Younger generation embracing bluegrass
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- When you think of bluegrass, the names Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Jerry Garcia, and Josh Graves may come to mind.
They're a group of men who really made bluegrass what it is today, but now it's the kids taking the music they made famous into the next generation.
On a recent Sunday afternoon in North Hills, kids of various ages gathered in a small circle with strangers. The only thing they really know about each other is they enjoy playing instruments and have a love of bluegrass music. Part of the scene is they have to fight their way into an adult crowd.
"They kind of look at you funny because they don't want a kid in there because they think it is going to mess everyone up so I get that feeling a lot," said Garrett Newton.
Newton is just 15 years old, but you'd never know if you close your eyes and listen to him play. You get lost in the music and he said that's the feeling he gets whenever his fingers hit the strings.
"There is a feeling like no other like you're connected to something," he said.
Twelve-year-old Eliza Meyer has the same passion when she plays her fiddle. She actually took classes to learn how to work her way into jams with the older crowd.
"I love being a young person involved with bluegrass. I could not imagine doing anything but bluegrass," she said.
Both kids spend a majority of their free time either on stage with their instruments or anywhere they can play them. They both agree that more children their age are giving bluegrass a try knowing it is a dying art and hoping to help keep it alive well into the future.
