Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper + Crooked Road Ramblers
Saturday, June 17, 7 p.m.
$30 Adults, children 12 & younger free

Concert Sponsor

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper

From an early age, Michael Cleveland heard old-time and bluegrass music at local jams and festivals near his hometown of Henryville, Ind., inspiring him to take up the fiddle at age four. Cleveland began playing professionally after he graduated from high school, first with Jeff White and later with Dale Ann Bradley and Rhonda Vincent. Since he was young, however, Cleveland had dreamed of leading his own band. In 2006, he formed Flamekeeper, a group that has won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) “Instrumental Group of the Year” award seven times.

Cleveland’s personal accolades are numerous as well. He has been recognized 12 times as the IBMA’s “Fiddler of the Year,” was inducted into the National Fiddlers’ Hall of Fame in 2018, and in 2019, he won a Grammy for his album Tall Fiddler. In 2022, the National Endowment for the Arts named him a Heritage Fellow, the United States’ highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. 

This concert is sponsored by the National Council for Traditional Arts as part of its series National Treasures: A Tour of Culture Bearers in National Parks, in celebration of the 2026 United States Semiquincentennial in collaboration with the National Park Service (NPS).  National Treasures showcases the nation’s most distinguished cultural ambassadors at signature National Parks throughout the American landscape. The program features recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts’ prestigious National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor awarded to folk and traditional artists. 

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Michael Cleveland

Crooked Road Ramblers

The Crooked Road Ramblers are an old-time band from Southwest Virginia, steeped in the traditional music of the Blue Ridge Mountains. You can find them performing a mixture of instrumental dance music, old ballads, and traditional country and bluegrass at notable venues across the region, including the Carter Family Fold, Albert Hash Memorial Festival, and Wayne Henderson Festival.

The band was started in 2002 by fiddler Kilby Spencer, originally from Whitetop, Virginia. Kilby has been playing old-time music most of his life, learning from his parents, Thornton and Emily Spencer.

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Crooked Road Ramblers

ADDITIONAL CONCERT DETAILS

Gates open to ticket holders at 5:45 p.m. Season pass holders are allowed into the amphitheater 15 minutes early, at 5:30 p.m.

Bring a chair or blanket to sit on. You may bring a coolers or picnic basket, but no alcohol please.

Concerts are held rain or shine, and it can be cool in the mountains when the sun goes down, so bring a raincoat, poncho or umbrella, and a sweater or jacket.

Please note that advance ticket purchases are nonrefundable.

For more information, view our concert FAQs

SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR ATTENDEES

The Roots of American Music concert series is held in the Blue Ridge Music Center’s spacious outdoor amphitheater on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

To make the experience as safe as possible, please stay at home if you have a fever, cough, aches and pains, loss of smell or taste, difficulty breathing, or are sneezing and coughing.

Concert attendees are asked to maintain six feet of distance between groups throughout the evening, including when standing in line and selecting seating locations in the amphitheater.

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