(upbeat bluegrass music) - [David] Zoe and Cloyd are a husband and wife duo from Asheville, North Carolina.

Natalya Zoe Weinstein grew up in Massachusetts in a family of professional jazz and klezmer musicians.

John Cloyd Miller grew up in North Carolina and is the grandson of the pioneering bluegrass fiddler, Jim Shumate.

They bring together a wide range of influences to create what they call new Appalachian music.

(Zoe, David and Cloyd play bluegrass music) - What a great tune, "Lazy Man Blues."

That was written by your grandfather, Jim Shumate.

- Uh, yeah, he was a fiddler from Wilkes County, North Carolina.

He played with Bill Monroe in the mid-forties, in 1945, and was later Flatt and Scruggs's first fiddle player.

He got Earl Scruggs his job with Bill Monroe, so... - That is so incredible.

- [Cloyd] Yeah.

- And you were, you knew him as a kid and-- - Oh, yeah.

- Well, what did you learn from him musically?

- You know, I think, you know, growing up, I just always took it for granted that he was playing the fiddle around the house and all that kind of stuff.

I think when I started playing this music, I really learned about timing and syncopation.

He was very syncopated in his playing - Yeah.

- And had such emotion when he played.

He could really pull tone and real subtlety out of his playing, which always really spoke to me.

And I think I tried to incorporate that in my playing.

- Yeah, I think you do, I think you do.

And Natalaya, you were a fiddler when you married-- - When I met John, yeah, it's funny.

I grew up in western Massachusetts, but I, after college, I said, "I'm gonna go down South and learn more about bluegrass," which I had fallen in love with and met John pretty soon after I moved to Asheville.

And he just happened to have a bluegrass fiddle player for a grandfather.

So that was kind of lucky.

(chuckles) - Really?

(laughs) - And I liked him.

(laughs) And I got to play with Jim for about eight years before he passed away.

- Oh, really?

- So he was a big influence on me as well.

- What kind of stuff did you learn from him?

- Well, you know, I was trained classically and so I was always taught to play on the beat and hit the note.

And so, you know, Jim's playing was just super loose and groovy and he would always slide into the notes and get there at the last possible second.

And so, he just...

I think I learned how to loosen up a lot from playing with Jim.

- Which is very difficult for classical players to do.

- It is, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

- What a great teacher to have.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) (Cloyd chuckles) (band plays bluegrass music) - And you had this influence Of Jim Shumate, but you, your family played klezmer music.

Tell us about that.

- Yeah.

I come from a musical family as well.

My mom plays violin and my dad plays jazz piano and my grandfather was a professional klezmer musician who immigrated from Russia.

So, I mean, it makes perfect sense that I turned into a, you know, bluegrass fiddle player.

(Cloyd and Zoe laugh) - Well, tell people what klezmer is.

A lot of folks don't know, I'm sure.

- Yeah.

It's, I guess Jewish folk music that originated in Eastern Europe.

Klezmorim were the musicians that played for weddings and events.

And it was a very important function in the community, you know, musicians.

And my grandfather immigrated here in 1923, he arrived in the United States.

He actually went via Argentina.

And so he picked up some interesting influences in his music from spending a few years down in Argentina playing music.

And, you know, it's, the fiddle was a very important part of klezmer music, especially in the old country.

And here the clarinet sort of became more popular in America as the lead instrument.

But I think because the fiddle and the clarinet kind of can mimic the sound of the human voice and crying and it comes from kind of cantorial singing, from religious singing that the main feel from klezmer music comes from that emotion, I think.

(Zoe and Cloyd play klezmer music) - That's an original klezmer tune, right?

- Yes.

"Zisa Meydele", which means "sweet little girl" in Yiddish.

And it's named after our daughter, Cadence, who is five years old.

(Zoe and Cloyd play klezmer music) (whole band plays) - Both of you are good songwriters and your songs with words are just wonderful.

- [Cloyd] Thanks.

- Not only do you guys play traditional music, but you write in a style that sounds traditional.

- [Zoe] Mm.

Tell us about what you're going for in your new Appalachian music.

- We love traditional music, we love old time music and bluegrass.

And, I guess, you know, going back to grandpa, he was a wonderful songwriter and it just seemed kind of normal to me to continue to write new music as I started playing music.

And I guess we, you know, the idea is that if you play traditional music, there has to be additions to the canon.

I think that part of the tradition is, is creating new music that people can enjoy and we can all learn to play together and, you know, making our own statement musically I think is important to us.

- I think it is important and I think a lot of people don't realize that traditional music has always been changing.

- Mm-hmm.

- There's always been new influences.

- Sure.

- And so there should be now as well.

We got a lot on our minds and a lot to sing about.

- Right.

- Yeah, right.

Exactly.

(Zoe and Cloyd play music) ♪ You'll get by, so will we ♪ It may not be the world we knew ♪ ♪ Some say it's too late ♪ We've set the course somehow ♪ We're in it now ♪ Waters are rising ♪ The waters are rising around me ♪ ♪ There's a storm outside ♪ But inside, trouble won't let me be ♪ ♪ We're running blind ♪ How much longer till we see?

♪ That oh oh the waters are rising ♪ ♪ Watched the West burn ♪ On a handheld TV screen ♪ As we're drowning in the mud ♪ What have we done?

♪ We must choose ♪ Between a fire and a flood ♪ Waters are rising ♪ The waters are rising around me ♪ ♪ There's a storm outside ♪ But inside, trouble won't let me be ♪ ♪ We're running blind ♪ How much longer till we see?

♪ That oh oh the waters are rising ♪ ♪ Let the rains come down ♪ And the star shine ♪ Whatever truth may come ♪ It's a fate that we designed ♪ Waters are rising ♪ The waters are rising around me ♪ ♪ There's a storm outside ♪ But inside, trouble won't let me be ♪ ♪ We're running blind ♪ How much longer till we see?

