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Michael Cleveland

Recording Artist · Active 1998–present · Also a musician
Classic Country Traditional Bluegrass

Michael Cleveland is the most decorated fiddler in IBMA history and one of the dominant instrumentalists of contemporary bluegrass, leading his Flamekeeper band through more than a decade of award-winning records while building a parallel reputation as a duo and session collaborator.

  • Born Charles Michael Cleveland on September 18, 1980 in Henryville, Indiana; blind since infancy, with significant hearing loss in one ear from a childhood ear infection.
  • Began Suzuki violin at age 4 and was performing on the Grand Ole Opry and A Prairie Home Companion as a teenager; graduated from the Kentucky School for the Blind.
  • Toured with Dale Ann Bradley and with Rhonda Vincent & the Rage in the late 1990s and early 2000s before forming Flamekeeper in 2006.
  • Released a long string of albums including Let 'Er Go, Boys! (2006, Rounder), Leavin' Town (2008, Rounder), Fiddler's Dream (2016, Compass), Tall Fiddler (2019, Compass), and Lovin' of the Game (2023).
  • Won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for Tall Fiddler in 2020.
  • Twelve-time IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year — the most in the award's history; Flamekeeper has won IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year seven times.
  • Inducted into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame in 2018; received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship in 2022 and the Bluegrass Star Award in 2024.
  • Released the duo album Carter & Cleveland with Jason Carter, expanding the twin-fiddle tradition.

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