bela fleck tour my bluegrass heart

Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum

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Béla Fleck | My Bluegrass Heart

November 4, 2022 - 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm.

Join us November 4th 2022 for Bela Fleck My Bluegrass Heart! Tickets are on sale now.  Preferred seating is $68 and reserved seating is $58.  Doors open at 6:00 pm, and the concert begins at 7:00 pm. Bar and concessions available.  At this time, no covid-19 restrictions will be in place for this concert.

Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart featuring Stuart Duncan, Jacob Jolliff, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, & Bryan Sutton

Over the last four decades, Béla Fleck has made a point of boldly going where no banjo player has gone before, a musical journey that has earned him 16 Grammys in nine different fields, including Country, Pop, Jazz, Instrumental, Classical and World Music. But his roots are in bluegrass, and that’s where he returns with his first bluegrass tour in 24 years, My Bluegrass Heart.

Grammy award-winning album My Bluegrass Heart is the third chapter of a trilogy which began with the 1988 album, Drive, and continued in 1991 with The Bluegrass Sessions. Fleck’s band will spotlight a multi-generational gamut of the best of bluegrass players, all sporting a myriad of Grammy Awards and nominations, as well as gigantic piles of IBMA awards for their instruments: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Jacob Jolliff, multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Schatz, and guitarist Bryan Sutton.

Bundle Tickets with Discounted Hotel Stay

Located next door to the Hall of Fame, The Hampton Inn & Suites Waterfront is the perfect option for accommodations when joining us for a concert!  Enjoy sweeping riverfront views while staying with our hotel partner.  When you bundle your tickets, the Hampton Inn offers discounted rates for your stay.  The price includes two tickets to the concert, and the tickets are located in row H.  You will receive your tickets at check-in with the hotel.  Call the Hampton Inn directly at:  270-685-2005

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Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart

July 6, 2023.

featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Bryan Sutton

Reserved Seating: $39.50, $49.50, $75 *$1.00 from every ticket sold will benefit After School Arts Program

Just in case you aren’t familiar with Béla Fleck, there are many who say he’s the premiere banjo player in the world. Others claim that Béla has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo through a remarkable performing and recording career that has taken him all over the musical map and on a range of solo projects and collaborations. If you are familiar with Béla, you know that he just loves to play the banjo and put it into unique settings.

My Bluegrass Heart , released in 2021, is vividly collaborative, and part of Fleck’s talent as a leader is encouraging his bandmates to shine.

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Béla Fleck back to grass with My Bluegrass Heart – first listen

Banjo maestro Béla Fleck started his professional music career in bluegrass music, and though he has swept through many other regions of contemporary music over the years – jazz, funk, classical, and world music among them – at heart, he still retains a special fondness for the sound of bluegrass banjo. And he has a new release and tour in 2021 that celebrates it, My Bluegrass Heart .

Despite being a serious student and aficionado of the playing Earl Scruggs and J.D. Crowe, Béla’s sort of grass has a different type of flavor, blending in elements of the many stylistic adventures he has traversed during a 45 year career. It’s still primarily three-finger picking, with some single-string deviations, but the melody and harmony of the music he writes encompasses a wider range of sounds.

We all saw it during his time with New Grass Revival, when a fresh faced young Béla wowed us all with stunning runs and tasteful accompaniment behind the singing of John Cowan and Sam Bush. He expanded the limits of bluegrass banjo on his classic Drive album in 1988, recorded with fellow trailblazers Mark O’Connor, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, and Stuart Duncan, and again with The Bluegrass Sessions in 1999 with a similar cast, also including vocalists like Ricky Skaggs, Tim O’Brien, and John Hartford.

Of course these projects had been interspersed between records with The Flecktones, his own classical compositions, work with The Sparrow Quartet, collaborations with Chick Corea, Edgar Meyer, and Tony Trischka, and solo projects.

Even with these deviations, Béla has retained a solid core of admirers in the bluegrass world, among banjo pickers in particular, and his sporadic returns to his roots are genuinely celebrated by his followers.

Simply put, Béla has taken the banjo places that Earl Scruggs never imagined, and played it before audiences who might never have heard it otherwise, who had no appreciation or even willingness to consider bluegrass music. I recall even meeting one man who was horrified and disappointed to discover after being a fan of Béla’s jazz and funk music with The Flecktones, that he also played bluegrass on his banjo.

But as Fleck has said…

“I don’t come from the South, and I always felt like there were people who were more truly focused on doing that bluegrass thing really well. What I tended to want to do more was expand the banjo’s role and look for new things to do with it. Despite that, I was always a bluegrass guy first and foremost. That was certainly the root of my musical soul.”

This year, he lays out another all-star alliance for a set of new bluegrass and bluegrass-flavored tunes, featuring a new generation of youthful string pioneers who grew up on Béla Fleck records. There are some other veterans here on My Bluegrass Heart , like David Grisman, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Mark Schatz, and Tony Trischka, but many are of today’s class of enfant terribles – Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, Justin Moses, and Billy Contreras. Several established artists can also be found, among them Michael Cleveland, Bryan Sutton, Edgar Meyer, Mark Schatz, and Chris Thile.

Fleck says not to expect Foggy Mountain Banjo  on this two-disc set, but a modern interpretation of what the ensemble can produce.

“This is not a straight bluegrass album, but it’s written for a bluegrass band. I like taking that instrumentation, and seeing what I can do with it – how I can stretch it, what I can take from what I’ve learned from other kinds of music, and what can apply for this combination of musicians, the very particularly ‘bluegrass’ idea of how music works, and what can be accomplished that might be unexpected, but still has deep connections to the origins.” 

