Between the two of them, fiddlers Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland have amassed an impressive 18 Fiddle Player of the Year Awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association – an easy majority of the fiddle trophies given out over the awards’ 34-year history. Plus, they’ve separately racked up 17 GRAMMY nominations and four wins. Now, this pair of critically-acclaimed, generational talents in bluegrass and roots music are joining forces on their first duo album ever, Carter & Cleveland.

Out March 28, 2025, Carter & Cleveland builds on the duo’s more than 30 years of friendship, a natural culmination of their frequent musical cross pollinations and collaborations across that time. They first met as teenagers, Cleveland was 13 and Carter was 19, and they were already mutual admirers of the skill, musicality, reverence for tradition, and the unique fiddle fire they each heard in the other’s playing.

“I remember you came to a [Del McCoury Band] show and you gave me your CD,” Carter says to Cleveland, recalling their first handful of meetings in the mid ‘90s. “I went home and listened to it and I was blown away. I couldn’t believe how good you had gotten. To me at that time, you sounded as good as anybody out there playing.”

A handful of decades later, their accolades and trophy collections are just a couple of demonstrations of the fact both Carter and Cleveland remain “as good as anybody” out there playing. As they each grew and developed as pickers and musicians, they continued to cross paths at so many junctures – festivals, co-bills, conferences, in Indiana, Nashville, Kentucky, and beyond. They’d perform together as a special feature with Del McCoury or Carter would jump on stage with Cleveland’s band, Flamekeeper, too. Though they would rarely have the time to rehearse material or build repertoire, the two always had an ease and comfortability making music together, even off the cuff, pulling their bows in perfect synchronicity. They speak about their remarkably complementary styles like family bands talk about singing harmony – there’s something magical and telepathic about their connection.

“Twin fiddle, it's like really good vocal harmony when it's right,” Cleveland explains. “When it's super tight and together, there’s nothing else like it. It’s like our own brother duet...” Carter & Cleveland is chocked full of this particular brand of brotherly fiddle synergy, built around their one-of-a-kind, effortless blend. Across its eleven tracks there’s bluegrass, fiddle tune standards, rip roarin’ alt-country, and endlessly rich and lush double- and triple-stop harmonies.

Carter’s delicious and honeyed baritone vocals anchor quite a few numbers, from the album’s Tim O’Brien-penned lead track, “Give it Away,” to “Outrun the Rain,” a slow burner dripping with loneliness and featuring guest vocals by Vince Gill and Jaelee Roberts, to a stellar cover of John Hartford’s “With a Vamp in the Middle.” There are classic instrumentals, of course, with Carter and Cleveland sawing in mouthwatering twin on tracks like “Kern County Breakdown,” a reimagined staple of guitar-pickin’ country, and“Bluegrass in the Backwoods” and “Stoney Lonesome,” pulled directly from the great bluegrass fiddle songbook. String band music is just the beginning, though, as there are plenty of Americana, country, and “grassicana” moments, as well. “Middle of Middle Tennessee,” which was written by Darrell Scott, is an alt-country banger with tinges of Southern rock that reminds of the Earl Scruggs Revue in their heyday and is propelled, like all great country tunes, bydriving, superlative bluegrass fiddling.

An extensive lineup of all-star special guests (like Gill, Roberts, Scott, Sam Bush, Del McCoury, Ronnie McCoury, Charlie Worsham, Jeff White, and many more) pitch in alongside the album’s session players (such as Cody Kilby, Bryan Sutton, Cory Walker, Alan Bartram – all also lifelong friends) to create an album that is so much greater than the mere sum of its parts. Across the nearly one hundred years of bluegrass canon, catalog, and the genre’s essential recordings there are so many duo albums, collaborations such as this, that have earned well-deserved worshipful adoration from roots music fans, from Ralph Stanley & Jimmy Martin to Ricky Skaggs & Tony Rice to Bill Monroe & Doc Watson. Carter & Cleveland is certainly poised to land right next to these indispensable records in bluegrass history books and in the hearts of its listeners.

But, Carter and Cleveland themselves laugh off such comparisons, as two old friends who just love a “good pick” together might. “It would be the greatest thing ever if this record would be considered in the same breath as albums like that,” Cleveland replies. “It's just hard to think about that when it's something I'm doing... I don't know, but this album is a dream come true for me. I can tell you that.” For bluegrass and fiddle fans the world over, Carter & Cleveland is also undoubtedly a dream come true.