Regular readers of Bluegrass Today know that we always like to highlight the efforts of young bluegrass musicians – and the people who assist them in learning to play. We have a number of stories we would like to share along those lines.
Last year around this time, we ran a piece about Scott Gates and Pacific Ocean Bluegrass, a group of California teens who donated a portion of their CD sales to help fund scholarships for young pickers to attend the California Bluegrass Association’s annual Music Camp.
The camp is held in conjunction with CBA’s Father’s Day Festival each June, where they also host a Kids On Bluegrass event. Players age 3 to 18 are allowed to audition to be part of a group performance at the festival, with coaching and rehearsals held during the year before each show.
Several videos from this year’s Kids On Bluegrass show have been posted on YouTube where you can see a gaggle of eager young pickers joining Rhonda Vincent on stage.
On a related Youth Bluegrass Movement note… ukbluegrass.com has a story up about Miles Apart, a group of five teen aged British bluegrass musicians. They discuss how they all came to discover and learn to play bluegrass music, and what they hope to accomplish in the future.
Our own local paper, The Roanoke Times, has a piece this week about another young bluegrass band, The Cana Ramblers. They are a family band featuring three winners of the Galax Old Fiddlers Convention youth competition.
Read the article by Ralph Berrier on the paper’s web site, and check out some photos and audio of the Ramblers at Galax in a multimedia slide show.
