Ron Stewart (born 1968) is a bluegrass fiddler and banjo player from Indiana who has held the fiddle chair in the Lynn Morris Band, J.D. Crowe and the New South, and the Seldom Scene. He won IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year in 2000 and IBMA Banjo Player of the Year in 2011, a double few players have matched. He co-founded the Boxcars, which won IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year three years running.
Why Stewart matters
Stewart is the model for the working traditional bluegrass fiddler. He plays the Flatt and Scruggs and Bill Monroe repertoire the way it was cut, with the drive and the shuffle intact, and he can do the same job on banjo when a band needs it. He has played on more than 70 albums as a sideman, and when a top band wants a fiddler who will not overplay and will not miss, they call him.
Life and career
Stewart was born on December 11, 1968, in Paoli, Indiana. He started fiddle at age three. At age nine he played as a guest on a live album with Lester Flatt. From 1977 to 1990 he played in the Stewart Family Band, billed as Little Ronnie Stewart. He cut a solo record, Talkin’ Fiddle Blues, in 1979.
In 1989 he recorded two albums with Curly Seckler, the former Flatt and Scruggs mandolin player. From 1991 to 1994 he played with Gary Brewer and the Kentucky Ramblers. In 1997 he joined the Lynn Morris Band on fiddle, banjo, and guitar and stayed until 2003. The IBMA named him Fiddle Player of the Year in 2000. He released Time Stands Still on Rounder in 2001, playing fiddle, banjo, and lead guitar.
In 2003 he joined J.D. Crowe and the New South, and in 2007 the Dan Tyminski Band. In 2010 he co-founded the Boxcars with Adam Steffey, Keith Garrett, John Bowman, and Harold Nixon, playing banjo. The Boxcars won IBMA New Artist of the Year in 2011 and Instrumental Group of the Year in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Stewart won IBMA Banjo Player of the Year in 2011. The band made four albums for Mountain Home and broke up in October 2017.
Weeks after the Boxcars ended, the Seldom Scene hired Stewart to replace fiddler Rickie Simpkins. He joined Dudley Connell, Lou Reid, Fred Travers, and Ronnie Simpkins in the band he had listened to since its 1972 album Act 1. He also builds and restores violins with his father Frank.
Playing style
Stewart plays traditional bluegrass fiddle with a strong shuffle and a clean, dry tone. His model is the Flatt and Scruggs fiddle sound of Benny Martin and Paul Warren: short bow strokes, a hard downbeat, and double stops that lock in with the banjo roll. He does not float over the band. He drives it.
His banjo background shows in his timing. He hears fiddle breaks the way a Scruggs-style picker hears rolls, so his phrases land square on the beat and leave the singer room. On Time Stands Still he plays a French-made fiddle and a 1937 Gibson TB-1 conversion banjo, and the record moves between the two without the feel changing.
Influences and legacy
Stewart built his sound on the Flatt and Scruggs fiddlers, Benny Martin and Paul Warren, and he teaches their licks on his instructional video. Lester Flatt put him on a live record as a child, and he recorded two albums with Flatt’s longtime partner Curly Seckler. Lynn Morris, J.D. Crowe, and Dan Tyminski gave him the top bandstands in the music.
He has played beside Dudley Connell, Adam Steffey, Rob Ickes, and Dan Tyminski. His banjo tabs from the first Boxcars album are a study text for pickers, and the Boxcars’ four albums are reference recordings for the Flatt and Scruggs sound played by a modern band.
Signature tunes and songs
Foggy Mountain Rock Soldier’s Joy Blue Fiddler Time Stands Still Stewart’s Dream Whistling Rufus.
Essential recordings
Time Stands Still (Rounder, 2001) The Boxcars (Mountain Home, 2010) All In, the Boxcars (Mountain Home, 2012) It’s Just a Road, the Boxcars (Mountain Home, 2013)
Awards and honors
IBMA Fiddle Player of the Year (2000) IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, Knee-Deep in Bluegrass: The AcuTab Sessions (2001) IBMA Banjo Player of the Year (2011, tie) IBMA New Artist of the Year, the Boxcars (2011) IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year, the Boxcars (2011, 2012, 2013) IBMA Collaborative Recording of the Year, Life Goes On (2012) IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, Foggy Mountain Rock (2013)
Watch and listen
Stewart plays Appalachian Rain with the Seldom Scene. Listen to how he fills between the vocal lines and then drops out.
Stewart demonstrates the fiddle styles of the Flatt and Scruggs fiddlers.
What to learn from Stewart
Learn Foggy Mountain Rock from the 2013 IBMA-winning recording with Tyminski and Tom Adams, or from the original Flatt and Scruggs cut. It is a simple tune in a bluesy key, and Stewart plays it with the bow doing the work. The technique to steal is his shuffle. Play a tune like Soldier’s Joy with a strict Nashville shuffle, long-short-short, and keep the accent on the downbeat. Do not add slides or slurs until the shuffle is steady. That is the sound that makes a bluegrass band feel like one, and Stewart has built a career on it.
Sources
Ron Stewart, IBMA award recipients The Boxcars, IBMA award recipients Ron Stewart (bluegrass), Wikipedia Ron Stewart lands with Seldom Scene, Bluegrass Today The Boxcars to decouple after 2017, Bluegrass Today Boxcars to reunite for Blue Highway Fest 2026, Bluegrass Today Ron Stewart Boxcars banjo tabs, Bluegrass Today Ron Stewart, Time Stands Still, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more bluegrass fiddlers. Stewart’s style comes from Benny Martin and Paul Warren. Michael Cleveland and Jason Carter play the same hard-driving traditional sound today. His Seldom Scene bandmate Dudley Connell has a page in the guitar section.