![]() I was very excited when he agreed to do it. When I saw that Toumani was also on the bill, I asked the promoter to see if he would consider doing a workshop together. He did overdub on a couple of tracks after the fact, so that he could be a part of the album, but we had not had the chance to really play together.Ī very promising musical rapport finally began for us at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. ![]() He was one of few people who was not available while I was there recording Throw Down You Heart. While in Bamako, Mali on my trip to Africa, I was in search of the great kora legend, Toumani Diabaté. The Ripple Effect - Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabaté 2020 I must say that there are many fantastic players who I love that I just couldn’t include this time, for space considerations.īut legacy artists and up-and-comers alike, My Bluegrass Heart encompasses Bluegrass in its core - the inter-generational passing down of music tradition. Pretty soon I started to see this project as an exploration of the current bluegrass world, and a gathering of a certain segment of the tribe. I set up a “jam/rehearsals” with some of my favorites whom I’d never really gotten to play much with-Paul Kowert, Michael Cleveland, Dominick Leslie, and Cody Kilby…those led to Billy Strings, Royal Masat, Billy Contreras, Andy Leftwich, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle, and beyond. ![]() So now.how was I gonna do this with no Tony Rice? Maybe it was time to embrace the present, and get more familiar with some of the bright new lights in our bluegrass galaxy.Īnd so I did. They were burning a hole in my pocket, as they say. And I had all these tunes that I was afraid I would forget about, or I’d die, or whatever, and they would be lost. Perhaps it was an escape, or maybe I just wanted some control and to touch base with my emotional center to make some honest music surrounded by musical friends, record it at home, and not go anywhere. For some reason, when I should have been recovering from the trauma of all of that, I suddenly really wanted to make a bluegrass recording. ![]() He had a very close call, life and death, really.and I didn’t want to be going anywhere on the road. Partly it was spurred on by a health issue that had emerged with our baby boy, Theo. There were a whole lot more amazing cats of all ages that I never remember there being, in all my years of bluegrass awareness.Īnd it was towards the end of 2019 that I started getting that itch. A whole slew of new players had emerged, highly influenced by the movement that John Hartford, Sam Bush, Tony Rice, David Grisman, Jerry Douglas, Tony Trischka, Bill Keith, and so many other great players had pioneered. Time passed and other interesting changes had been happening on our bluegrass scene. You see, Tony Rice was the only guitarist I had met who could make it possible for me to play bluegrass in the way I wanted to. If I may be selfish for a moment here, this left me in a bit of a pickle. Tony Rice became less available due to his health issues, I began to wonder if that chapter of my bluegrass life had now closed. These two albums featured a core band that included Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, and Mark Schatz.Īs the years since Bluegrass Sessions began to pile on top of each other and grow into decades, I began to amass compositions that were consciously and unconsciously designed for that band. I think of this project as the third chapter in a trilogy which began with 1988’s Drive, and continued with Bluegrass Sessions in 1999. Grammy Award winner: My Bluegrass Heart - Béla Fleck 2021
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