Andy Statman is a Jewish American musicia. He is a noted Klezmer clarinetist and bluegrass/newgrass mandolinist. Andy Statman first gained acclaim as a mandolinist in pioneering bluegrass bands Country Cookin' and Breakfast Special. Statman, a Jew, began to be of the mind that bluegrass was not his music. He turned to Klezmer music, traditional Jewish folk music. Now playing clarinet, he recorded various Klezmer albums that were influential in the Klezmer revival that began in the late 1970s. In the 1990s, he began playing Chassidic melodies, fusing bluegrass, Klezmer, and jazz along the way.