Tom Adams

Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper have announced the addition of IBMA multi-award winner Tom Adams to the band. Adams will be taking on lead vocal and guitar duties in place of the recently departed Darrell Webb.

First gaining national recognition more than twenty years ago with the legendary Jimmy Martin, banjo master Tom Adams’ debut recording, Right Hand Man, was hailed as the “heir apparent” to Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Banjo. While banjo player extraordinaire has been his main role for most of his music career, Adams is equally proficient on guitar and has been performing for the past year as guitarist and lead singer with Bill Emerson and Sweet Dixie.

Adams is a winner of many IBMA accolades. Perhaps it was in 2004 when Tom Adams and Michael Cleveland won IBMA’s Instrumental Album of the Year for Live At The Ragged Edge that the two talented musicians first thought of working together on a more permanent basis. After stints as bandmates with Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and Dale Ann Bradley, the two are now joining forces again to present the newest, and most assuredly, the most talked about version of FlamekeeperMichael Cleveland & Flamekeeper online.
to date.

“Mike’s playing just knocks me out and when you’re playing with him and you’re a part of that groove, it’s just one of the best things in the world”, states Adams. “I am so excited to be working with him and his great band.”

The admiration and mutual respect between the two men is quite evident. “Tom Adams is one of the most incredible musicians I’ve ever had the opportunity to play with”, remarks Cleveland. “He is the king of taste and timing in my opinion and it is going to be so awesome to work with him again after all these years.”

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, fronted by IBMA’s 6-time Fiddle Player Of The Year, also consists of Jesse Brock on mandolin, Marshall Wilborn on bass and Jessie Baker on banjo. Tom Adams will begin his tenure as guitarist and lead singer with the band on August 7th at Bluegrass In The Park in Henderson, Kentucky.