BY KIM McKINNEY

Eddie Ray Buzzini fell in love with music when was about six years old.

That’s when he heard Flatt & Scruggs’ “Shuckin’ the Corn” on an iPod his grandfather gave him during a visit to Tennessee.

On the ride home, after listening to the song over and over, Eddie Ray begged his mother for a banjo. She chalked the request up to a passing fancy and ignored the request.

Three years later Eddie Ray was still asking for a banjo.

His mom, Yvonne, realized this was no whim.

Yvonne asked her father if he could help her find a cheap banjo to see if his interest would continue. Her father said, “I’ve got one. He can borrow it. Let him take it and see if he is interested in it.”

The morning after getting his hands on that instrument, Eddie Ray was up at 6 a.m., watching Banjo 101 videos on YouTube. That marked the beginning of an early morning school day habit.

After about a month or two, Yvonne was convinced that her son was serious – and so was she.

“I cannot stand to hear this another minute,” she remembered. “We have got to get him a teacher.”

Someone at Richard’s Coffee Shop in Mooresville provided the phone number of banjo teacher Bill Griffie, who lives in Charlotte.

Griffie was a bit gruff but finally said, “I’ll give him one or two lessons and we’ll see how he does,” Yvonne said.

Eddie Ray did well with the lessons, and his interest and talent continued to grow.

In 2022 he won the Youth Bluegrass Guitar competition at the Galax Fiddler’s Convention. He also placed second in the overall Bluegrass Banjo competition and his band, Southband 77, won best youth band. He had already won the Youth Bluegrass Banjo competition at the convention in 2021 and 2019.

Also, in 2022 he released his first album, “Eddie Ray.” He included some standards in his album along with some of his own music. He’s been writing music since he was in fourth grade, when he wrote a song based on the book “Where the Red Fern Grows.”

Eddie Ray played at Merlefest this year on the Little Picker’s stage with Southband 77 and on the Cabin stage with Andy May during his Acoustic Kids segment. He played “Cash Don’t Sleep,” one of the original songs from his album. That song is loosely based on an experience of some immigrant neighbors whose family members were victims of a cartel after coming to the U.S.

That’s quite a resume for the rising sophomore at Mooresville High School, where he plays trumpet in the band.

As he looks to the future, Eddie Ray hopes he can combine traditional bluegrass with lyrics that are relevant to the contemporary world.

“I guess looking forward my main goal is to bring bluegrass into this generation and the next and make it relatable to people nowadays – make it mainstream,” he said. “You can rebrand it differently but keep the same music and musical values, and I feel people would appreciate it more.

“Everybody wants something different.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in the June edition of “IFN Monthly.”