We’ve written a number of times about Jeremiah Penny, a very talented young man who has overcome his autism to become a fine banjo player.
He plays with his family’s gospel bluegrass group, The Penny Family, who tour regionally in North Carolina. His dad, Brent, plays guitar, and his mom, Sonia is on bass, with sister, Lea, on fiddle and brother, Silas, on mandolin.
Brent’s testimony about how Jeremiah has been deeply blessed by bluegrass music is a part of all their performances. A pastor at a small country church, Penny tells how he prayed over Jeremiah in the middle of a sermon when the boy was eight years old. He says that Jeremiah started getting better right away, and soon picked up the banjo. It became the very best therapy they could imagine, and has allowed him to go places and do things his parents had feared he could never accomplish.
With his 18th birthday approaching, his parents asked what he might like as a gift to celebrate, and well… let’s have Brent explain what has happened.
“I asked Jeremiah what he wanted for his 18th birthday. He thought about it, and said he wanted to have a big concert, one of the biggest that we have ever had, and have it here in our hometown of Beulaville, NC. I said, ‘Wow, that’s not going to be an easy present to get together.’
After talking it over with him he decided he wanted two groups to play with us, our friends The King James Boys and The Churchmen. We decided to rent the Fine Arts Building at the East Duplin High School as the location for the concert.
Our family group decided to call it our 10th anniversary singing, being this year marks 10 years since Jeremiah started playing with our family group.
Jeremiah says he is so excited about what 2026 will bring, having had a dream come true for our family band to get the opportunity to play at Lorraine’s Coffee House on January 9 of this year, and being asked to come back on May 29, and now having a 10th anniversary sing on February 7. He is overjoyed.
We are so proud of Jeremiah, he has overcome so many obstacles in life with the help of the Lord, and has grown so much in music.
This celebration is open to the public for everyone to come celebrate with us.”
East Dublin High School is on NC-111 HWY in Beulaville. The concert will begin at 2:00 p.m. next Saturday afternoon, doors opening at 1:00. There is no admission fee, though a love offering will be requested.