A first listen is available today, in the form of  Charm School , where Béla is supported by Chris Thile on mandolin, Billy Strings on guitar, Billy Contreras on fiddle, and Royal mast on bass.

Buckle up…

There will be a pair of My Bluegrass Heart tours this year, in September and December, the first with Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, and Bryan Sutton, and the second with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Bryan Sutton. The tour will conclude at The Ryman in Nashville on January 7, 2022 with the whole Hee-Haw gang. Tickets for many of these shows are available now online , and more dates are still to be added.

My Bluegrass Heart is scheduled for a September 10 release on Renew Records , a BMG property. Pre-orders are enabled now online for the two CD or two LP sets.

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Published: 2022/03/31

Béla Fleck Expands My Bluegrass Heart Tour

Photo by Alan Messer

Following his sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Ryman in Nashville, Tenn. Béla Fleck has announced he will expand his My Bluegrass Heart tour. The performances explore the beloved banjoist’s latest offering My Bluegrass Heart and welcomes an ensemble featuring the most skilled and respected bluegrass musicians around.

Of the tour’s third run–which kicks off tonight at Savannah Music Festival in Savanah, Ga.– Fleck said in a release, “We’re reuniting the incredible first band—but with one change. Fiddler Stuart Duncan joins Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Bryan Sutton and me. It’s time for the banjo player in the band to practice feverishly, because keeping up with this gang is no joke. It’s also one of the great joys!

Fleck will continue to perform his album, which is nominated for the 2022 Best Bluegrass Grammy, into April making stops at theaters including the Tarrytown Music Hall, in Tarrytown N.Y., The Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Del., the Knight Theater Charlotte, N.C. and more. He’ll continue with four shows in May including one at Del Fest, along with a few shows in June.

Listen to My Bluegrass Heart here , and for vinyl and more, visit  BelaFleck.com . 

Read Relix ‘s feature with Fleck on his project here . Enjoy some videos featuring tracks off My Bluegrass Heart below:

Béla Fleck:  My Bluegrass Heart Tour 

Featuring Stuart Duncan, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Bryan Sutton

March 31  Savannah, GA  Savannah Music Festival 

April 1  Norfolk, VA  Virginia Arts Festival 

April 2  Reading, PA  Berks Jazz Festival

April 3  Northampton, MA  The Academy of Music

April 5  Lebanon, NH  Lebanon Opera House

April 6  Ithaca, NY  State Theatre of Ithaca

April 7  Concord, NH  Capitol Center for the Arts

April 8  Albany, NY  The Egg

April 9  New London, CT  Garde Arts Center

April 10  Patchogue, NY  Patchogue Theatre

April 12  Williamsport, PA  Community Arts Center

April 13  Tarrytown, NY  Tarrytown Music Hall

April 14  Wilmington, DE  The Grand Opera House

April 15  Charlotte, NC  Knight Theater 

April 16  Bristol, TN  Paramount Bristol 

Featuring Michael Cleveland, Jacob Jolliff, Cody Kilby, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz

May 24  Wilmington, NC  Greenfield Lake Amphitheater

May 25  Durham, NC  Carolina Theatre

May 26  Charleston, SC  Charleston Music Hall 

May 27  Cumberland, MD  DelFest

Featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Bryan Sutton 

June 12  Springfield, MO  Gillioz Theater

June 14  Kansas City, MO  Kauffman Center

June 16 & 19 Telluride, CO  Telluride Bluegrass Festival (+ special guests)

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Béla Fleck Stages All-Star ‘My Bluegrass Heart’ Show At The Ryman With Billy Strings, Sam Bush, More [Videos]

Béla Fleck  on Saturday staged a special performance on his  My Bluegrass Heart  tour featuring  Billy Strings ,  Sam Bush ,  Sierra Hull ,  Michael Cleveland , and more at Nashville’s  Ryman Auditorium . The show celebrated the banjo master’s 2021 album of the same name, hosting guest appearances from many of the musicians who contributed to it, and was streamed live via Mandolin .

After the show was delayed a night by a winter storm that blew through Music City on Friday, it was finally time to get down to business on Saturday. The first set began with a selection from Fleck’s last bluegrass album prior to  My Bluegrass Heart , 1999’s  The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 2 . From there on out, however, it was a showcase for the new LP with fresh compositions including “Verito”, “This Old Road”, “Hug Point”, “Round Rock”, “The Old North Woods”, “Us Chicken”, and the set-closing “Tentacle Dragon (Revenge of the)”.

Related: Billy Strings, Béla Fleck Collaborate On “Balderdash” At AmericanaFest 2019 [Watch]

Guest appearances began rolling in during the second set, starting with Sierra Hull lending her hand to the opening “Psalm 136”. Musicians continued to trot onstage with Molly Tuttle on “Strider”, before the whole gang came out for “Charm School”, including Jerry Douglas , Sam Bush, Billy Strings, Michael Cleveland, and bassist Mark Schatz . The band didn’t let up on the following “Wheels Up”, which welcomed dobro player Justin Moses , Hull, Tuttle, Cleveland, and Schatz.

