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Bluegrass virtuosity from ... New Jersey?

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    (Music)
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    Robbie Mizzone: Thank you.
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    Tommy Mizzone: Thank you very much.
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    We're so excited to be here. It's such an honor for us.
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    Like he said, we're three brothers from New Jersey --
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    you know, the bluegrass capital of the world.
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    (Laughter)
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    We discovered bluegrass a few years ago,
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    and we fell in love with it. We hope you guys will too.
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    This next song is an original we wrote called "Timelapse,"
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    and it will probably live up to its name.
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    (Tuning)
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    (Music)
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    (Applause)
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    TM: Thank you very much.
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    RM: I'm just going to take a second to introduce the band.
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    On guitar is my 15-year-old brother Tommy.
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    (Applause)
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    On banjo is 10-year-old Jonny.
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    (Applause) He's also our brother.
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    And I'm Robbie, and I'm 14, and I play the fiddle.
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    (Applause)
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    As you can see, we decided to make it hard on ourselves,
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    and we chose to play three songs
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    in three different keys.
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    Yeah. I'm also going to explain, a lot of people want to know
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    where we got the name Sleepy Man Banjo Boys from.
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    So it started when Jonny was little,
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    and he first started the banjo, he would play on his back
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    with his eyes closed,
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    and we'd say it looked like he was sleeping.
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    So you can probably piece the rest together.
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    TM: We can't really figure out the reason for this.
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    It might have been that it weighs about a million pounds.
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    (Music)
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    (Applause)
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    (Music)
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    TM: Thank you very much.
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    RM: Thank you.
Title:
Bluegrass virtuosity from ... New Jersey?
Speaker:
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys
Description:

All under the age of 16, brothers Jonny, Robbie and Tommy Mizzone are from New Jersey, a US state that's better known for the rock of Bruce Springsteen than the bluegrass of Earl Scruggs. Nonetheless, the siblings began performing bluegrass covers, as well as their own compositions, at a young age. Here, they play three dazzling songs in three different keys, passing the lead back and forth from fiddle to banjo to guitar.
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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
08:47

English subtitles

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