It was a grand night for banjos and fiddles and song. On Wednesday October 1, 2014, during Raleigh's Wide Open Bluegrass event, WUNC hosted four bands on the Daily Planet stage at the Museum of Natural Sciences.
The evening began with a rousing fiddle instrumental from Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper. Cleveland is a nine-time winner of the IBMA Fiddler of the Year award and has led the Flamekeeper band for nearly a decade. He's performed at the Grand Ole Opry and on A Prairie Home Companion, and played before the U.S. Congress in his early teens. Cleveland is a graduate of the Kentucky School for the Blind.
Flamekeeper have been honored four-times as the Instrumental Group of the Year by the IBMA. The band features Glenn Gibson, banjo, mandolin player Nathan Livers, Tyler Griffith, bass, and guitar picker Joshua Richards.
This Raleigh Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper concert was also broadcast on WUNC's Back Porch Music a few weeks after the event.
Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, The Spinney Brothers, and Joe Mullins & The Radio Ramblers also performed.
Additionally, on the same evening, WUNC produced a special live broadcast with Washington, D.C.-based WAMU's Bluegrass Country.
The IBMA selected Raleigh as its home in 2013 and will remain in the capital city through 2018. The event includes dozens of venues and hundreds of concerts across the area, including Wide Open Bluegrass, in addition to a business conference and trade show hosted at the Raleigh Convention Center.