The storied Ryman stage reached an apex for “Hunter’s Moon” ahead of a fiddle fest on “Baptist Pumpkin Farm” and finally the set-closing “Boulderdash”. Returning for an encore, Fleck and the  My Bluegrass Heart band still had plenty left in the tank. The encore began with New Grass Revival ‘s “When the Storm is Over” ahead of Bill Monroe ‘s “Dark as the Night, Blue as the Day”. A fitting tribute to The Volunteer State came next with “Tennessee (I Hear You Calling Me)” ahead of the show-closing “I’m on My Way Back to the Old Home”.

Check out some fan-shot videos from Béla Fleck’s  My Bluegrass Heart  at Ryman Auditorium on Saturday courtesy of Music City Maven . Fleck has another star-studded  My Bluegrass Heart  show scheduled for tonight, January 9th, at New York City’s  Carnegie Hall  with many of the same musicians in tow with the notable addition of Chris Thile . For tickets and a full list of tour dates visit Fleck’s website .

Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart  – “Tentacle Dragon (Revenge of the)” – 1/8/22

Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart  – “Charm School” – 1/8/22

Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart  – Ryman Auditorium – Nashville, TN – 1/8/22

Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart  – “Tennessee (I Hear You Calling Me)” (Godfery, Robe) – 1/8/22

Setlist : Béla Fleck | Ryman Auditorium | Nashville, TN | 1/8/22

Set One: Blue Mountain Hop, Vertigo, This Old Road, Hug Point, Round Rock, The Old North Woods, Us Chickens, Tentacle Dragon (Revenge of the)

Set Two: Psalm 136 [1], Strider [2], Our Little Secret, Charm School [3], Wheels Up [4], Hunter’s Moon [5], Baptist Pumpkin Farm [6], Boulderdash

Encore: When the Storm Is Over (New Grass Revival), Dark as the Night, Blue as the Day (Bill Monroe), Tennessee (I Hear You Calling Me) (Godfrey, Robe), I’m on My Way Back to the Old Home

[1] w/ Sierra Hull

[2] w/ Molly Tuttle

[3] Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Billy Strings, Michael Cleveland (fiddle), Mark Schatz (bass)

[4] Justin Moses (dobro), Sierra Hull (mandolin), Molly Tuttle, Michael Cleveland (fiddle), Mark Schatz

[5] 10 musicians

[6] 4.5 fiddles including Sam Bush

Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart

April 12, 2022 7:30 pm.

Over the last four decades, Béla Fleck has made a point of boldly going where no banjo player has gone before, a musical journey that has earned him 15 Grammys in nine different fields, including Country, Pop, Jazz, Instrumental, Classical and World Music. But his roots are in bluegrass, and that’s where he returns with his first bluegrass tour in 24 years, My Bluegrass Heart.

My Bluegrass Heart is the third chapter of a trilogy which began with the 1988 album, Drive, and continued in 1991 with The Bluegrass Sessions. Fleck’s band will spotlight a multi-generational gamut of the best of bluegrass players, all sporting a myriad of Grammy Awards and nominations, as well as gigantic piles of IBMA awards for their instruments: fiddler Stuart Duncan, mandolinist Sierra Hull, multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Schatz, and Bryan Sutton on guitar.

“I’m so looking forward to taking this band out on tour. For folks that know bluegrass, these folks need no introduction, as they’ve been making a ton of noise in that world for some time.

I have almost always played and recorded my bluegrass projects with the folks from my own age and peer group — Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, David Grisman, Tony Rice, Mark O’Connor, etc. But for this new album, I wanted to open up to the fresh and powerfully evolved musicians who have come along since us, and partly because of us! This tour will feature some of these players. I first got to know Sierra Hull when she asked me to produce her album, Weighted Mind. She is a shockingly good player, with more than enough ability to play my admittedly angular and sometimes complex form of bluegrass. So I’m thrilled to finally be able to do some live playing with her and take it to the moon!

Stuart Duncan and I go way back. I prided myself on being to him what Jerry Douglas had been to me – encouraging him to move to Nashville to play with Nashville Bluegrass Band. Somehow Stuart has managed to elevate bluegrass fiddling dramatically in earthy and unexpected ways. My pal Bryan Sutton, a stunner of a flat picker and one of the bright lights of the bluegrass guitar continuum has been my cohort in the Telluride House Band as well as an acoustic trio that I toured with some years back with Casey Driessen. But playing on this new album he impressed me over and again with his flexibility and raw ability.

Bassist Mark Schatz and I started playing together way back in 77’, in a Boston Bluegrass band unfortunately named Tasty Licks! We moved together to Lexington, KY in 79’ to start Spectrum. In 81’ I joined New Grass Revival, and he went on to play with Tony Rice, Tim O’Brien, and Nickel Creek among many others. I’m thrilled to be reunited with my old, right-hand man, Mark!

I was stumped for a while as to what to do about the double fiddle and dobro parts on the recording, until I realized there was one guy who could do both — and a whole lot more. Justin Moses is a great mandolinist, banjoist, and a great singer to boot. He’s gonna be our wild card. He will be grabbing the fiddle to double fiddle with Stuart, switching to dobro, then jumping to banjo for a double banjo number, and mandolin for the double mando track from the album. So I’m amazed I could get all that in one very talented guy.

As you can imagine, I’m very excited to play with these guys. We’ve all been locked up for so long and we’re dying to get out there and play some music!” — Béla Fleck

ALL TICKET SALES ARE FINAL. Unless a performance is canceled or rescheduled by the Community Arts Center or the performer, there are no refunds or exchanges. In case of inclement weather, should the performance occur, there are no refunds or exchanges. Should you be unable to use your tickets for any show, you may wish to consider donating them back to the Community Arts Center at least 24 hours before a performance as a tax-deductible gift.

