Newfound Gap is from Leicester, North Carolina. Bayla Davis is a 15-year-old clawhammer banjo player and Traditional Appalachian vocalist. Sylvie is a 14-year-old fiddler and vocalist, and Judah is a guitar player and vocalist.
At 6 years old, each started in the Buncombe County Junior Appalachian Musicians Program (JAM) in Black Mountain, NC with Hannah Seng, Ben Nelson, and Cary Fridley. For the last five years, they have been scholarship students at the Academy for the Arts in Asheville studying with Jerry Sutton, Bryan McDowell, Natalya Weinstein, and Josh Goforth.
Bayla has played on the main stage at Bela Fleck's Blue Ridge Banjo Camp, the Kruger Brother's Academy Stage, the main stage at Balsam Range's Art of Music Festival, and the Cabin Stage at Merlefest. As a group, they have performed at Woodsongs, the IBMA’s Youth Stage, Kids on Bluegrass, and Appalachia Sessions, among others. This year, they received second place in Youth Band at Galax. Each is a Galax individual winner in their instruments. They have won fiddlers conventions across the Southeast. This year, Bayla recorded tracks with Cary Fridley for the Fine-Tuned album, a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina. Bayla was also chosen as a ‘23-‘24 Fellow in From the Top’s Learning and Media Lab. Each plans to teach and perform for future generations.
They have a Facebook page and YouTube channel:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078153278191
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX3IE72j4fQrXAAglXMqFCw