Got to play with Mike Cleveland

[Gary Hedrick]

Got the opportunity to play a set with Mike Cleveland last night in Madison, Indiana. He was there early and sat in with the band I get to play with at times......Stoney Lonesome.

A real treat to hear him and to hear him play twin fiddles with Roger Smith, a former Bluegrass Boy of the 50's along with Vernon McQueen another former Bluegrass Boy on the guitar.

Mike is like sponge in terms of absorbing music. He is shown a piece...takes it all in and presto out it comes even better than it went in...

Also he is a very nice young man.

[JimRichter]

Sounds like a killer time, Gary. Cleveland is hands down my favorite actively touring bluegrass fiddler. I spent a lot of time around Butch Robins, as you know, and I know Butch said that Mike is one of the few fiddlers out there that keeps him on his toes. I remember Mike some back when I was going out to Scottsburg in the late 80's/early 90's and he was something else then.

When I was cutting my bluegrass teeth as a teen banjoist back in the mid 80's, the band I was in used to go out to Columbus, IN to open stages hosted by Stoney Lonesome. Nice bunch of guys. Pretty intimidating to go on after them. There was some massive fiddling there.

Southeastern Indiana really is the place in the state to be for bluegrass. Draw a line from Columbus to Louisville and everything east of that is bluegrass country. I grew up in Ripley County, about 40 miles north of Madison, and we always headed over toward North Vernon, Columbus, and especially Scottsburg and Henryville.

Jim

[Ivan Kelsall]

You're a lucky guy Gary. Mike is one of my VERY favourite fiddle players. To me he seems to have more than a bit of Benny Martin in his style.All told he's a great musician,
Saska

[Ken Froman]

hey Jim I think maybe our paths may have crossed as I go to Henryville a lot but jams I go to are on Sundays. You ever there on Sunday ?:mandosmiley:

[JimRichter]

Ken, except for a little bluegrass festival in Henryville that I visited last year, I haven't been a part of that jamming scene since probably 90 or 91. We used to go out to Scottsburg on Saturday nights or Henryville on a Saturday afternoon. We also used to go out to Barnett's camp that he set up for the bluegrass association he headed. I've often wanted to get back into that scene (the Scottsburg/Henryville/Louisville corridor), but distance and time are the primary issues.

Jim

[jaco]

Just saw Mike play in a jam with Josh Pinkham at Riverhawk. Talk about sparks flying.

[pocketbones]

i played with Michael Cleveland a long time ago.

[Robblegrass]

I also like Mike's fiddling and think he's one of the best. To jam with him or even do a set with him, WOW, what a priviledge. Maybe next time he comes back to Edmonton....

Rob Baker

[jramsey]

Put me on the list. I was fortunate enough to get to play two full sets with Mike last night in Ft. Collins, Co. along with Jeff White, Pete and Joan Wernick, Justin Hoffenberg and Jessica Smith. Jeff is in town producing my girlfriend's band Spring Creek for their first Rebel album and he flew Michael out to provide some fiddle for the recording. I play in a side project with Pete so I was lucky enough to get the call when Jeff arranged the gig. I had never met Michael before, but I can honestly say that it was some of the best fiddling I've ever heard live, and he's a super nice guy. Also got to play his Gil for a little while, a very impressive mandolin. Overall a wonderful experience.