Adam Steffey grew up in East Tennessee and played with the Lonesome River Band and Dusty Miller early in his career. He joined Alison Krauss's Union Station in the early '90s, and performed with the group for nearly seven years, winning multiple Grammy and IBMA awards with them. In 1998, he helped lay plans for Mountain Heart, and joined The Isaacs. Steffey has won seven IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year Awards, most recently in 2010. In 2010, after 


Adam Steffey grew up playing mandolin in the Tri-Cities region of East Tennessee.  He was first introduced to bluegrass music by his maternal grandfather, Fred Carter, who would take Adam to the Carter Fold in Hiltons, VA.  There he became interested in the music and was especially intrigued by the sound of the mandolin.  Dempsey Young, who was with the great band The Lost and Found, was the first player to really spark the desire to get hold of a mandolin.  After taking lessons in Kingsport,TN for a year or so, Adam began playing with various local bands such as The Boys in the Band, Bluegrass Edition, and Dusty Miller.  It was during this time that he began to play with such musicians as Tim Stafford, Barry Bales, James Alan Shelton, and others who would go on to play professionally.

Adam's first full time playing position was with The Lonesome River Band, in 1987.  He was a member of this group for a year before helping to form Dusty Miller.  While playing with Dusty Miller he became aquainted with a young Alison Krauss, with whom he worked for the next seven and a half years.  In 1998 Adam left Alison Krauss and Union Station, and a few months later began playing with the bluegrass/gospel group The Isaacs, where he would make his musical home for the next three years.  In mid-2001, bluegrass group Mountain Heart called upon Adam to fill the vacant mandolin position and he was a part of their band for the next six and a half years. During Steffey's years with Alison Krauss and Union Station, he became good friends with Dan Tyminski, and joined the Dan Tyminski Band, playing mandolin.

In 2010, Steffey, who released a solo project with Mountain Home in 2002, returned to Mountain Home—this time, as part of a new supergroup, The Boxcars. Steffey has been honored with a Grammy Award (while with Alison Krauss and Union Station) and is a seven-time winner of the Mandolin Player of the Year award from the International Bluegrass Music Association.