The Bluegrass Blog always pays special attention where young pickers are concerned. The education and nurturing of our next generation of bluegrass artists is a matter of great concern to many formerly young people such as myself who care deeply about the future of this music.

So it is always a treat to find out about talented young pickers like Green on the Vyne, a Nashville-based quintet of teenaged grassers. Their debut CD, Ready For The Pickin’, was released a few weeks back, showing that these youngsters have learned quite a bit about music – plus performing and recording – at such a tender age.

Here’s a video introduction to the band…

The eldest member of the group is 16 years old, but they have all spent quite some time exposed to and studying bluegrass. They have had the great good fortune of having Deanie Richardson as a mentor, something that is often missing when talented young artists take a shot in the professional music world. Deanie was a member of The New Coon Creek Girls in the mid-1990s, along with Dale Ann Bradley, and has worked in Nashville with Patty Loveless, Vince Gill and many other country acts, returning to bluegrass from time to time as well.

Deanie explains how the band came together…

I was part owner in a music school (The Main Stage in Springfield, TN) and three of these band members, Sydni Perry, Ty Jackson and Emily Dean, were students of mine. I had been working with them individually for a while on their various instruments and singing, but often wondered what it would sound like – of if they would even know what to do – if I put them together in a trio setting.

It was amazing. I could not believe what I was hearing. They all three heard parts and the blend of them together was so intense; it brought me to tears. At this point they were only 12 and 13 years old. I was so in awe of how they knew instantly what to do with these parts….even though they hadn’t spent a lot of time around bluegrass music. They just instantly heard the natural bends and twist.

Then we added the most talented Casey Campbell, son of the late, great Jimmy Campbell. I have known Casey since birth. His mother Marcia is a lifelong friend of mine and my family’s. Casey just fit right in and added the traditional mandolin style that I was hearing with these vocals. He is such a tasteful old soul kind of player. (more…)