A family scene indoors with an adult male, middle-aged infant, and adult female playing musical instruments on a couch under soft lighting. 2:03
John Dowling - Banjo Player UK channel icon John Dowling - Banjo Player UKOriginal creator 15K views Save

Banjo, fiddle and one happy baby on the couch

Most babies get a lullaby. The Dowling baby gets a bluegrass tune that Mom and Dad wrote themselves, played live on the living room couch. more

Anna Dowling tucks her fiddle under her chin, and John Dowling has the banjo. The tune is called "Themis," and it is one of their own.

Anna Dowling, wearing glasses, sits indoors playing a violin held under her chin. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Anna Dowling plays fiddle on the couch as "Themis" gets going.

John is a banjo player from Cornwall, England, and a well-known one. He started on the violin as a boy, won a music scholarship to Truro School, and got his first banjo as a Christmas present. He once taught comedian Frank Skinner to play it on TV, and the Scottish actor Billy Connolly has called him the most remarkable banjo player he had heard in ages.

None of that matters to the toughest critic in the room. The baby is right there on the couch with them and loves it, and at one point Mom and Dad are laughing along.

A family scene indoors with an adult male, middle-aged infant, and adult female playing musical instruments on a couch under soft lighting. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Most babies get a lullaby.

Viewers could relate. One wrote that their own reaction was exactly the same as the baby's. Another, watching the baby work on a sweater, decided it was a careful test to make sure the sweater wasn't food.

John and Anna play together away from the couch, too, in a band called The Dowling Thing that mixes bluegrass with jazz, folk and funk. Here, though, the stage is a sofa and the crowd is one small person.

Anna Dowling, wearing glasses, plays violin while seated on a couch indoors. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Anna keeps the fiddle going for their smallest listener.

Commenters already have plans for the baby. One is sure a kid raised by parents like these will be a musician one day. Another is waiting for the next show, with Baby Dowling back in action.

#singing