BERRIEN CENTER — Ethan Shelton is living proof you can teach an old dog new tricks.

The 108-year-old Berrien County man and founder of Shelton’s Farms in Niles decided at age 107 he was going to start playing the violin.

“I told my doctor that’s what I was going to do and his eyebrows went up, ‘What?’” said Shelton, as he sat in his home in Berrien Center.

Shelton practices almost every day on a used violin he bought about a year ago for $25.

“It is close to 100 years old — almost as old as I am,” he quipped.

Shelton can play a few tunes on the fiddle, but said he won’t play in public until he gets a little better at it.

In spite of his age, Shelton plays in bluegrass jam sessions twice a month — once at a church in South Bend and once in Wakarusa. He said he also plays for sick people, an activity he enjoys “more than anything else.”

“It makes somebody feel pretty good,” he said.

Shelton can play several stringed instruments, including the guitar, banjo, ukulele and mandolin.

He’s also a talented organ and harmonica player. Shelton said he was 7 when he bought his first harmonica from a Sears Roebuck catalog for 11 cents.

‘They didn’t have the one that I ordered so they sent me a better one,” he said. “It was nice, but they don’t do that anymore.”

Music is such a part of Shelton’s life, he said, he can’t do without it. He plays mostly religious music and has a deep love for bluegrass.

“It is just catchy. The songs in bluegrass they’ll make you tap your foot almost,” he said.

Shelton’s love of bluegrass music has caught the attention of organizers of the Wakarusa Bluegrass Festival.

They asked Shelton to be the honorary festival chairman during this year’s festival June 9 in Wakarusa, Ind.

Shelton said he’ll be riding in a fancy car during the festival parade.

“I am suppose to wave and if they don’t wave back I’ll point my finger at them,” he said.