ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys - Bluegrass musicians
The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is made up of 11-year-old banjo sensation Jonny Mizzone and his brothers Robbie, 14, on fiddle, and Tommy, 15, on guitar.

Why you should listen

These days your kid can get famous on YouTube for having water sprayed at him, for being duped about his Halloween candy, and for being high off laughing gas. But what if your 8-year-old gets famous on the Internet for being an absolute genius on the banjo? So goes the story of Jonny Mizzone, who first became a YouTube sensation in early 2011 for videos of him and his brothers tearing it up playing Earl Scruggs's Flint Hill Special. It wasn't long before the press started calling.

Now Jonny, Robbie (fiddle) and Tommy (guitar), known as the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, are 11, 14 and 15 respectively. In 2011 alone they got calls from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and in the summer of 2011 they appeared as musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman and NBC’s Today Show.

While the trio grew up in New Jersey -- which is known more for rock music than for bluegrass -- they fell in love with the unique sounds of J.D. Crowe, Ralph Stanley, Clarence White and Earl Scruggs after some creative YouTube searching. Now, having become sensations on the platform themselves, the trio has accumulated more than 17 million video views. Their first album, America’s Music, was released in September 2011 and charted top eight on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Chart. In October 2012 they released their second album, The Farthest Horizon, which cracked the top three. The group is already at work on their next album.

More profile about the speaker
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys | Speaker | TED.com
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Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Bluegrass virtuosity from ... New Jersey?

Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Bluegrass virtuosi fra ... New Jersey?