COVID-19 NOTE: At the performers’ request, masking is REQUIRED for this performance. In addition, temperature checks will be performed at the door, and guests with a temperature exceeding 100 F will not be admitted. 

CAPITOL LOUNGE PRE-SHOW (6:30 PM) [EXCLUSIVE EXTRA FOR Béla Fleck TICKETS HOLDERS. YOU MUST HAVE A TICKET FOR Béla Fleck FOR ADMISSION TO THE CAPITOL LOUNGE.]

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Béla Fleck & My Bluegrass Heart

• April 24, 2024 Setlist

Béla Fleck & My Bluegrass Heart Setlist at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie, IL, USA

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Béla Fleck & My Bluegrass Heart Gig Timeline

• Feb 17 2024 Centar za kulturu Cakovec, Croatia Add time Add time
• Feb 18 2024 Wiener Konzerthaus Vienna, Austria Add time Add time
• Apr 24 2024 North Shore Center for the Performing Arts This Setlist Skokie, IL, USA Add time Add time
• Apr 28 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2024 New Orleans, LA, USA Scheduled: 4:15 PM 4:15 PM

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Album Review: Béla Fleck, ‘My Bluegrass Heart’

Béla Fleck’s band of merry music revelers includes Sam Bush, Chris Thile, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Tony Trischka, Jerry Douglas, Michael Cleveland, Andy Leftwich, Mark Schatz, Bryan Sutton, Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, David Grisman, Dominick Leslie, Cody Kilby, Billy Contreras, Stuart Duncan, Paul Kowert, Royal Masat, Edgar Meyer, and Noam Pikelny. These music makers join the band because they love the music, and you can hear the studio banter amongst them as they josh and joke and push one another to elevate their styles, in the true spirit of bluegrass community where everybody brings their best licks or runs and shares them in the quest of musical communion.

Every song or tune on My Bluegrass Heart flows with a spaciousness that allows the music to develop within its own little symphonic structure. The opening tune, “Vertigo,” commences with the slow notes of a waltz before launching into a spiraling romp on which fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar stretch out and mimic the reeling, spinning wooziness of vertigo. Trischka and Pikelny let loose on “Boulderdash,” which features Strings on guitar and evokes the song’s title as the instruments dash nimbly around a jaunty old-time tune. Kilby’s scampering guitar runs kick off the Celtic-inflected reel “Baptist Pumpkin Farm”; the joke’s on the Baptists, many of whom forbid dancing as sinful, because this tune would be the highlight of any Sunday dinner on the grounds when the tables should be cleared and the ground swept for a hoedown. The mournful opening of “Strider” evolves into an airy bluegrass symphony, while the crystalline riffs of “This Old Road” create a poignant nostalgia for times and places now gone and the lives lived in those places; you can hear the celebratory voices of town folks at home on their porches down that old road. “Tentacle Dragon” couldn’t be a better title for a tune whose many musical arms reach out and surround us with an infectious spirit that alternates between sorrow, and maybe even anger, and joy, while “Wheels Up” mimics the vertiginous moment when a plane’s wheels lift off the ground, launching the aircraft into flight. The album closes with the meditative “Psalm 136,” which captures the celebratory spirit of the biblical text about love.

Béla Fleck and his band of merry musicians  know how to enjoy themselves, and on this album they carry us on a romp through bluegrass meadows that detour into verdure fields of swirling jazz, the swaying grasses of folk, and the soaring treetops of classical. The tunes and songs on My Bluegrass Heart swoop vertiginously, ramble and saunter with loose-jointed, loping strides, and the notes and phrases weave under, around, and over each other, threading thematic sonic lines through a colorful musical patchwork.

My Bluegrass Heart is available HERE.

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My Bluegrass Heart

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Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart

Join the banjo virtuoso and an all-star lineup of the most acclaimed artists in bluegrass for a concert recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium. Performing from his GRAMMY®-winning album, this extraordinary moment in music brings together legendary instrumentalists in bluegrass, alongside some of the best of the new generation of players.

E1 - 59m 3s

Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart—Bonus Feature

Explore Béla Fleck's My Bluegrass Heart in this behind-the-scenes look at his legendary show from the Ryman! Featuring two exclusive performances and insightful interviews, you'll catch a glimpse of Fleck's journey into the making of his Grammy Award-winning bluegrass project.

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Belá Fleck’s Homecoming LP ‘My Bluegrass Heart’ Honors His Heroes While Passing the Torch

by Madeline Crone September 14, 2021, 3:20 pm

After years of wandering through the vast musical labyrinth that encompasses country, classical, jazz, pop, and even portions of African tribal music, Belá Fleck returns home with his new collaborative LP My Bluegrass Heart . Released September 10, the album serves as the third chapter in a decades-spanning trilogy that began with the 15-time Grammy-winner’s 1988’s Drive and continued in 1999 with The Bluegrass Sessions. 

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His core group of bluegrass comrades, including mandolinist and fellow New Grass Revivalist Sam Bush, guitarist Tony Rice, fiddle player Stuart Duncan, bassist Mark Schatz and dobro player Jerry Douglas appear on Drive , along with special guests Mark O’Connor and Peter Rowan. Bluegrass Sessions featured John Hartford, Vassar Clements, and Earl Scruggs — all three of which are no longer with us. In memory of Rice, their late friend, and bandmate, The New Grass outfit joined forces once again for Fleck’s new project.

