Wyatt Ellis and his mandolin are causing quite a stir in Bluegrass

Wyatt Ellis is only 15 years old, but the mandolin prodigy is making a big splash in the world of bluegrass, performing alongside some pillars of the genre – Bobby Osborne, Sierra Hull, Sam Bush, Marty Stewart, Ronnie McCurry, among them.

“The bluegrass community has always been welcoming to young and up-and-coming musicians,” says Ellis Rolling rock. “And that's a huge part of my story and how I got into music.”

The common denominator with all these names listed is that they are each fantastic mandolin players — icons of the genre. Ellis has begun to climb these ranks as a young musician, even though he only picked up the instrument four years ago, at the age of 10.

“I love how creative you can be with it,” Ellis says of the mandolin. “You've got almost everything you could want, but there's still drive and power.”

First learning piano at age 6, Ellis soon picked up guitar and violin. But it was during the 2020 shutdown that he handed him a mandolin. Living in rural East Tennessee, Ellis needed something to occupy his time when he couldn't go to school. He started tinkering with the instrument and went down a YouTube rabbit hole, eventually looking for old Osborne Brothers clips.

“I heard first [the mandolin] in the hands of Bobby Osborne,” Ellis says. “And that 'high, lonely sound' just got me.”

His debut album is released Happy Valley Last February, Ellis' latest single, “Blue Smoke,” finds the youngster working with Marty Stuart, a musical giant in the bluegrass, country and Americana circles who also got his start in the industry at a very young age.

“I actually wrote 'Blue Smoke' for Marty to play,” Ellis says. “I reached out [to him] and he agreed – the rest is history.”

“There are a lot of great players and singers in bluegrass who need good new songs to perform to keep the genre fresh and moving forward,” says Stuart. “Wyatt has the goods to help achieve that.”

The new video for “Blue Smoke” documents a recent three-date run where Ellis opened for Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives. “It was my first big bus road trip,” says Ellis. “The whole experience was an eye-opener to what it's really like to be a musician. It was awesome.”

With Stuart watching from the wings of the stage, one can appreciate the video symbolically, especially the references to Osborne and the “Father of Bluegrass,” Bill Monroe. “I admire Wyatt for writing new songs for the bluegrass canon,” says Stuart. “His writing could set him apart from the pack.”

The nod to Osborne is particularly poignant as Ellis began working with the mandolin virtuoso before he died last year aged 91. Through the Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music, Ellis served a two-year apprenticeship where he learned firsthand what he could from Osborne.

That friendship with Osborne turned into an ongoing mentor/mentor relationship with CJ Lewandowski, mandolinist of the Po' Ramblin' Boys, a fast-paced bluegrass that's been making its own big waves in the industry lately.

“He's hotter than a firecracker right now,” Lewandowski says of Ellis' trajectory. “It started from ground zero and went up at an incredibly fast pace. The possibilities are endless with Wyatt.”

Originally from Maryville, Tennessee, Ellis lives not far from Lewandowski. Ellis was 12 when he first crossed paths with him at a PBR concert in nearby Oak Ridge.

“[Wyatt] he reminds me a lot of myself when I was a kid, only he has a lot more talent,” laughs Lewandowski. “He's already earned his spot just sitting back and studying what got him into bluegrass—Bobby Osborne and Bill Monroe.”

At the time, Lewandowski was in the middle of making an album with Osbourne. Titled Continue Continuethe album was Osborne's last recording and will be released on December 7th. Of note, the only mandolin Osborne played on the album was on a cover of Bill Monroe's “Sweetheart You Done Wrong,” which features a triple-threat musical barrage of Osborne, Lewandowski, and Ellis.

“I see a mature man,” Lewandowski says of Ellis. “He's serious about his playing, his singing, his music, his band — we don't have to predict why it happens anymore.”

Within Continue Continue is a contemporary take on the Osborne brothers' seminal 1968 hit “Rocky Top.” But with Osborne passing before Lewandowski could re-record his mandolin solo, Ellis was enlisted to do the honors.

“The first song ever [Wyatt] in bluegrass music he was listening to Bobby sing and play Rocky Top,” says Lewandowski. “Bobby showed Wyatt how to play this [mandolin] I go into song, which is maybe a subconscious thing of wanting to pass the torch before it's too late.”

Ellis recently opened for the Del McCoury Band at the Salvage Station in Asheville, North Carolina. “Del is as good as it gets in bluegrass music,” Ellis says of the 85-year-old McCoury. “He's one of my biggest heroes.”

McCurry's son and partner Ronnie, a mandolin legend in his own right, sees a kinship with Ellis. “I stood on stage with the great Bill Monroe when I was 14 and had only been in my dad's band for a few months,” Ronnie recalls. “It's something with all these guys – David Grisman, Sam Bush, Jesse McReynolds – where they've all been open to me.”

For Ronnie, it's heartening to see the next generation of bluegrass stars emerge. It's not just a full-circle moment happening in real time, it's also the inevitable course required for the survival and evolution of this music that McCoury loves so much.

“What I like about Wyatt is that he's really gotten into that Bill Monroe style, where I'm from,” Ronnie says of Ellis' mandolin. “And, from that, it gets away from the roots of the music. He is the future.”