Written by Corbin Winters

Distant acoustic harmonies and smoky voices are the only things breathing life into an otherwise dilapidated building hidden away on Sand Mountain, Georgia. Inside, the dirt-camouflaged New Home Community Center, a circle of musicians sit playing bluegrass music, and singing to their hearts’ content. Everyone is encouraged to play or sing (even if you cannot sing well). Warm coffee and pastries are nestled in the corner by those who have come to listen to the jam. 

Every Monday, bluegrass music echoes out of the Community Center. For over 30 years, local bluegrass enthusiasts have come together to share their love of the music. Many play music, and many just watch the jam sessions at the New Home Community Center. 

Instruments such as fiddles, bass, guitars, and banjos make up the jam circle. Although the group of musicians ranges in age from the 40s to the 90s, one thing that remains constant is their love of music. “[Music] is my life,” said James West, who’s been attending jam sessions for 25 years. 

Music is a vital part of each individual’s happiness who spends their Monday evenings together at New Home Community Center. For some, like Charles Breedlove, an 86-year-old fiddle player and part-founder of the New Home Community Center jams, the music keeps him happy and healthy. 

“I was taking all these pills (for his heart), and asked my doctor what I needed to do to come off some of these pills,” said Breedlove. “My cardiologist said, there’s only two things I need in my life. ‘You need to take your aspirin every day, the second thing you need to do is keep playing that music.’ My doctor told me music is the only thing keeping me young.”

In 1972, Breedlove and a friend went out to an abandoned building, now the New Home Community Center. “We weren’t there two minutes before a [stranger] came up in a pick-up truck. He asked, ‘Is this an open jam session?’We told him ‘Yeah.’ While he was off to get his guitar, another [stranger] came up asking if he could play.” 

The biggest problem facing the group is age and death. Some of the current musicians are the last members of bands.

Many members of the jam session are also frequent players at the Mountain Opry. On top of Signal Mountain, Tennessee, sits a former elementary school, now Bachman Community Center. Fit with a stage, the Bachman Community Center hosts the Mountain Opry every 4th Saturday of the month. Bluegrass and country music fill the halls with harmony and rhythm. 

Frequent jam musician Mike Harvey, current co-owner of the Mountain Opry, brings his banjo to participate in the fun. Harvey has grown up playing beside a lot of the friendly faces in the room. There are also several new faces he is always eager to greet. 

“You incorporate [bluegrass music] into your psyche, and it makes you feel good,” Harvey said. “You see, we have little kids that come, and they will be trying to dance. No one is prompting them; it just happens. And that’s something that makes people happy.”

 Although the weekly jam sessions at the New Home Community Center are 50 years apart from the original jam days, the core values of New Home and the Mountain Opry remain the same. The music started because of a mutual love for bluegrass, and that continues.

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