Today I must tip my imaginary Stetson to my pal Craig Poland Smith for unearthing this gem for me by the literally named family quartet Southern Raised.

Their playing is impeccable, thanks in part to classical training, and their harmonies are deliciously syncopated, as you might expect from siblings.

Here they are performing their version of the country classic written and performed by Merle Travis back in 1947 and popularised by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955.

As you may well surmise from their name, they hail from the American south – northwest Arkansas to be exact – and play the bluegrass music of their native Ozark Mountains.

The Reith siblings first formed back in 2007 when Matt was just nine, Emily was 12, Sarah (another sibling, who left in 2019 to start a family) was 18 and Lindsay was 20.

The three sisters and their little brother became interested in bluegrass after watching family groups perform in a town near their home, the delightfully named Silver Dollar City, and falling in love with old-time music.

All of them had trained as classical musicians but bought themselves traditional instruments – banjos, mandolins, dobros and the like – and used their talents to switch over to bluegrass.

In this clip Emily plays violin and mandolin, Alex plays banjo, Lindsay plays bass and Matt plays guitar (and sings bass).

Their first performance was as a trio of the three girls at a church function for their grandmother, playing instrumentals. After that they began receiving requests to play more shows and added Matt after he gave up his cello lessons and took up the guitar.

Since then Sarah has left the group to start a family and been replaced by Alex, who has since married Emily to make it a family group again – a romantic event that they firmly believe was the work of the man upstairs.

They say: “Our ultimate goal, always, is to share the message of Jesus Christ—and the hope, and the love, and the acceptance we have in Him.”