Adam Steffey and The Boxcars Roll into Carter Fold May 5th

Hiltons, VA -- Award winning bluegrass group Adam Steffey and The Boxcars will be performing at the historic Carter Family fold. Adam will be backed up by the Boxcars - Ron Stewart, John R. Bowman, Keith Garrett, and Harold Nixon - all talented, professional, and accomplished musicians in their own right. Saturday, May 5th, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. the Carter Family Fold in Hiltons, Virginia, will be presenting a concert of bluegrass music. Admission to the concert is $10 for adults, $1 for children 6 to 11, under age 6 free.

An east Tennessee native, Adam found a place in the Tennessee-Virginia border area's thriving bluegrass scene in short order, serving early stints with the Lonesome River Band (Dan Tyminski was his replacement there) and then helping to found the near legendary group, Dusty Miller, along with Barry Bales and guitarist Tim Stafford. The three jumped to the big time together when Alison Krauss recruited them into Union Station; and for nearly seven years, Steffey lived the life of a high profile musician as the band earned Grammy awards and IBMA trophies, toured extensively, made national TV appearances, and recorded albums that reached far beyond the core bluegrass audience.

Yet by 1998, the restless side of Steffey's spirit made itself felt when he left the group and, after helping to lay plans for what later became Mountain Heart, joined the bluegrass gospel group The Isaccs - a setting in which he played a different role. During his years with Alison Krauss and Union Station, Adam became good friends with Dan Tyminski - thus leading to a slot as mandolin player for the Dan Tyminski Band. Adam is also an in-demand session player and has recorded with numerous artists from various genres. He has received the mandolin player of the year award five times from the International Bluegrass Music Association, and is a Grammy award winner. Since his last visit to the Fold, Adam and his wife, Tina, are now the proud parents of twin boys.

Adam will be backed up by the Boxcars - Ron Stewart, John R. Bowman, Keith Garrett, and Harold Nixon - all talented, professional, and accomplished musicians in their own right.

Ron Stewart is well on the roadto becoming a legend in contemporary bluegrass music. He is already one of the most sought after multi-instrumental session players in the genre's history, and is in high demand as an engineer and producer. He grew up in rural southern Indiana, an hour and a half from Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom bluegrass festival, surrounded by a family that played bluegrass and old time country music and a community rich with musicians. In his thirty-three years of playing banjo, fiddle, guitar, bass, and mandolin, Ron has gone from fronting his family band for over ten years to working with a who's who of bluegrass, including Lynn Morris, Curly Seckler, a guest appearance at age nine on a live album with Lester Flatt and, most recently, a six-year stint as fiddler for J.D. Crowe and the New South, followed by a stint as a member of the Dan Tyminski Band. Notably, Ron engineered much of, and played fiddle on, the New South's 2006 release - Lefty's Old Guitar, which was nominated for a Grammy.

How many folks can say they were born in Mayberry, worked for Alison Krauss, and are married to one of the Issacs? Well, one: John R. Bowman. A family move to Ararat, Virginia, and exposure to the rich musical heritage in that region eventually led to Doyle Lawson asking him to join Quicksilver in 1991. He stayed with the band a year and recorded four CDs with them. During the summer of 1991, he met back up with his old buddies from a group called Dusty Miller - Adam Steffey and Barry Bales. They were playing with a young lady from Champagne, Illinois, - Allison Krauss. Alison asked him to join her band as Dan Tyminski was going back to the Lonesome River Band. John played with Alison about fifteen months. In 1994, he married Becky Isaacs and worked with them on various levels for nearly 18 years.

Keith Garrett grew up in the community of Citico in east Tennessee. His earliest and possibly most important musical influence was his dad, William Garrett, who taught Keith to play the guitar at the age of thirteen. Almost immediately, he was drawn to the music of such greats as Tony Rice, Keith Whitley, the Bluegrass Album Band, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and Ricky Skaggs. He soon began playing with various local and regional bands. In 2000, Keith became a founding member of Blue Moon Rising, an east Tennessee based bluegrass band that received national acclaim and was nominated for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2006 by the IBMA. Keith continued to hone his talents and earned himself a place alongside some of the best bluegrass musicians.

Harold Nixon has been a working musician since he was fifteen years old, and has had an intense interest in recording almost from the beginning. With a keen ear and rock solid sense of rhythm and timing, he has gained the respect of the best in the business. His hard work paid off and led to a six year stint with J. D. Crowe and the New South, touring with the band, and appearing on the 2008 Grammy-nominated release Lefty's Old Guitar. Some recent work with Blue Moon Rising has kept him in the spotlight the past couple of years.

Bluegrass just doesn't get any better than Adam Steffey and the Boxcars. For more information on the group, go to www.TheBoxcars.com and be sure you don't miss them at the Carter Family Fold! Bring along your dancing shoes and your friends, and be ready for some down home fun.

Carter Family Memorial Music Center, Incorporated, is a nonprofit, rural arts organization established to preserve traditional, acoustic, mountain music. For further information on the center, go to www.CarterFamilyFold.org. Shows from the Carter Family Fold can be accessed on the internet at www.CarterFoldShow.com.

Carter Music Center is part of the Crooked Road: Virginia's Heritage Music Trail. You can visit the Crooked Road Music Trail site at TheCrookedRoad.org. Partial funding for programs at the center is provided by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information on Saturday's concert, contact the Mountain Music Museum at 276-645-0035. For recorded information on shows coming up at the Fold, call 276-386-6054. http://www.carterfoldshow.com/