In the Turnberry Records showcase room during the IBMA World of Bluegrass in the Marriott, downtown Raleigh, NC, one of the performers on the Turnberry stage was a charismatic young banjoist with long hair: Ettore Buzzini. He played his heart out for a room full of music lovers. Although it was very late, attendees sat a little taller in their chairs, leaning forward as Ettore played. His business card bears the image of him holding a banjo, laying down on a Swiss Army knife, and the back reads, “Trad-scendental Bluegrass that hits you in the gut and elevates the soul.” That pretty much says it all.
The next day, Ettore performed on the showcase stage next to The Bluegrass Standard’s booth at the trade show. The large crowd they drew tapped their toes and smiled as the 17-year-old banjo phenom played, wearing a wise-beyond-his-years demeanor of someone with an old soul. Confident on the stage, he in no way tried to grab the spotlight, respecting that he was part of a band.
Arriving at IBMA, Ettore had just won the prestigious Freshgrass Banjo competition award, for which he played a traditional song, “Dear Old Dixie,” and an original composition, “Birth of Eros,” blowing the socks off the judges, who included banjoist Alison Brown.
Ettore (pronounced Et-tor-ay) lives in Mooresville, North Carolina. His father is Swiss Italian, and his mother is from East Tennessee. Growing up in Mooresville, Ettore and his sister visited family in both Tennessee and Switzerland. His exotic-sounding name fits him, although his music friends call him Eddie Ray because, to them, that’s what his name sounds like.
At age six, Ettore’s grandfather gave him an old iPod. “He told me I could delete what was on it and put whatever I wanted to on there.” He turned on the iPod in the car on the way back to North Carolina from his grandparents’ home in Tennessee. “I wasn’t a big music person at that time, but when I turned it on, I heard ‘Shucking the Corn’ by Flatt and Scruggs, and it stopped me in my tracks. I say it was my gateway drug to the bluegrass music world. I decided that day that I wanted to play banjo.”
He continued to ask for a banjo for the next two-and-a-half years until his grandfather lent Ettore his. Ettore played it for a month, teaching himself to play several songs. “The day I got the banjo, I saw someone playing ‘Cripple Creek’ on YouTube. I was so determined to learn to play it.” His mom says Ettore woke her at 6 am to play it for her. “I decided it was time to let him take some lessons – something I did to save me from getting headaches,” laughs Yvonne. Ettore took lessons from Bill Rippey for three years before Covid. “He was a good teacher,” says Ettore.
Soon, he was seeking out jams. “I started playing at Richard’s Coffee Shop and then going to fiddlers conventions, which is really my favorite because they are so much fun.” The first time he competed, at the Ashe County Bluegrass and Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Ettore didn’t place. Instead of being discouraged, it motivated him to work harder. Ettore worked up “Home Sweet Home” for the Fiddlers convention in Fiddler’s Grove and won first place. “His grandfather came to accompany him and played backup guitar,” says Yvonne. He was just ten years old and had been playing banjo for one year. He never won the Ashe County contest but won first place at the famous Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention at age 11.
As Ettore started learning music, something amazing happened. Ettore began writing music, and he became the total package in terms of being a performer. His compositions reflected his emotions, and more importantly, he wanted his songs to make people live in the music and feel things.
“While bluegrass has the typical hurtin’ or gospel song, there are many emotions in the human experience left relatively untouched by the genre,” he says. “This refers to lyrics as well as composition. How many kinds of bluegrass music have you heard? There are five, maybe like the waltz, fiddle tune, sad hurtin’/cryin' song, gospel/praise, etc. Many feelings and emotions are heavily underrepresented in the music of bluegrass.” He asks, “Have you ever heard a bluegrass song that made you feel heroic, sublime, terrified, ghastly, or emotions that cannot be described in words?” He explains that there is a much broader scope of emotions in the music itself besides the current repertoire of happy/sad/angry. “I want to bring as much emotion as I can to bluegrass music in an experience that doesn’t depict a describable emotion but rather makes you live an indescribable emotion that only music and life can make you feel. To bring as much of the human experience to our music as possible.”
Ettore’s music reflects the influences from his mother’s Tennessee roots, his father’s European roots, and his upbringing in North Carolina. His debut album, Eddie Ray, opens with a song he wrote when he was 11. “Ragnarok” tells the story of the mythical battle between two Norse gods, Thor and Odin. That song won him the Young Songwriter’s Competition at the Kruger Brothers Festival in Wilkesboro.
Other cuts on the album include the jazz standard “Farewell Blues,” recorded by Flatt & Scruggs in 1950. Ettore closely follows that arrangement. A few more originals fill out the album, including “I’ll Try Not to Care,” a traditional bluegrass song co-written with up-and-comer Mason Via and producer Tom Mindte about the time-honored theme of love gone wrong but with a dash of teen angst added to the mix. “Cash Don’t Sleep,” another original, is an emotional song about a young undocumented immigrant struggling to bring a family to settle in North Carolina.
Ettore’s album piqued Pete Wernick's interest. Wernick had met a young Ettore at one of the Dr. Banjo jam camps he attended. Wernick invited Ettore to play sets with him at Earl Scruggs Festival and MerleFest.
The friends who attend public school with Ettore in Mooresville support him. They featured him in his high school yearbook. “That gives me hope,” he says. “I want to get people my age listening to my music and break out of the traditional bluegrass audience.”
Ettore is unapologetic with his music, and for good reason. He has it all – he’s a strong songwriter, instrumentalist, and vocalist. He is currently starting to work on a new album, and he’s putting out new singles. “It won’t be long before we will be promoting the new music. It won’t be like any bluegrass album out there – but it will still be very satisfying.”
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