Produced and composed by Fleck, My Bluegrass Heart marks the artist’s first Bluegrass album in over 20 years. Yet, the pioneering artist pulls from two decades of expansive musical exploration, resulting in what might be Fleck’s most dynamic contribution to date.

The Flecktones, the project that immediately followed New Grass Revival, recently celebrated 30 years of melding acoustic with electronic and Bluegrass with jazz and funk. Venturing further, Fleck released duo albums and tours with jazz legend Chick Corea and life partner Abigail Washburn, the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, three classical banjo concertos, an amazing collaboration with Indian musical royalty — Zakir Hussain, Rakesh Churasia, and old friend/bass genius Edgar Meyer. Between these works, the artist also created the award-winning 2009 documentary Throw Down Your Heart , which explored the African origins of the banjo.

“I’m being a little braver,” Fleck tells American Songwriter over the phone in a recent interview about the album project. “Typically, when I do a Bluegrass record, I kind of work within a certain idiomatic way of playing. Even though I play around the edges of it, I don’t go that far. But this album, I decided to include it all — some really traditional stuff, some fairly straightforward stuff, but just be myself the whole way. And then put some of the creativity that I would typically put into a project with Chick Corea or orchestra or Zakir Hussain, but put it into a bluegrass context.

My Bluegrass Heart is centered on the tradition of sharing music between generations. The album is dedicated to both Rice and Corea — whose classic My Spanish Heart inspired the title. To honor their musical legacy, Fleck finds the balance by inviting both old friends and new ones from the emerging class of Bluegrass purveyors.

Album opener “Vertigo,” sees Fleck reuniting with Bush, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Bryan Sutton of the Telluride House Band — setting the tone of tried-and-true musical tradition in which Fleck rooted his new project. Similarly, “Bum’s Rush” welcomes contributions from Douglas’ dobro and Billy Contreras’ trans-genre fiddle-violin dexterity.

Songs like “Charm School” , featuring 28-year-old guitar-virtuoso Billy Strings and a 40-year-old Chris Thile on mandolin, are carefully crafted tunes intended to carry on age-old traditions while embracing multi-generational neo-folk approaches.

“It’s really fun to play with younger players that care about what you’ve been doing your whole life, and they’re inspired by it. It’s a booby prize, you could say, of getting older,” says Fleck.

“In my opinion, Béla Fleck is one of the most important musicians of all time,” Strings shares about the collaboration. “He bridges the gap between bluegrass, classical, jazz, world music, and everything in between. It seems like there’s no limit to what he can achieve on the banjo.”

Similar to what Rice and Bush’s music meant to Fleck before he started playing with them, Fleck is humbled by the reverence with which his predecessors approach their genre contributions.

“It’s a great thing, if you live long enough, you find out some small number of people are really moved by what you do,” he continues. “When you interact with them, you realize you’re in them. And when you hear new things, it’s so familiar to me. I can relate to it in that if I started at a later point, that’s where I would be. But since they’re starting with me, that’s where they are.”

Fleck considers that Trischka — his teacher — probably has a similar experience when he hears Fleck’s music. “He’s hearing me taking off from where he started. Even though everything he does is as valid as anything I do, it must be interesting for him to hear what I’m up to. It’s the same, I think when I hear Chris Thiles or Billy Strings and everybody that my music and group’s music has had an impact on.”

Thiles and Strings line up again for the venturing “Slippery Eel.” And Strings steps further into the project, teaming up with David Grisman on “This Old Road,” and a one-on-one effort with Fleck on “Tentacle Dragon.” The latter pushes the Bluegrass bounds with the help of Strings’ undeniable guitar-driven interpretation.

“Béla Fleck is my hero,” Strings continued. “So when I got the call to play on this record, I felt like a young Jedi who’s just gotten the rare opportunity to go train with master Yoda. Though it was a challenge to learn the music, it’s an honor to have been trusted to sit in the guitar chair for these songs. To play alongside these fantastic musicians in the studio was a dream come true, and I’ll never forget it.”

Similarly, “Wheels Up” captures another moment of collaboration more breakthrough successors. Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle step up to the plate in this more modern take on a traditional fiddle tune. Other moments like “Strider” and “Hug Point” see the pair checking in with their earliest influences while following Fleck’s avant-garde imprints.

“The album ended up being a wonderful combination of old friends that I pushed to a certain extent, and new people that I pushed maybe harder because they could take it — they wanted it,” says Fleck. “Not that my old friends aren’t capable, they totally are. But at a certain point, I start to feel bad about putting them through the things that I dream up that are time-consuming. It was nice to spread it out because nobody got burned out on the recording. If I had done the whole thing with one band, by the end of it, there would have been some casualties.”

Béla will be touring My Bluegrass Heart  throughout 2021 with Sam Bush, Michael Cleveland, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Sierra Hull, Edgar Meyer, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton, Chris Thile, Molly Tuttle and more to be announced.  Tour dates are below, and ticket information can be found on Fleck’s website.

Listen to Belá Fleck’s latest LP My Bluegrass Heart , here .

Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart Tour Featuring Michael Cleveland, Sierra Hull, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz & Bryan Sutton 9.15 Nashville, TN Grand Ole Opry 9.17 Roanoke, VA // Jefferson Center 9.18 Berryville , VA // Watermelon Pickers’ Fest 2021 9.19 Glenside, PA // The Keswick Theatre 9.21 Pittsburgh, PA // Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall 9.22 Bethesda, MD // The Music Center at Strathmore 9.23 Cumberland, MD // DelFest 9.24 Princeton, NJ // McCarter Theatre Center 9.25 Boston, MA // Berklee Performance Center 9.26 North Adams, MA // FreshGrass 9.28 Kent, OH // The Kent Stage 9.29 Cincinnati, OH // Taft Theatre 9.30 Charlottesville, VA // The Paramount Theater 10.01 Raleigh, NC // IBMA Bluegrass Live!

