This article on Hancock County, TN siblings Harlen, Lindy and Lemuel Gladson, who are among the many young bluegrass acts invited to perform during next week’s World of Bluegrass convention in Chattanooga, TN, is a contribution from Dan Stanton. He met the Gladston family through the Hancock County JAM (Junior Appalachian Musicians) program they run, where his granddaughter, Addie, is one of their students.
When Harlen, Lindy and Lemuel Gladson travel from Hancock County, TN, to IBMA World of Bluegrass in Chattanooga this month, they’ll be going there to perform.
But listen to the three siblings talk about it, and the time they spend off the stage may matter nearly as much.
They talk about meeting other young musicians, hearing artists they admire, finding people to pick with, joining late-night jam sessions, and becoming part of a larger community built around the music they have grown up playing at home.
The siblings perform together as the Gladson Trio, and were selected following an audition for an opportunity at World of Bluegrass, the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual gathering of musicians, industry professionals and bluegrass audiences.
For the three young musicians, the invitation represents another step for a sibling group developing an identity of its own while remaining firmly connected to the Gladson Family Band in which they were raised.
The Gladson Trio is scheduled to perform Friday, October 23, at 6:15 p.m. on the Mountain Stage, inside the Chattanooga Convention Center.
Their parents, Todd and Juliet Gladson, will join them for two additional performances as the Gladson Family Band — Friday, October 23, from 3:30 to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 24, from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., both on the Virginia Stage.
The weekend will show two sides of the same musical family: five Gladsons performing together, and three siblings stepping onto an IBMA stage in their own right.
More than a stage
For Harlen Gladson, who plays banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and sings, one of the remarkable things about bluegrass is how little distance there can be between the musicians someone listens to on a recording, and the people sitting together playing music. At a gathering like IBMA, an artist heard on the radio or Spotify may later be someone standing beside you in a jam session.
Harlen sees something important in that accessibility. Beneath the recordings, festivals, and recognizable names, he describes a musical world made up largely of ordinary people brought together by a love of the music.
That philosophy isn’t new for him.
In an earlier interview with Yonder Radio, Harlen described a community of musicians as being about more than performing. Musicians spend time together, learn from one another, play music passed down through generations and share the stories behind what they play. Music, he said, becomes “a way of life.”
IBMA offers the Trio an opportunity to participate in that community on a much larger scale.
Harlen said performing is part of it, but so is learning to “put yourself out there” — meeting people, talking with musicians, shaking hands, and becoming involved in the wider bluegrass world. Past IBMA experiences have already given him memorable encounters, including meeting musicians such as Billy Strings, Doyle Lawson, and Paul Williams.
This year, he’s looking forward to seeing who might be there — and who he might get to play music with.
Three siblings, three perspectives
For Lindy (fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and vocals), much of the excitement is about other young musicians.
“I’m most excited about being able to play with other people and other kids my age,” she said, “and getting to be out and see all the other people who play.”
She’s also hoping for the chance to see Sierra Ferrell.
But when Lindy talks about performing specifically as the Gladson Trio, she quickly comes back to her brothers. “I love being able to go out there and do something with my family, and experience it with my brothers,” she said.
Performing as siblings lets them show an audience that they can make music together and enjoy themselves.
For Lemuel, on mandolin, guitar, fiddle and vocals, the excitement of IBMA begins with the people.
“My favorite thing about IBMA is hanging out with my friends and getting involved with people and meeting a lot of new people,” he said.
But there’s something else he loves about the gathering: the chance to meet musicians he has known through their music and reputations. “You get to see all the legends that you’ve heard about, and you just get to meet them. And they’re all really nice, and it’s awesome to be with them.”
This will be Lemuel’s second year attending IBMA, but this time carries a particular excitement. “And to get to play as the Gladson Trio is so awesome. I’m so happy to do that. It’s just amazing that I get such an opportunity.”
His enthusiasm reflects something that runs through all three siblings’ interviews: the chance to perform is exciting, but so is being welcomed into a community of musicians they’ve grown up listening to and learning from.
Together, Harlen, Lindy and Lemuel are multi-instrumentalists and singers who move among banjo, fiddle, mandolin and guitar. They have grown up surrounded by bluegrass, old-time and gospel music and by a family in which playing music is part of everyday life.
Their musical education hasn’t happened only on a stage. It has happened at home, at festivals and fiddlers’ conventions, in community programs, in jam sessions, and while playing beside musicians both older and younger than themselves.
Peers and heroes
Their mother, Juliet Gladson, says that is one reason the World of Bluegrass experience matters beyond a scheduled performance. It gives the young musicians time with their peers — not simply to perform, but to spend time together, listen and play.
“They jam late into the night,” Juliet said, describing the chance to enjoy “a lot of different musicians passing through, new and old ones.”
Their father, Todd Gladson, sees something larger happening in that interaction. World of Bluegrass puts his children in contact with musicians their own age as well as established performers they admire. It gives them an opportunity to participate “not only with children that are their peers, but also in the same environment with people that are their heroes,” Todd said.
For him, that connection between generations reaches to the heart of the music itself.
“The whole music is all about linking up the people who have made a name for themselves, or who have many years invested in music, sharing it with the youth,” he said.
The young musicians, in turn, get to perform, listen and discover where they fit into that continuing tradition.
Todd hopes experiences such as this help bridge the generations and allow young musicians to feel “like they have a future in bluegrass music.”
From Hancock County to Chattanooga
The Gladson Trio’s appearance at World of Bluegrass is part of a musical path that has increasingly taken the siblings beyond their home in Hancock County.
The Trio has performed at events including the Earl Scruggs Music Festival and Allegheny Echoes, while Harlen, Lindy and Lemuel continue to perform extensively alongside Todd and Juliet as the Gladson Family Band.
The family and its individual members have also earned recognition at regional fiddlers conventions and traditional-music competitions.
Back home, their connection to traditional music includes Hancock County JAM, where the Gladsons have helped younger musicians begin learning the same instruments and traditions that shaped their own family.
But Chattanooga isn’t simply another entry on a growing performance résumé. For three siblings still finding out where music may take them, it is an opportunity to walk into a much larger musical community under a name of their own. They’ll arrive carrying instruments, songs learned and shared at home, and years of experience playing beside their family.
Then they’ll walk off the stage and back into a gathering filled with other young musicians, veteran performers and people they have yet to meet.
Some will be peers. Some will be heroes.
And before the weekend is over, some may simply become people they’ve played music with.
