Brett Ratliff

Brett Ratliff is a 2022 United States Artists Fellow in Traditional Arts. He teaches and performs traditional Appalachian musical styles and repertoire both at home and abroad, and he has contributed to more than a dozen recordings, including for Smithsonian Folkways, June Appal Recordings, The Kentucky Center for Traditional Music, Old Town School of Folk Music, and the Oxford American. Ratliff’s solo records include Cold Icy Mountain (June Appal Recordings, 2008), Gone Boy (Emperor Records, 2017), and Whitesburg, KY (June Appal Recordings, 2021), receiving critical acclaim from such outlets as No Depression, Maverick Country Music Magazine, and The Museum of Americana.

Born and raised in Van Lear, Kentucky, Ratliff has spent his career as a community arts organizer throughout East Kentucky where in 2005 he became the founding President for Kentucky Old Time Music Inc., an all-volunteer nonprofit supporting infrastructure for the practice of folk and traditional arts in the Commonwealth. In 2024, he founded Catfish Alley Folk School, offering various traditional Appalachian instrument classes and programming in downtown Frankfort.

Ratliff serves as the Arts Organization Director for the Kentucky Arts Council and makes his home in Franklin County, Kentucky.