Boxed Wine and Bluegrass

There's a free bluegrass jam every Thursday night at the brewery near my house. Anyone can bring an instrument and sit in. Anyone can listen.

The circle usually has about twelve players: banjos, fiddles, mandolins, a stand-up bass and one man who only plays the spoons. The youngest player is fourteen. The oldest is eighty-nine and plays fiddle like his hands are on fire. They call out songs and everybody just jumps in.

I don't play anything, but I've come every Thursday for a year. I sit with a group of regulars who don't play either. We clap along and request "Wagon Wheel" so often the musicians have started groaning in harmony.

Last week a kid of about nine came with his grandfather's banjo and played his first song in public. He was terrified. The whole room went silent, then cheered so loud he blushed red to his ears.