Family band The Biscuit Eaters on spreading joy, and Surry County's traditional music community

The Biscuit Eaters is one of three bands playing WFDD’s Spring Fling event this weekend. They’re a bluegrass family band from Surry County made up of five kids between six and 15 years old, and their parents, Meredith and Jason Wilkerson.

WFDD’s Amy Diaz spoke with Meredith about North Carolina’s traditional music community and performing as a family. 

Love of music

Crowded around a couple of microphones on stage, there’s 15-year-old Sam on mandolin, 12-year-old Jo picking a banjo, and 10-year-old Maggie Jane strumming a guitar. The little one in front playing the fiddle is 8-year-old Silas, and off to the side, 6-year-old Molly is dancing her heart out. 

Their mom, Meredith, is playing guitar and singing, and Jason, their dad, is keeping rhythm on an upright bass. The boys are all wearing cowboy hats and button-downs, and the girls are in dresses and boots. 

This is the Wilkerson family, also known as The Biscuit Eaters. 

Meredith says they played together for the first time on stage in 2022, at the Mount Airy Fiddlers’ Convention, and ended up taking home a trophy for most promising talent. 

“That was maybe the first time I saw, ‘Wow, you know, we could really have a good group,' and it just took off from there," she says.

Since then, they’ve performed at MerleFest in Wilkesboro; on The Martha Bassett Show; and most recently, filmed a live taping for Song of the Mountains, a PBS show about Southern Appalachian culture. 

Music has always been a big part of Meredith and Jason’s lives. Both of their parents encouraged them to learn instruments and sing when they were kids. But they fell in love with bluegrass specifically when they got married 25 years ago.

“We lived in Colorado, and there's a great community of bluegrass musicians, and we had a group and traveled around the state playing every weekend," Meredith says. 

So when the couple moved back to North Carolina and had children of their own, they knew they wanted to continue to pass that love of music down. 

“And so as a homeschool parent, I made music and singing a part of our school day from when they were just really little," she says. "I really think that has had a huge influence on their natural abilities, their abilities to hear the music.”

She says it didn’t take long for the kids to get the hang of their instruments and sing harmonies. She remembers the first time she heard them practicing together without her guiding them.  

“I was upstairs, you know, cleaning. Heard them playing music. Went over, looked over the little balcony there, and they were having a jam session," Meredith says. "And at that point, they had all learned just the basics of their instruments, and they were playing songs together. So, of course, that just tickled me to death, right?”

And so they continued to work at it. But they didn’t just play at home by themselves. 

North Carolina's traditional music community

Meredith says they met and became friends with lots of other musicians. They’d all swim in the creek together, play ball and do normal fun family things, but they would also make time for a jam session. 

“That's really where the magic happened, I think, is older musicians who valued children enough and loved my kids enough to spend time with them and say, ‘Hey, let me show you this tune,'" Meredith says. "And I think that's part of the beauty of the traditional music community in North Carolina that we have.”

Most of the songs the band plays are older, traditional bluegrass, like "Long Journey Home." 

These are also the kind of songs Meredith teaches other kids at the Reeves Downtown School of Music in Elkin, where she leads the Junior Appalachian Musicians program, or JAM. Every week, she teaches roughly 30 students about traditional songs, dances and music history. 

“I think it's a great program that gets them headed on that path to understand the history of the music, the culture from where they live," Meredith says. "Because it's really important, you know, this is where they live. This is part of their story, too. Even if you weren't born here, well, you live here now. It’s a huge part of Surry County and this part of North Carolina.” 

And Meredith says listeners appreciate hearing traditional music too. 

“We're playing the songs that, you know, our great, great grandparents played, and maybe their grandparents played," she says. "You know, it just really touches people's heartstrings.”

Making people happy

Meredith posts videos of her family playing together on Facebook and YouTube. They have more than 160,000 followers now, which is something she never expected to happen. 

She also didn’t realize how important her family’s music would be for some of those people. 

“I've had people say ‘I have Stage 4 cancer, and I get on here and listen to you guys every day, it's really lifted me up in some really dark times of my life,'" Meredith says. "And I understand the kids may not be able to appreciate that yet, you know, due to their age, but I hope one day they can look back and realize what a blessing they were to people.” 

While Meredith has taught her kids how to play instruments, harmonize and perform, those aren’t the biggest lessons she hopes they take from this experience. 

“Yes, you are special and talented and blessed, but how you treat others, that is more important," she says. "Who cares if you can play the fiddle well?”

She says performing together as a family has taught them all kinds of life skills like teamwork, forgiveness and perseverance. 

“It's kind of up a level. We've got to come together as a family in this moment, because we're going to go on stage in front of hundreds or thousands of people," Meredith says. "So let's put this aside. Let's forgive each other. Let's love each other first and do this and make people happy.”

The Biscuit Eaters will be playing alongside Detective Blind, Finn Phoenix and The Firebirds at WFDD’s Spring Fling on May 10.

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.