Sleepy Man

One Liner: Bluegrass boy band from New Jersey (for real)
Wikipedia Genre: Bluegrass, country, Roots music
Spotify Says Similar To: Steep Canyon Rangers and Cadillac Sky
Home: Lebanon Township, New Jersey

Poster Position: 26
Slot: Saturday, ?

Thoughts:  Their Wikipedia page speaks of several albums in their history, but none are available on Spotify.  All you get on Spotify is a 2014 EP and then two 2016 singles.  Their website has a non-bio that looks like they just kept the place-holder page in their web-publishing software.  But the photos on that website show that these guys look like they are about 13.  It's like a bluegrass boy band!  And the lead singer sounds like some emo singer I know.  Or is it the Yellowcard guy?  It's a very high pitched voice that sounds a little odd over the top of the rip-roaring banjo attack.
The most popular track on Spotify for them right now is one of those two new singles, "Your Smile," which has 126k streams.

Someone has noticed that using "wooooaoooohh, woooooaaaooooohhh" in pop songs is a key ingredient to success.  This sounds, other than the underlying banjo plucking, like some pop song that I'd hear on the radio right about now, a pop track from the newest boy band, that just happens to include banjo.  Their other recent single, "Feeling I'm Awake" sounds more like a purposeful homage to Mumford.  And several of the songs on the EP sound like a young lady singing them, but I assume it is the same dude.  For the next song, while it isn't their most listened to, I think the breakdown action on "By My Side" is worth giving this one to you to hear.  221k streams.

Live version that involves a weird emotionless girl from Finland, but you get the idea.  I find it fascinating to watch the eight year old (probably eight, I'm not looking it up) pick the shit out of that banjo while appearing to barely move.  The acoustics of that video are garbage, but their tune is great and they seem pretty rad.  And then there is this shit.

Holy hannah.  Banjo baby breaks it down, the pretty one with the guitar tears it up, then violin guy fires up that bow.  I'm a big fat sucker for the bluegrass breakdown freakout.  I'd be the guy in the aisle screaming WHOOWEEEE! and slapping myself in multiple places while kicking those around me.  OK, dammit, now I want to look up their ages.  How can they do that shit with their hands?

Here is a TED talk video from 2012 where the banjo player really does look 8.  Hold on... they just said he was 10.  Wikipedia says they were born in 2002, 1998, and 1997, so by now these guys are actually super crazy old, like between 15 and 20.  Ha!  At 15 I could probably strum, very slowly, a G, D, and C on the guitar.  These kids jam.  Don't know if I'll actually go see it in person, but they really can jam out.  Oooh, look, they play Saturday.  I'll make my kids go watch this and then tell them how disappointed I am in their lack of ability.