Jessie Baker poses in Gibson’s workshop in Nashville, Tenn., with a banjo that was made for Terry Baucom.

Teenage banjo wiz Jessie Baker is the newest member of Michael Cleveland’s band, Flamekeeper.

A former resident of Martinsville, Ind., just down the road a piece from the famed Bill Monroe Memorial Bluegrass Park and Campground in Bean Blossom, Ind., Jessie Baker has been performing with Karl Shiflett and the Big Country Show, as well as his own family band, The Baker Boys. He now makes his home in Georgetown, Ky.

Baker has also performed with Wildfire and The Wildwood Valley Boys, and has made appearances with Marty Raybon and Full Circle, David Peterson and 1946, Avery County, Melvin Goins and Windy Mountain and Ronnie Stoneman.

Jessie Baker finds himself in prestigious company with Flamekeeper now holding the title of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s “Instrumental Group Of The Year,” an award received last week during the annual IBMA Awards show, held at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn. Additionally, Cleveland took home the “Fiddle Player Of The Year” award, his sixth win in that category.