He's grown into his bluegrass roots

Michael Cleveland started playing the fiddle at 4. At 28, the blind virtuoso has won numerous awards. (Jim mcguire)

Michael Cleveland didn't have the luxury of mastering his craft in private. Based on the videos of the young fiddler floating around on YouTube, it's obvious he was destined to become one of bluegrass's contemporary stars.

In a scene from the 1993 bluegrass concert film "Gather at the River," a 13-year-old Cleveland is seen playing with other pint-sized musicians in a group called the Bluegrass Youth All-Stars. The five-minute video ends with Cleveland, who is blind, jamming with legendary guitarist Doc Watson, who is also blind. Watson asks Cleveland if he ever feels held back by his disability.

"I don't think of it too much, you know," Cleveland says in his high-pitched teenage voice. "There are some things I can't do, but I'm gonna make do with what I can do." To which Watson, visibly moved, replies, "You've got a God-given talent that nobody can rob you of."

It's a poignant exchange that set the stage for Cleveland's career as a fiddle virtuoso. Cleveland, who plays at this weekend's Joe Val Bluegrass Festival tomorrow in Framingham, is 28 now and has racked up numerous awards. He has routinely been named fiddle player of the year at the International Bluegrass Music Association's annual Bluegrass Music Awards.

He's had a meteoric rise in the bluegrass community. After he graduated from the Kentucky School for the Blind, he joined Dale Ann Bradley's band and later went on the road with fellow Rounder Records artist Rhonda Vincent. Still, he says, like everyone else, he had an awkward learning curve.

"When I started playing [at age 4], I was really bad," he says from his home in Indiana. He was determined, though, especially since he was immersed in country music and bluegrass early on. His grandparents started taking him to local bluegrass jam sessions when he was 3 years old, and when he heard "Orange Blossom Special" on the fiddle, he knew he'd found his calling.

"All I wanted to do was play that tune," he says. "I knew that's what I wanted to do."

Cleveland enrolled in the music program at his school, learning to play classical violin through the Suzuki method, which encourages students to develop their own style and pacing.

"But I told the teacher straight off that I wanted to play bluegrass," he says. "She really didn't know what bluegrass was at that time. Well, she did, but she thought bluegrass was Charlie Daniels."

He says his early acclaim, including his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry as a guest of fellow fiddler and friend Alison Krauss, has kept him on course. "It puts pressure on you when you're that young, but it always made me want to be better."

When Cleveland landed a recording contract with Rounder in 2002, he recorded his instrumental debut, "Flame Keeper," as a solo artist. He's a bandleader now - his group, also named Flamekeeper, now includes veteran guitarist Darrell Webb - but still struggles with being in the spotlight.

"When you're a sideman, if something's wrong in a group, you just play the show and then you complain about it and go home. It really doesn't affect you," he says. "When it becomes your band, you get all the problems."

Some of the pressure is taken off Cleveland, though, because he doesn't sing lead. That's unusual in bluegrass, where the frontman is usually the singer (banjo player J.D. Crowe is another notable exception). Cleveland, who does sing baritone parts, is still very much the star of the ensemble, though, performing blistering solos that steal the show.

And 16 years after that encounter with Doc Watson, Cleveland says he's still making do with what he can do.

"Yep, that's still my attitude," he says. "It's the way it's always been for me. If you're born [blind], this is the only thing you know. It's comfortable, it's normal."

James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com.