LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The shock of winning a Grammy on Sunday night in Los Angeles overwhelmed Charlestown, Indiana, fiddler Michael Cleveland.
His album “Tall Fiddler” was named Bluegrass Album of the Year at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“I had it all planned out — who I was going to thank and in what order," Cleveland told WDRB News. "Man, when you walk up there and they hand you that award, it all goes out the window.
“I thanked people who weren’t even on the album. I really did. I thanked one guy, and I thought, 'He didn’t play on that album. He played on the last one.'”
Cleveland, 39, started his work on stringed instruments at age 5 at the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville. He has been blind since birth. He credits his teacher for helping him with the classical Suzuki method, which focuses on aspects including parent responsibility, loving encouragement and constant repetition, according to the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
Cleveland’s love for the music started in the stroller. Friends say they remember him as an infant tapping his feet with the music at bluegrass shows in Henryville, Indiana. His grandparents loved bluegrass and helped orchestrate those shows a couple of times a month. By age 12, Cleveland started playing in front of crowds.
He said endless practice — not talent — helped him develop into one of the planet’s best fiddlers.
“The way bluegrass is supposed to be and supposed to sound and some of the speed and to play with that kind of accuracy is a lot more I think than people realize,” Cleveland said.
Now the musicians Cleveland always looked up to look up to him, including one of his all-time favorites, Vince Gill.
“He moves me. It’s wicked to see how much music he pulls out of a bow. He’s untouchable,” Gill said in the documentary film “Flamekeeper - The Michael Cleveland Story.”
And blindness might be an advantage for Cleveland, according to Gill.
“He does it all by ear," Gill said. "He doesn’t have these (pointing to his eyes) to distract him.”
Cleveland has played all over the country and has made many appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Now with a Grammy on top of so many other awards, bigger and more lucrative shows are sure to come. But Cleveland said he wants to spread the beauty of bluegrass beyond folks who already appreciate it.
“We want to play for audiences who don’t know what bluegrass music is,” he said. “We want to play for rock festivals.”
Despite a busy tour schedule for 2020, Cleveland hopes to write another album soon in time to possibly get a third straight nomination for Bluegrass Album of the Year.
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