Bluegrass virtuosity from ... New Jersey?

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.

(Music)

(Applause)

(Music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)

Robbie Mizzone: Thank you.

Tommy Mizzone: Thank you very much.

We're so excited to be here.
It's such an honor.

Like he said, we're
three brothers from New Jersey --

you know, the bluegrass
capital of the world.

(Laughter)

We discovered bluegrass a few years ago,

and we fell in love with it.

We hope you guys will too.

This next song is an original
we wrote called "Time Lapse,"

and it will probably live up to its name.

(Tuning)

(Music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)

TM: Thank you very much.

RM: I'm just going to take
a second to introduce the band.

On guitar is my 15-year-old brother Tommy.

(Applause)

On banjo is 10-year-old Jonny.

(Applause)

He's also our brother.

And I'm Robbie, and I'm 14,
and I play the fiddle.

(Applause)

As you can see, we decided
to make it hard on ourselves,

and we chose to play three songs

in three different keys.

(Tuning)

Yeah. I'm also going to explain,
a lot of people want to know

where we got the name
"Sleepy Man Banjo Boys" from.

So, it started when Jonny was little,

and he first started the banjo,
he would play on his back

with his eyes closed,

and we'd say it looked
like he was sleeping.

So you can probably piece
the rest together.

TM: We can't really figure out the reason.

It might have been
that it weighs about a million pounds.

(Music)

(Applause)

(Music)

(Music ends)

(Applause)

TM: Thank you very much.

(Cheering)

RM: Thank you.

(Applause)