N

North Coffee Elementary student Alex Davis has been playing the five-string banjo for about three years, and in that time he has continued to hone his skills with appearances at music festivals and on TV. The 10-year-old banjo player is next scheduled to appear on the internationally syndicated “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour” in February and “WoodSongs Kids TV” in March.

Davis said he first received his banjo as a Christmas gift from his dad Keith when he was about six or seven years old.

“I didn’t do anything with it for a couple of years and then I just started asking him questions and he got me started,” Davis said.

Keith Davis said he decided to gift his son the banjo while his family was living in Alabama, but making plans to return to his native Coffee County.

“We were planning to move back here and I told him if you are going to live in Tennessee he needs to know how to use a banjo,” he said.

Davis said he enjoys different types of music, and a few of his favorite songs to play on the banjo are “Cowboys and Indians,” “Lonesome Road Blues” and “House of the Rising Sun.”

While he still has a few weeks before his next radio and TV appearances, Davis said he has a pretty good idea of what he is going to perform on the programs.

“I know a couple of songs,” Davis said. “I think I have it all planned out.”

The radio show will broadcast from the Lyric Theatre in Lexington, Kentucky.

Davis said he hasn’t had any trouble balancing his school work with his music so far, and is even able to incorporate his banjo into school.

“I don’t have much trouble balancing it all out,” he said. “On days when there is music class I don’t go to music class I sit in the classroom and I play banjo.”

Keith Davis said his family travels to music festivals and competitions where Davis can compete. In 2022, Alex placed first at an all-ages banjo contest at the Tennessee State Fair in Wilson County. He has also placed first in “Over 15” category at Bluegrass on the Harpeth in Franklin last year.

Established and hosted by folksinger Michael Jonathan, the WoodSongs radio program is billed as a “live audience celebration of grassroots music and the artists who made it.”

Produced 44 Mondays each year, the program airs on more than 500 radio stations in 177 nations and every U.S. military base and Naval ship.

Davis said his ultimate goal is get his playing up to a professional level.