It has frequently commented that what bluegrass music really needs is more romantic appeal, or something to attract young women to the shows. Young men readily follow wherever young women go, as the lessons from the marketing of Elvis Presley in the 1950s and ’60s clearly showed. Rock and country music have consistently used this formula, more recently with both male and female artists, but desperately sad and tragic songs from the bluegrass world haven’t set the younger generation on fire quite the same way.
Enter Ettore Buzzini, an 18-year-old banjo picker in North Carolina whose Mediterranean good looks, long dark hair, and cross-genre musical style are winning him fans across the bluegrass, folk, and Americana scenes. It seems the young ladies have noticed, making him something of a banjo heartthrob.
Growing up in an Italian-speaking region in Switzerland, he developed a love for European choral and classical music. When his grandfather from east Tennessee introduced him to Flatt & Scruggs at age six, Ettore badgered his parents for three years until they got him a banjo. Also a fine flatpicker, he began chalking up wins at contests and conventions near his home as a young teen.
Now an official adult, Buzzini is pursuing a career in music, signed with Patuxent Records whose Tom Mindte has recorded and produced a new album, Blue Blue Blue.
A new single from the upcoming project is available this week, one titled Flowers, which Ettore says uses a melody he first heard in Franz Liszt’s piano work Réminiscences de Norma. Not many bluegrass artists will make that claim.
Buzzini sings and plays the five on the track, which fits squarely in the bluegrass tradition, regardless of any influences that may have informed it. Support comes from Will Hart on guitar and mandolin, Patrick McAvinue on fiddle, and Mark Schatz on bass. Shannon Bielski and Tom Mindte sing harmony.
Check it out.
Flowers is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