♪ That oh oh the waters are rising ♪ ♪ Waters are rising ♪ The waters are rising around me ♪ ♪ There's a storm outside ♪ But inside, trouble won't let me be ♪ ♪ We're running blind ♪ How much longer till we see?

♪ That oh oh the waters are rising ♪ ♪ That oh oh the waters are rising ♪ "Rising Waters" is a, it's a, I would say it's an environmental song.

That's sort of what, what inspired me to write it.

We were, a couple of years ago when I wrote that song, we were getting a lot of flooding in this area.

And I was thinking about some of my family that lives out West, they were getting a lot of wildfires.

And the juxtaposition of flooding and fires just kind of spoke to me and... - This is kind of a difficult time to make a living as a musician.

- It definitely is, especially with all the changes recently.

- Yeah.

- But I think diversification kind of is key for us.

(girl plays violin on computer screen) [Zoe] We both teach at Warren Wilson college.

John was teaching a course on songwriting and I was teaching fiddle lessons and he was teaching mandolin and we had to just figure out how to, you know, switch to teaching those classes online.

And I also teach at The Academy for the Arts downtown in Asheville and had to switch all those lessons online and it was just kind of chaotic, it was so chaotic for the first couple of weeks.

And every day there was new news and everything was changing and it was-- - [Cloyd] Everybody's like trying to figure out like, what, how long is this gonna last?

And all that stuff.

The teaching has been able to allow us to sustain some income - You know, for us, it's just adapting and trying new things.

We've been trying online streaming concerts and Zoom lessons, and so you can just kind of be like you just have to kind of stay on your toes and be creative about it.

[Zoe] It opens up doors to things that you haven't had a chance to experience before.

- [Cloyd] This is exactly what I was gonna say.

We're lucky that we, you know, we live out here in the country and we have a nice part in the woods and we have a nice place to live, and I feel really thankful for that.

- [Zoe] This is the first time we've had a real garden, you know, besides just like a little box in our front yard that doesn't do much.

So it's, you know, that giving us the time to have a big garden like that and tend to it and not just ignore it.

(chuckles) John built Cady a climbing wall on the side of our deck, and we took her out rock climbing last week for the first time on an actual rock face.

- [Cloyd] I've been a climber since I was 19 years old, you know.

And all the things that I used to do before I started doing a lot more music, I feel like we've kind of returned to those things.

It is weird to not be traveling and working as much.

I mean, I guess you just have to, you know, make lemonade out of lemons.

(Zoe chuckles) - [Zoe] 'Cause it's been really hard for us to do anything productive together.

Having a child, I mean, I love Cady, (chuckles) but it's been really hard for us to even just sit down and play music together.

- [Cloyd] People would be surprised how little we've been playing music, you know.

I mean, I think people think that, "Oh, these music...," you know.

We are very thankful and lucky that, you know, we're music partners and we're in the same house.

- [Zoe] And we lived together.

- [Cloyd] And that's cool.

And I bet people are thinking that we're just like playing music constantly and writing all this music and no, no, no.

And, that's not really the case at all, you know.

We're, you know, usually one of us is hanging out with Cady.

We're trying to keep her stimulated, although Cady's been learning fiddle.

And so she's been, she's been progressing a lot and really been into it, really enjoying it.

- [Zoe] I think it's been a really nice way to kind of bring her into the fold of the family music.

But yeah, most of the music we've been playing has been "Boil Them Cabbage Down", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Cripple Creek", you know.

- [Cloyd] Yeah.

(Zoe, Cloyd and Cady play music) - You think you, at some point, you guys would go out on the road again with her?

Or how do you do that?

(Zoe chuckles) - Well, we've, she's, you know, right now, we usually have somebody that comes with us.

Like her mom will come down and be with us or, you know, if it's in the region somewhere, we'll, you know, leave her with a babysitter or my parents or something.

I mean, I think that's all we've done thus far.

She's five years old and we've taken her on trips up to New England and out West.

- She loves to travel.

- Yeah, she's a traveler.

She likes to get out there and do stuff.

- As long as we know somebody where we're going, then we're good.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Cloyd] Yeah, yeah.

- Well, do you guys wanna do that again?

- To get out on the road again?

- [Zoe] Yeah, absolutely.

- Yeah, we're looking forward to it, whenever that happens.

(chuckles) - Well, I'm sure these folks would love to see you when you're out there.

- [Zoe] Yeah.

- Thanks for being with us.

- Thank you.

- Absolutely.

Thanks for having us.

(band plays bluegrass music) ♪ Oh lord have mercy on this weary soul of mine ♪ ♪ May I walk in your light everyday ♪ ♪ And when I cross that deep silent river ♪ ♪ I'll be happy in that home far away ♪ (band play bluegrass music) ♪ I wandered away from the straight and the narrow ♪ ♪ Driftin' like a ship lost at sea ♪ ♪ No lighthouse to guide my weary footsteps ♪ ♪ Til Jesus answered my plea ♪ Oh lord have mercy on this weary soul of mine ♪ ♪ May I walk in your light everyday ♪ ♪ And when I cross that deep silent river ♪ ♪ I'll be happy in that home far away ♪ (band plays bluegrass music) ♪ The lights are bright no longer I am blinded ♪ ♪ From the bondage of sin I'm set free ♪ ♪ He lifted me up to join salvation ♪ ♪ I will live on eternally ♪ Oh lord have mercy on this weary soul of mine ♪ ♪ And may I walk in your light everyday ♪ ♪ And when I cross that deep silent river ♪ ♪ I'll be happy in that home far away ♪ (bluegrass music ends) (electronic boinging and slide whistle)