Béla Fleck "My Bluegrass Heart"

My Bluegrass Heart, out via Renew Records, is that return the 15-time Grammy winner is talking about –the third chapter in a decades-spanning trilogy which, by his counting, started with 1988’s Drive and continued with The Bluegrass Sessions, released eleven years later. Over the long and lauded course of his unique creative run, BÉLA FLECK—the world’s premier banjo virtuoso and a celebrated musical adventurer—has both dug deep into his instrument’s complex global history and unlocked the breadth of its possibilities. My Bluegrass Heart is a homecoming in sound, to be sure.

Born in New York City and named for the classical giants Bartok, Webern, and Janacek, Fleck first tuned into his musical soul through TV, radio and a lucky encounter on a train ride with a banjo player. A move to Kentucky some years later immersed him in the sound’s heartland, and led to a spot in the acclaimed progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival. That stint, in turn, led to the Drive album (now often considered a classic) and the collection of Fleck’s 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, who all (except for Rice, who passed away in 2020) appear on Drive, Bluegrass Sessions, and now, My Bluegrass Heart.

More than anything, it was this group of musicians that drew Fleck home to bluegrass the third time. As the years since Bluegrass Sessions stretched into decades, compositions that seemed earmarked —consciously and unconsciously—for that gang began to pile up. He was hesitant to begin but he didn’t want the songs to disappear, either. So, he started looking closer at the bluegrass scene and discovered, to his delight, a new generation of players had been flourishing, some of whom he knew – like mandolinist and MacArthur fellow Chris Thile, or multi-instrumentalist Sierra Hull, whose Grammy-nominated 2016 album Weighted Mind Fleck had produced—and some he didn’t, like rising star Billy Strings and fiddle avant-gardist Billy Contreras, who Thile introduced him to. Old friends made new ones, and together they made a record—one that bridges musical generations. And what started as a single album became a double album.

The intricate, slow-creeping “Charm School,” with its wide-open, jazz-style jam and energetic interplay between soloists showed off the individuality within the group. “Vertigo,” first written and performed for what Fleck calls the Telluride “House Band,” including Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, plays rhythmic tricks that mimic its loopy title.

In seriousness, though, My Bluegrass Heart is vividly collaborative, and part of Fleck’s talent as a leader is encouraging his bandmates to shine. If the band is an amalgamation of generations, ideas and style, the songs are maybe even more so. It’s not a straight bluegrass album, but it’s written for a bluegrass band.