Anyone whom Ricky Skaggs has declared is "one of the best banjo players ever" must have something going for him. Tom Adams, the recipient of this high praise, first came to the public's attention performing in Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mountain Boys and later as one of the Johnson Mountain Boys, performing a unique mix of interesting progressive bluegrass and heartfelt traditional bluegrass numbers. Adams' first solo album, Right Hand Man, was released on Rounder Records in 1990. The time following the Johnson Mountain Boys' last album in 1993 was spent working with such artists as Lynn Morris, Blue Highway, and Rhonda Vincent. His second solo album, Adams County Banjo, was released through Rounder in 2001 and featured a further expansion of Adams' unique take on the parameters of bluegrass. ~ Zac Johnson