Featuring Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, & Bryan Sutton

• = Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Bryan Sutton

11.27 Grand Rapids, MI // DeVos Performance Hall 11.28 Fort Wayne, IN // Clyde Theatre 11.29 Milwaukee, WI // Riverside Theater 12.01 St. Louis, MO // The Sheldon Concert Hall 12.02 Des Moines, IA // Hoyt Sherman Place 12.03 Salina, KS // The Stiefel Theatre 12.04 Denver, CO // Paramount Theatre* 12.05 Jackson, WY // Center For The Arts 12.07 Portland, OR // Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 12.08 Seattle, WA // Paramount Theatre* 12.09 Eugene, OR // Jaqua Concert Hall – 2 shows! 12.10 Redding, CA // The Cascade Theatre* 12.11 Reno, NV // Silver Legacy Resort Casino 12.12 Berkeley, CA // The UC Theatre 12.13 Carmel, CA // Sunset Cultural Center 12.14 Costa Mesa, CA // Segerstrom Center for the Arts 12.16 San Diego, CA // Balboa Theatre 12.17 Los Angeles, CA // Theater at the ACE Hotel 12.18 Tempe, AZ // Tempe Center for the Arts 12.19 Tucson, AZ // Fox Tucson Theatre 1.7.22 Ryman Auditorium // Nashville, TN – SOLD OUT Featuring Sam Bush, Michael Cleveland, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Sierra Hull, Edgar Meyer, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton, Chris Thile, Molly Tuttle & more

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Home » Events » Bela Fleck “My Bluegrass Heart”

Bela Fleck “My Bluegrass Heart”

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at Royal Oak Music Theatre

April 26 @ 7:00 pm $35, $49.50, $59.50, $75.00 « The Accidentals VOICES featuring Ki5 and Marqu3tte » Buy Tickets Online Over the last four decades, Béla Fleck has made a point of boldly going where no banjo player has gone before, a musical journey that has earned him 16 Grammys in nine different fields, including Country, Pop, Jazz, Instrumental, Classical and World Music. But his roots are in bluegrass, and that’s where he returns with his first bluegrass tour in 24 years, My Bluegrass Heart. The Grammy award-winning album, My Bluegrass Heart is the third chapter of a trilogy which began with the 1988 album, Drive , and continued in 1991 with The Bluegrass Sessions . Fleck’s band will spotlight a multi-generational gamut of the best of bluegrass players, all sporting a myriad of Grammy Awards and nominations, as well as gigantic piles of IBMA awards for their instruments: fiddler Michael Cleveland, mandolin virtuoso Sierra Hull, celebrated multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Mark Schatz, and the amazing Bryan Sutton on guitar. Add to calendar Google Calendar iCalendar Outlook 365 Outlook Live Details

Album Review – Béla Fleck’s “My Bluegrass Heart”

Trigger Reviews Bela Fleck , Billy Strings , Brian Sutton , Chris Thile , David Grisman , Edgar Meyer , Jerry Douglas , Michael Cleveland , Molly Tuttle , My Bluegrass Heart , Noam Pikelny , Review , Sam Bush , Sierra Hull , Tony Trischka --> 29 Comments

Béla Fleck has always been more enigma than musical artist. Nobody was that particularly surprised when Béla jumped the rails of all conventions in bluegrass, and went frolicking through the fields of God knows what early in his career, taking the banjo where no banjo had gone before. Nothing can contain a creative dynamo like that. Just feel lucky he remained in music, and didn’t veer into neuroscience or astrophysics or something. Even if you couldn’t follow Béla into the deep forays toward the final frontier of what is humanly possible in musical composition, you were glad someone was venturing there. But bluegrass was always the jumping off point, even if much of what Béla did would have been labeled as “Ain’t no part of nothin'” by the father of bluegrass himself, Bill Monroe. Yes, just like country, the conflicts over what is and what isn’t bluegrass are constant, and tiresome. It’s just when bluegrass boys and girls go off the script, it’s usually towards something even more cerebral, not something more trite and derivative. Now Béla Fleck has journeyed back to his original compass point in his latest album, My Bluegrass Heart . No, there’s no reels about how pretty Jenny broke his poor heart or how Uncle Pen could sure cut a rug. This is still Béla bluegrass, entirely instrumental, fearless in scope, and compositionally astounding. Béla Fleck didn’t just rope in names like Billy Strings, Chris Thile, Brian Sutton, Sierra Hull, Michael Cleveland, Molly Tuttle, and Edgar Meyer to perform on this project to impress you by the depth of his Rolodex. They just happen to be the only players alive out there that can actualize this kind of crazy stuff.

