville and drives to Johnson City once a week to teach at ETSU. He gives one-on-one banjo lessons, leads two student bands that change from semester to semester, and teaches an online American roots music class that he especially enjoys. He has also worked the school's summer bluegrass camp.

What's next

For years he has talked about making his own album. He has a stack of instrumental tunes and is working on arrangements. The open questions are all his own: all instrumental or some vocals, hired singers or his own voice.

"I'm nitpicky about it, and can never make up my mind on exactly how I want it to sound."