Junior Appalachian Musicians Archives

JAM and YAM youngsters at the 2024 Earl Scruggs Music Festival

The PacJAM Ramblers at the 2024 Earl Scruggs Music Festival – photo © G. Nicholas Hancock

For the third year in a row, kids and parents involved with the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) and the Young Appalachian Musicians (YAM) programs enjoyed the musical offerings and personal participation in the 2024 Earl Scruggs Music Festival (ESMF). The festival is held during Labor Day weekend at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, NC, and featured more than 30 bluegrass and Americana music artists and groups.

The festival, which is a partnership with the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC and public radio station WNCW-FM in Spindale, NC, “endeavors to bring the best of bluegrass, Americana, and roots music together with fans who have a true appreciation for the music,” according to Sam Blumenthal, board member of ESMF.

Part of that goal is to involve the younger generation of bluegrass, old-time, and roots musicians with each running of the event.

Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc., as the parent organization for all JAM and YAM programs, partnered with the Tryon Fine Arts Center and the Earl Scruggs Music Festival to offer free admission for JAM kids and one parent from the 50 plus JAM programs across the Appalachian region of South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, and Virginia. The JAM, Inc. program and the Tryon Fine Arts Center also provided meals for all JAM and YAM participants and attendees.

JAM, Inc. also provided ten workshops for the youngsters, including those hosted by festival headliners like Chris Jones, Wyatt Ellis, Luke Morris from ShadowGrass, Danielle Yother from The Wilder Flower, and Billy Cardine from Tanasi.

The number of JAM/YAM students exceeded last year’s attendance (65), with a total of 83 students (25 youngsters aged 13 and up, and 58 youngsters aged 12 and under), according to Brett Morris, executive director of JAM, Inc.

Four JAM/YAM bands represented their organizations and regions on the Foggy Mountain Stage at the festival on both Friday and Saturday.

The Storytimers, a bluegrass sister band from the foothills of North Carolina, features Anna, Ella, and Lyla Tokar. They come from a long line of bluegrass and mountain musicians, and brought both old and new songs to their performance on Friday with guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and sister sibling harmonies.

The PacJAM Ramblers from the Tryon, NC area, consisted of six of the top young musicians in the PacJAM branch of JAM. Sarah Doan played primary fiddle, Phoebe Aldrich played second fiddle, Emmalynn Rathbone was on guitar, Jacob Thiry played mandolin, Adelaide Thiry played banjo, and Eli Aldrich played bass.

The Biscuit Eaters are a family band out of Lowgap, NC. The five youngsters in the group ranging in age from six to fifteen are members of the Elkin, NC JAM program. Brothers Samuel, Josiah, and Silas are multi-instrumentalists who switch off on banjo, fiddle, and mandolin. Sister Maggie plays guitar and sings while younger sister Molly plays fiddle and does flatfoot dancing.

Creekwater Collective is a dynamic group of young award-winning bluegrass musicians from upstate South Carolina. JonPaul Sepulveda is 15 and plays guitar and sings lead and harmony vocals. Ayden Chappell is 15 and holds down the banjo position. Lilly Anne Sverlinga, 14, is also a guitarist and vocalist. Judson Stone is 13 and plays mandolin and sings both lead and tenor. Judson, Ayden, and Lilly Anne got their start in the YAM program in Pickens County, SC.

“The third year of our JAM Kids partnership with the Earl Scruggs Music Festival has been beyond successful in connecting young musicians and their families with bluegrass, old-time, and roots music,” said Brett Morris, executive director of JAM, Inc.

“This opportunity further reinforces what it means to be a part of a special music community,” she added.

JAM Kids share stages at IBMA Bluegrass Live! 2023

Oscar Caudill with Falling Timber at IBMA Bluegrass Live! – photo © G. Nicholas Hancock

The Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program was well represented last weekend during the IBMA Bluegrass Live! street festival in downtown Raleigh, NC. JAM executive director Brett Morris said 50 JAM kids in eight bands came from various parts of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina to perform on the various IBMA stages.

Here is a gallery G. Nicholas Hancock shot of the JAM bands.

JAM and Earl Scruggs Music Festival form partnership to promote bluegrass to kids

The Clover Pickers at the 2023 Earl Scruggs Music Festival – photo © G. Nicholas Hancock

From its inception and inaugural Labor Day weekend event in 2022, The Earl Scruggs Music Festival and the Tryon International Equestrian Center located in Mill Spring, NC came together to offer the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) organization the opportunity to integrate JAM kids and their families with bluegrass and roots music at the festival.

The Tryon Fine Arts Center with a grant from South Arts in These Mountains program, invited JAM students and their families from the 50+ JAM programs across the Appalachian region in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia to attend the festival for free. The 2022 event hosted 65 JAM kids.

Ms. Brett Morris, executive director of the JAM, Inc., said, “JAM kids got access to the special activities and workshops at the festival as well. This past Labor Day weekend there was a meet-and-greet with Jerry Douglas, a fiddle workshop with Kimber Ludiker (fiddle player with Della Mae), jam sessions for the kids, a music business workshop for older students pursuing music as a career or business, and a workshop led by East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass Pride Band.”

“This type of partnership lays an important foundation for kids and their families to create a lifelong relationship not only with traditional music, but with the festival. It also provides so many with an accessible way to attend, as many would not otherwise have the ability,” Morris said.

The grant from South Arts also helped provide an historical learning component where kids investigated the life of Earl Scruggs and other legendary regional musicians such as DeWitt “Snuffy” Jenkins and Nina Simone, Morris said.

This year’s JAM integration was also supported by the IBMA Foundation which helped provide meals for kids and families throughout the weekend. Over 70 kids attended this year.

ESMF and TIEC and JAM organized, and JAM also hosted, a unique ESMF festival experience, a charity golf tournament at Cleghorn Golf and Sports Club in nearby Rutherfordton. Festival artists Darin & Brooke Aldridge helped with this event by participating as players. Morris said 100% of the golf tournament proceeds go to JAM.

“We hope to continue this tournament in the future and have more festival performers highlighted in this unique Friday morning fun,” Morris said.

Bayla Davis, 15, of the band Newfound Gap, said, “We had a great time playing at the Earl Scruggs Music Festival. I can’t think of a better place than the TIEC to have a festival. Everyone was very kind, and everything was conveniently located and very clean and very family friendly. I appreciate that the festival included many local traditional musicians like Zoe & Cloyd, Pretty Little Goat, Laura Boosinger, and Josh Goforth.”

“I also really appreciated that they allowed The Fine-Tuned Project artists to participate on the Foggy Mountain Stage. It meant a lot to represent the Junior Appalachian Musicians Program because its mission to preserve traditional music and dance is important. Diversity and inclusion are essential, and it would be awesome to see that reflected even more in next year’s lineup. Despite sound system issues, Jake Blount’s set was incredible. All in all, the entire weekend was amazing,” Davis added.