Old friends Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and David Grisman also show up to contribute to this massive, 19-song treatise that never delivers a dull moment, even if after a while it may leave you in a daze from the dizzying instrumentation and a lack of lyrical reference points. It’s a lot to digest to say the least, but if you’re looking for some starting points or takeaway songs, possibly start with the opening title “Vertigo,” followed by the very fun and energetic “Slippery Eel,” “Boulderdash” with Tony Trischka and Noam Pikelny, and “Us Chickens” also has some more accessible moments for those who struggle to navigate through this heady bluegrass material. That’s what you get with Béla Fleck: his assets are also his limitations for some, or most of the potential audience. Nobody would ever go second guessing Fleck’s prowess or creativity. But not everyone can follow along and find sincere enjoyment in the results. Not to compare everything in bluegrass in 2021 to Billy Strings, but that’s what’s so cool about him. Billy’s able to balance traditionalism, innovation, and top-notch instrumentation in a way that renders the music accessible to a curiously wide and omnivorous audience. Make no mistake though, if you want to hear the absolute pinnacle of bluegrass in 2021 when it comes to just sheer blazing imagination and artistry, then accept no substitutes. Béla Fleck and My Bluegrass Heart are it, period. In fact, that’s been the case for over 30 years. This happens to be the third chapter in a trilogy he launched with 1988’s Drive and continued with The Bluegrass Sessions in 1999. My Bluegrass Heart is a masterwork, and a brilliant love letter to the bluegrass art form articulated by some of its greatest living artisans, led by one of the most creative minds of any musical art form. 9/10 – – – – – – – – – – Purchase from Béla Fleck Purchase from Amazon

Bela Fleck , Billy Strings , Brian Sutton , Chris Thile , David Grisman , Edgar Meyer , Jerry Douglas , Michael Cleveland , Molly Tuttle , My Bluegrass Heart , Noam Pikelny , Review , Sam Bush , Sierra Hull , Tony Trischka

29 Comments

Well, that’ll get your brain working.

Wow, sounds fantastic, I like instrumental albums as well as singing, and this sounds just great.

Impressive prowess or excessive noodling?

I found the songs too purposeful to categorize as noodling. But then again, as a Grateful Dead fan, I like “excessive noodling”, so I’m biased.

Yeah, I think there’s a a bit more composition to these songs than may be apparent on the surface. Sure, there are spaces for improvisation, but this doesn’t feel like a “noodling” album to me. My guess is they’re all standing in front of sheet music with pretty rigid guideposts, and maybe some opportunities to noodle in between them.

“A bit more” Exactly.

Me, too, I listen to them for hours at a time, never thinking about dialing up another artist for my listening.

Jerry performed some fine bluegrass work himself.

Looking forward to listening to this record. Side note, Alan Messer is an excellent photographer.

This is the sort of thing us amateur muscians hear and immediately swear off playing forever. As in, whats the friggin point, Im a total hack by comparison. Haha, just what comes to mind hearing this. Geez, and of course the bass player would use a bow. Of course he would…. showoffs!!

Brilliant. I’ve seen him live in a few different contexts, he never fails to mesmerize.

Just… Nailed it.

So sick of hearing about Billy Strings. Bryan Sutton is the only guitar player worth talking about when it comes to this album. Bryan is probably the bestt bluegrass guitar player alive as well as a first call session guy. He is 100% more melodically and technically advanced than Billy by a mile and will blow the doors off anybody if he chooses to but most likely he’ll go for taste and tone over speed and flash. Billy is an amazing guitar player and he is humble to boot, but he is a pattern player with a long way to go to make it to legend status, but none of that matters with the sales and shows he’s doing. Sorry for the rant, but to overlook Sutton’s contribution to Bela’s projects is a sin.

I haven’t listened to the album but I put Slippery Eel on my playlist and it melts my face every time I hear it. Next level stuff.

For sure, I’ll never say Billy isn’t an incredible talent. I’d love to have a modicum of his ability, but the constant Billy praise just exacerbates the long standing issue that so many bluegrass stalwarts are overlooked by something shiny and new. I know and admit Billy brings a new audience to bluegrass but I also know from extensive personal experience that these new “fans” don’t give an actual shit about bluegrass and where it comes from.

I’m on the Billy Strings train and finally got to see him live a few times this year; but noticed 100% that the crowd were not bluegrass fans. I got super excited during a Flatt & Scruggs cover one night, only to see absolutely no one else singing along. Then the only portion of one of the nights I didn’t enjoy, because I hate the song, was a cover of Cher’s ‘Believe’; which was the song everyone in the damn place did sing along with. I was a little surprised at the energy and love the crowd had for that cover. I’ve tried to go back and listen to that cover to see if I can learn to appreciate it, and still no; despite my love of B Strings.

Billy Strings does not play 100% traditional bluegrass, but he spends a lot of time going back to the old songs (as well as playing some originals that are pretty traditional). When he does pure bluegrass, he’s a LOT more traditional than the bland, Nashville-influenced bluegrass artists (the same handful who repeatedly get the same IBMA awards year after year producing watered-down country and folk on acoustic instruments rather than actual driving bluegrass).

But Billy himselfncares. Bryan has also been one of Billy’s biggest boosters and they seem to really enjoy working together. One thing he sees is that Billy’s style is so deeply rooted in Doc Watson that he’s pretty much a Doc encyclopedia. So I don’t think the tension you have exists with them. If you haven’t you should check out the YouTube video of them playing together at the Station Inn or the Doc Watson tribute at Grey Fox (I think.)

I understand the frustration some bluegrass folks can have with this. What makes Billy so huge is that he’s playing bluegrass/old time music with a rock god attitude and effects pedals. Which, of course, means that he’s selling out those concerts with jam band fans and a style that owes as much to Jerry Garcia as anyone. But that is the tension at the heart of bluegrass. At the end of the day it’s a business and it’s the people selling out concert halls and ,these days, getting viral videos that are going to get the most attention. That’s Billy.

