E
ver since his father taught
him to play the guitar and he
learned that he could sing, Kel-
vin Damrell knew he wanted to
be a performer. However, life is known
for throwing curveballs.
In 2017, Damrell’s wife Sara gave
birth to their second son. Damrell and
his family began to struggle financially,
and it seemed like his dreams of being
a performer might have to be put on
hold. Then, in September, everything
changed.
“I was in my truck
one day just about
broke in half financial-
ly. …On the way home
from work, I was
almost to the point
of tears and started
praying. I remember
asking God to please
send me something
that would help my
family financially,”
Damrell said. “At that
point, I wasn’t wor-
ried about if it made
me happy or not. I
just wanted to be a
provider. Where my
babies didn’t have to struggle. I don’t
remember exactly when it was that I
got the call, but almost two weeks later
after that prayer in my truck, I got the
call to come hangout and play with The
Steeldrivers.”
Brent Truitt, The Steeldriver’s mando-
lin player, had reached out to Damrell
over Facebook to see if he would be in-
terested in connecting. Of course, Dam-
rell said yes. He remembers that at the
time his wife’s favorite song was “Where
Rainbows Never Die” by The Steeldriv-
ers. So he broke the news to her by tell-
ing her that he was going to meet with
the band who played her favorite song.
“We were both mind blown. Especially
Madison Magazine A p r i l - M ay 2 02 0
Story and photos by Destinee Ott
for it to be so close to when I cried out to
the Lord for help,” Damrell said.
The day that Damrell was scheduled
to meet with The Steeldrivers he said
he had the worst head cold of his life.
So, before driving down, he warned the
band and told them he might not be
able to perform at his best.
“They said that was fine. They said
the meeting didn’t determine anything.
They just wanted to hangout and see if
we liked one another,” Damrell said.
In order to try and
combat his head cold
and stay hydrated on the
way to meet The Steel-
drivers, Damrell drank
at least two gallons of
water.
Damrell said, when he
got together with The
Steeldrivers that day,
he did a lot better than
he thought he was going
to. As for how they got
along, Damrell said they
were rolling with laugh-
ter pretty much the
entire time they were
together.
As Damrell headed
back home after the jam session and get
together, he said that he got a call from
The Steeldrivers before he had made it
to I-40. They told Damrell that the deci-
sion was between him and another guy
and they asked if they chose him would
he take the job? Of course, Damrell said
yes.
“I pretty much got the job before I
made it back to the Kentucky line,”
Damrell said.
Damrell ended up being The Steel-
driver’s final choice and soon became
lead singer and guitar player alongside
Tammy Rogers, who plays the fiddle,
Richard Bailey, who plays banjo, Mike
Fleming, who plays bass, and Brent