Tap-dancing violinist plays joyous bluegrass at airport, to lift spirits during delays

9 August 2021, 12:59 | Updated: 11 August 2021, 08:40

Bluegrass and buckdancing, to make airport delays sound a little sweeter.

What do you do when you’re a violinist, and your flight is delayed for five hours? While on her travels in the US, this young tap-dancing troubadour took out her fiddle and played for her fellow airport lounge dwellers.

“Playing music to uplift people’s spirits,” Hillary Klug captioned her viral video, seen now by more than 320,000 music lovers around the world.

Dancing shoes on, Klug’s feet are the beat while her violin rings out joyous bluegrass music.

Her audience is unsurprisingly a little on the weary side after hours of delays, but Klug’s music helps to eke out a few cheers and claps, giving the passengers something to be thankful for as their destination calls.

Klug added in a comment under her video: “We were delayed for five hours and we spent a lot of time on a really hot plane.

“Nobody was in a good mood. That’s why I was trying to uplift their spirits through music.”

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Violinist in the US performs solo for passengers affected by delays in airport

Klug’s classical clogging has been taking the Internet by storm. Look here as she fiddles, sings, and dances to the trad country folk song ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’. Quite something.

The young violinist grew up in Tennessee, and found her feet after attending a clogging class aged eight and falling in love with the style.

It wasn’t until aged 13 that she picked up a violin. She told music blog Acousticult: “Nobody in my family plays music or dances, and I had no idea that the world of old-time music and dance existed, but the more I learned, the more I was drawn to it.”

Her joyous style of dancing is also known as ‘Buck Dancing’, a type of folk dance. Klug’s footwork has made her a National Buck Dancing Champion and Kentucky State Dance Champion.

After seven years in Lynchburg, Tennessee, the young fiddler is now back in Nashville pursuing her music career.