From a historical perspective I think bluegrass has never come to terms with the fact that it has roughly the same relationship to Jerry Garcia that country proper has to Ray Charles. He had the best selling bluegrass record for decades and the Deadheads coming in is when it really started making money. And Billy Strings seems to be combining those two things into a new, arena filling version of bluegrass.

Definitely didn’t intend to come off as critical to Billy, he is an amazing musician and a great human being. The charity he’s shown to his community is something you just don’t see anymore. He is rooted in the deeper traditions of bluegrass and you can hear it in his playing when he wants you to. I think there is a deep level of respect between him and Bryan and their station show was legendary. Right or wrong my issue is with his fans that choose to ignore what brought Billy to the masses and appreciate the music that birthed his style. Bluegrass needs to progress and evolve, modern third generation bluegrass artists almost universally love and appreciate the traditional first generation of music that started it all but a lot of Billy’s new fanatics don’t give a single shit about any of that.

Fleck’s record is spectacular. As is Billy Strings, and Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull and… I’m in my mid fifties. I’ve loved and played bluegrass since my teens. The talent level these days is stellar but I find myself hoping for some bluegrass equivalent of the Ramones or something less chops heavy that injects a feel or spirit or something that I just can’t hear despite the staggering creativity on display. Maybe less chops means it’s not bluegrass; I don’t know.

“I find myself hoping for some bluegrass equivalent of the Ramones”

Check out the .357 String Band. Also Grandpa’s Cough Medicine. Good bluegrass, but with attitude.

Two of my very favorites. It’s just the one tune, but also check out one of the most underrated songs ever, LSS’s Blood on the Bluegrass. Don’t know if ya like old-time or Irish stuff much, and recording old-time kinda defeats the purpose, but the Freight Hoppers or Hackensaw Boys might be up yer alley, or some of the southern Irish bands a la Cutthroat Shamrock.

https://youtu.be/PD5crfk1kmo

180 Proof – Grandpa’s Cough Medicine

Maybe bluegrass needs people to write bluegrass tunes that connect with people. I love what Fleck & Co. is doing, but it’s getting to be a music that appeals mainly to other musicians, sorta like a country version of bebop.

Ya ain’t wrong. Po’ Ramblin’ Boys at least are doing that to some degree, plus they’re old-school as hell.

great , informed discussion here , imo . that in itself is refreshing and encouraging as opposed to some of the tangents ‘music’ discussions often lead to around here . bela fleck is a walking music clinic on a lot of ‘acoustic ‘ fronts , as any long time fan will attest to . he can and does do it all . and he’s inspiring a newer generation still …including the hulls , the strings and tuttles. what i’ve listened to on this outing thus far i almost hear as a ‘state of the art ‘ in terms of the talents , skills , passions and commitments of all involved . bela provides the forum . then , of course they will all take this experience with them to their hearts and to our ear and hearts in their respective ensuing projects and shows. win-win-win . to ignore ANY artist’s ‘take’ on acoustic music – bluegrass, old tyme, swing etc…is to ignore a huge factor in the sound of what plays into keeping COUNTRY honest , I think .

I knew this review was coming down the pipeline when you wrote the Grammy Bluegrass piece. I tried to get ahead of it by digging into the album so I could have something constructive to contribute. But, it’s 19 tracks long and I’m still exploring.

I’ve tried getting into Bela Fleck in years past and felt stupid – like I needed a PHD. I’m happy to have something in rotation by him that’s more approachable to the common man.

yeah you’re right, listening to this album i felt like an ape reading Dostoevskij. Mind blowing.

Just curious. What was your reaction listening to Tony Rice?

As pointed out in the article, the album is DENSE – light bends around it! – but if you purchase the vinyl release, it’s been condensed down to 9 tracks. At first I was annoyed by this, feeling like I’d been short changed but on reflection, it actually helps the release (and hey, it’s not like it’s hard to find the full version). So if you want a more manageable version, that’s your way in.

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Join the banjo virtuoso and an all-star lineup of the most acclaimed artists in bluegrass for a concert recorded live at the Ryman Auditorium. Performing from his GRAMMY®-winning album, this extraordinary moment in music brings together legendary instrumentalists in bluegrass, alongside some of the best of the new generation of players.

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Review | Béla Fleck: ‘My Bluegrass Heart’

Expansive Bluegrass from Fleck and Friends

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My Bluegrass Heart , the latest release by banjo legend and musical ambassador of all styles Béla Fleck, wears its leader’s extraordinary generosity on its sleeve. The double album’s 19 tracks flow onward for nearly two hours, and the list of contributors runs to 25. While it’s by no means a conventional bluegrass album, My Bluegrass Heart is not an avant-garde experiment either. Fleck brings together the usual suspects, such as David Grisman, Edgar Meyer, Jerry Douglas, and Chris Thile. He also pulls in new-school pickers like Sierra Hull and Billy Strings, thus showing his unique command of the idiom he established when he was a member of New Grass Revival 40 years ago. It’s a swinging, jazz-literate, bluegrass universe where ideas matter more than technical prowess, even though there’s plenty of that too. Look for all this instrumental beauty to appear here soon, as UCSB Arts & Lectures ( artsandlectures.ucsb.edu ) presents the Béla Fleck My Bluegrass Heart Tour at the Arlington Theatre on Wednesday, December 15. 

This edition of ON Culture was originally emailed to subscribers on April 12, 2024. To receive Leslie Dinaberg’s arts newsletter in your inbox on Fridays, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

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