If it truly does take 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert, Eli and Abram Murphy were well on their way to becoming musical experts before the age of 10. Eli, now 17, and younger brother Abram, now 15, are the two lead musicians for Bomb City Bluegrass, a blossoming young band from Amarillo. Although both Murphy brothers are full-time high school students involved in extracurricular and church activities, their bluegrass roots are already planted deep and being cultivated by a music-loving family and somewhat unlikely group of friends.
Eli and Abram committed to music at an early age. Both enrolled in the elite Suzuki Strings music program at Amarillo College at the age of 2. Each brother had a violin in hand by age 4. “I told them they could decide to quit when they were 12,” says Tanna Murphy, their mother (and booking agent, tour manager and merch sales rep).
Neither wanted to quit.
Music was “kind of always around” in their house, according to Eli. The boys’ parents were both involved in church music programs, and Eli and Abram have now found their way into worship bands themselves. But it was an unexpected gift from their grandfather in 2018—a 1950s mandolin—that sparked the shared romance with bluegrass music.
Their grandfather, Dick Crook, had grown up poor. But his own father had been in a bluegrass band with his siblings, and had ordered Crook the $10 mandolin out of a 1955 Montgomery Ward catalog. When Eli’s violin training began developing into bluegrass fiddle, Crook gave him the Kay-brand mandolin. A mandolin and violin—or fiddle, depending on the genre—share similar string arrangement and tuning. The gift of a traditional, decades-old instrument solidified his trajectory.
Prodigy and Dexterity
As their love for the genre and their skill for their instruments bloomed, the Murphy brothers found their way to a local bluegrass circle that meets every Saturday morning in a storefront near the entrance to Westgate Mall. The circle used to meet in the old Country Barn restaurant, and bandmate Tim McGaughy had been part of that group since the 1990s. McGaughy, who has been playing guitar and banjo since the 1970s, recalls being “really impressed” when Eli and Abram first played for the circle. Despite his experience, being part of Bomb City Bluegrass has given him many firsts. “All the places we play, I’ve never played before,” McGaughy jokes. His wife, Becky, plays bass for the band, as well.
Music is serious business for older brother, Eli. Though somewhat of a prodigy, he still takes mandolin lessons every week with an instructor in New Mexico. Tanna says he plays “all the time,” even strumming a few notes before school every morning. He describes his love and dedication as the pursuit of excellence and the challenge of using a variety of instruments to assemble a unified sound.
“It’s interesting to find where you fit in a [bluegrass] group,” he says. “Every instrument is so different, so figuring out how, when and where to play intrigues me.”
He has his sights on someday stepping into the spotlight of the Grand Ole Opry—a dream that’s not as far-fetched as it may seem. Eli has already found success in competitions, placing fifth last year in the Youth in Bluegrass competition at the Ozark Mountain Music Association. This would have been quite an accomplishment for an established bluegrass band. But Eli’s band in the competition was only weeks old. He teamed up with a banjo player he met at a camp in Stephenville and a bass player who’d never actually played bluegrass music before.
Meanwhile, younger brother Abram, a guitarist, has a slightly different approach: “I don’t practice as much as I should,” he confesses. While perhaps not as adamant about practice time as Eli, Abram is extremely talented. “He has an innate ability to play what we play,” McGaughy says. “Ninety-nine out of 100 people couldn’t do what he does.”
The rhythm, speed and precision of bluegrass guitar sets guitarists like Abram apart, but he has found that he thrives in activities that require dexterity. He is quite accomplished in yo-yo tricks. He can solve a Rubix Cube with surprising speed. Tanna says Abram will “try nearly anything a thousand times until he has it mastered.”
Abram says music has always been important to him, but that he “fell in love” when he started playing bluegrass. Unlike his brother, Abram is not yet ready to commit to trying to make a living playing music—he recently made his school’s basketball team and practice sometimes gets in the way of guitar-picking—but he does have fun playing now.
In band gigs, according to McGaughy, Abram can often “fly by the seat of his pants,” to which Tanna adds, “his ability is kind of a blessing and a curse.” This makes Abram laugh. “Yeah, I just play and hope it sounds good.”
If the excitement of audiences is any indication, it does sound good.
Future Expansion
Future ExpansionBoth boys have grown to love the sounds and rhythms of bluegrass music, and claim to listen almost exclusively to it in their spare time. They’ve recently expanded their repertoire to include Texas Swing music, as made popular by Bob Wills. Their sibling connection makes it fun to play together, adding comfort in improvisation and the ability to more easily cover up any mistakes. Making music together requires cooperation, so there’s no real sibling rivalry. However, both boys do admit to competition in deciding who gets to sing particular songs or take the lead instrumentally.
But in a moment when social media and the internet give young people access to all kinds of music, why did these teenagers choose this early 20th-century genre? “It was me,” Tanna Murphy confesses. Her love for the particular genre, given to her by her family, caused bluegrass melodies to flood the Murphy home during Eli and Abram’s early developmental years.
That’s why a promising young bluegrass band raids her pantry on a daily basis. She’s working to get their music in front of as many audiences as possible. McGaughy refers to Tanna as “promoter extraordinaire.” Tanna says tracking down performance venues and audiences can be difficult, but “there’s something about it when it’s for your kids.” She knows her sons deserve big audiences and is excited for the day they get to play for larger groups.
That day is not too far away. The band is already slated to compete in 2025 at the Blooming Bluegrass Festival in Farmers Branch, Texas; the Oklahoma International Bluegrass Festival (where Eli placed in mandolin competition in the past); and the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. According to the family, this last festival is the “Mecca of Bluegrass.”
Locally, Bomb City Bluegrass has found somewhat of a residency at the Sad Monkey Mercantile, the first place that gave the boys a chance to shine. Their local notoriety has expanded this past year to local farmers’ markets, art walks, house shows and even Center City’s High Noon on the Square concert series. “Every time we play somewhere, someone will always come up after and say that they didn’t know we had that kind of music in Amarillo,” Eli says. Not only do we have it, but we have it in the form of teenage brothers with a very bright future.
Bomb City Bluegrass may soon bring in additional talent. Youngest brother, Silas, 11, has been stepping in on fiddle for the band and is a budding instrumentalist and vocalist in his own right. For bluegrass fans, this talented young family may remind listeners of other successful sibling bands. The teenage prodigies of Nickel Creek burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s. Before that, the Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks) had built a reputation in the late 1980s as siblings playing bluegrass. Could these brothers follow the same path?
It’s possible. That verse hasn’t yet been composed. Until then, the Murphy family is having fun introducing their music to the masses—within the Bomb City and beyond.