Filmed:
7,302,577 views

Brødrene Jonny, Robbie og Tommy Mizzone, alle under 16 år, kommer fra New Jersey, en amerikansk delstat bedre kjent for Bruce Springsteens rock enn for Earl Scruggs bluegrass. Allikevel begynte søsknene å fremføre bluegrass, både kjente låter og sine egne, i ung alder. Her spiller de tre briljante låter i tre forskjellige durer, hvor føringen går fram og tilbake fra fele til banjo til gitar.
- Bluegrass musicians
The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is made up of 11-year-old banjo sensation Jonny Mizzone and his brothers Robbie, 14, on fiddle, and Tommy, 15, on guitar. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:14
(MusicMusikk)
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(Musikk)
01:57
(ApplauseApplaus)
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(Applaus)
02:01
(MusicMusikk)
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(Musikk)
02:21
(ApplauseApplaus)
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(Applaus)
02:31
RobbieRobbie MizzoneMizzone: Thank you.
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RM: Mange takk
02:33
TommyTommy MizzoneMizzone: Thank you very much.
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TM: Tusen takk
02:34
We're so excitedspent to be here.
It's suchslik an honorære for us.
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Det er så spennende å være her. Det er virkelig en ære.
02:36
Like he said, we're
threetre brothersbrødrene from NewNye JerseyJersey --
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Som han sa er vi tre brødre fra New Jersey ...
02:39
you know, the bluegrassbluegrass
capitalhovedstad of the worldverden.
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altså fra verdens bluegrass-hovedstad.
02:43
(LaughterLatter)
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(Latter)
02:45
We discoveredoppdaget bluegrassbluegrass a few yearsår agosiden,
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Vi oppdaget bluegrass for bare noen år siden,
02:47
and we fellfalt in love with it.
We hopehåp you guys will too.
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og ble forelsket i det. Vi håper dere blir det også.
Den neste låten har vi skrevet selv. Vi kaller den "Time lapse"
02:50
This nextneste songsang is an originalopprinnelig
we wroteskrev calledkalt "TimelapseTimelapse,"
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02:54
and it will probablysannsynligvis livebo up to its nameNavn.
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og jeg tror den lever opp til det navnet.
02:57
(TuningTuning)
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(Stemmer)
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(MusicMusikk)
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(ApplauseApplaus)
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05:01
TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Mange takk
05:04
RMRM: I'm just going to take
a secondsekund to introduceintrodusere the bandbånd.
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RM: Jeg skal bare ta et øyeblikk og presentere bandet.
På gitar har vi min 15 år gamle bror Tommy.
05:07
On guitargitar is my 15-year-old-år gammel brotherbror TommyTommy.
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05:09
(ApplauseApplaus)
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(Applaus)
05:14
On banjobanjo is 10-year-old-år gammel JonnyJonny.
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På banjo er 10 år gamle Jonny.
05:17
(ApplauseApplaus) He's alsoogså our brotherbror.
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(Applaus) Han er også broren vår.
05:23
And I'm RobbieRobbie, and I'm 14,
and I playspille the fiddlefele.
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Og jeg er Robbie, 14 år, og jeg spiller fele.
05:26
(ApplauseApplaus)
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(Applaus)
05:30
As you can see, we decidedbesluttet
to make it hardhard on ourselvesoss,
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Som dere ser bestemte vi oss for å gjøre det vrient
ved å velge tre sanger
05:33
and we chosevalgte to playspille threetre songssanger
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i tre forskellige durer.
05:35
in threetre differentannerledes keysnøkler.
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05:39
Yeah. I'm alsoogså going to explainforklare,
a lot of people want to know
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La meg forklare. Mange har spurt om
hvor navnet Sleepy Man Banjo Boys kommer fra.
05:42
where we got the nameNavn
SleepySøvnig Man BanjoBanjo BoysGutter from.
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05:44
So it startedstartet when JonnyJonny was little,
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Det begynte da Jonny var liten
05:47
and he first startedstartet the banjobanjo,
he would playspille on his back
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og han først fikk banjoen. Da pleide han å legge seg på ryggen
05:50
with his eyesøyne closedlukket,
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og spille med øynene lukket.
05:51
and we'dvi vil say it looked
like he was sleepingsove.
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Vi sa det så ut som om han sov.
05:53
So you can probablysannsynligvis piecestykke
the resthvile togethersammen.
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Resten greier dere sikkert å gjette dere til.
TM: Vi forsto ikke hvorfor han gjorde det sånn,
05:55
TMTM: We can't really figurefigur
out the reasongrunnen til for this.
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det kunne være det at banjoen veier omtrent en million kilo.
05:58
It mightkanskje have been that it
weighsveier about a millionmillion poundspounds.
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06:02
(MusicMusikk)
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(Musikk)
07:39
(ApplauseApplaus)
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07:43
(MusicMusikk)
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(Musikk)
08:25
(ApplauseApplaus)
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(Applaus)
08:30
TMTM: Thank you very much.
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TM: Tusen takk.
08:32
RMRM: Thank you.
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RM: Mange takk.
Translated by Paul Lillebo
Reviewed by Jon Arne Toft

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys - Bluegrass musicians
The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys is made up of 11-year-old banjo sensation Jonny Mizzone and his brothers Robbie, 14, on fiddle, and Tommy, 15, on guitar.

Why you should listen

These days your kid can get famous on YouTube for having water sprayed at him, for being duped about his Halloween candy, and for being high off laughing gas. But what if your 8-year-old gets famous on the Internet for being an absolute genius on the banjo? So goes the story of Jonny Mizzone, who first became a YouTube sensation in early 2011 for videos of him and his brothers tearing it up playing Earl Scruggs's Flint Hill Special. It wasn't long before the press started calling.

Now Jonny, Robbie (fiddle) and Tommy (guitar), known as the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, are 11, 14 and 15 respectively. In 2011 alone they got calls from The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and in the summer of 2011 they appeared as musical guests on The Late Show with David Letterman and NBC’s Today Show.

While the trio grew up in New Jersey -- which is known more for rock music than for bluegrass -- they fell in love with the unique sounds of J.D. Crowe, Ralph Stanley, Clarence White and Earl Scruggs after some creative YouTube searching. Now, having become sensations on the platform themselves, the trio has accumulated more than 17 million video views. Their first album, America’s Music, was released in September 2011 and charted top eight on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Chart. In October 2012 they released their second album, The Farthest Horizon, which cracked the top three. The group is already at work on their next album.

More profile about the speaker
Sleepy Man Banjo Boys | Speaker | TED.com