Ravinia 2022, Issue 1

“Life had been charging forward so fast, and the bluegrass portion of it wasn’t happening. It suddenly became a compulsion.” He credits his far-reaching explo- rations to his banjo teacher and even- tual collaborator Tony Trischka, who, Fleck said, “boldly did everything first, before I was even on the scene. All I could do was mop up after what he pulled off!” Fleck received his first banjo from his grandfather at the age of 15. What originally turned him on to the instrument’s primally powerful sound was Earl Scruggs, along with guitarist Lester Flatt, playing “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” on “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Another influence, he said, was the classic “Dueling Banjos” scene in the 1972 film, Deliverance . Later on, he said, he discovered Will the Circle Be Unbroken , a seminal 1972 album in which the contempo- rary Nitty Gritty Dirt Band collab- orated with country music’s elders, including Roy Acuff, Vassar Clements, Mother Maybelle Carter, and Scruggs. “I did love that album,” Fleck said. Like Circle , My Bluegrass Heart spans generations of musicians, from peers such as Douglas and Bush to next-generation virtuosos such as Chris Thile and rising instrumental- ists such as mandolinist Sierra Hull and guitarists Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle. But Circle ’s biggest influence on My Bluegrass Heart , Fleck said, was including the dialogue amongst the musicians between the tracks. “I did love that on Circle , and it probably did seed the idea,” he said. Fleck and company finished recording My Bluegrass Heart “just under the wire, before the pandemic,” he said. “Everything was recorded, but nothing was completed. So, the pan- demic gave me ample time to com- plete the project the way I intended it. Being at home, Abigail and our kids, gave us the opportunity to take the disaster and find silver linings. All the time together as a family was fabu- lous, and I could always go downstairs to my studio to be involved with my musical friends, albeit on tape. As time went on, I also collaborated with Chick Corea on some very special tracks; that we did virtually.” My Bluegrass Heart is also dedi- cated to guitarist Tony Rice, Fleck’s mentor and collaborator, who died in 2020. Rice appeared on Drive and The Bluegrass Sessions . “Tony Rice was the Holy Grail, the guy I wanted to play with so badly,” Fleck said in a tribute he wrote for Tidal Magazine . “When it happened, it was even more than I expected.” He compared him with Scruggs in how he blazed new direc- tions for his instrument: “When Tony came in and started playing flatpick guitar with such precision and feel, so rooted to the ancient sounds in a new way, he changed the whole ballgame for everyone.” The bluegrass community is one to which the native New Yorker felt like an outsider early in his career, he told NPR’s Fresh Air . This would prompt a later move to Kentucky, where he could shed the “Yankee banjo player” label. He has continued to shed labels in relation to the banjo. Did he face resistance early on from more tradi- tionalist-bent audiences? “I think Tony [Trischka] and Sam Bush took a lot of the heat before I was around,” he said. “By the time I arrived, folks were getting used to the idea that there would be people expanding bluegrass music. They may not have been happy about it, but they got over it.” His bluegrass forebears, he added, perhaps had more of an issue with “that Yankee problem, being a New York City native. But it was not in- surmountable, and when Kentuckian Sam Bush brought me into New Grass Revival in 1981, that really helped.” All artists are works in progress. Is Fleck inspired in different ways play- ing with his elders, peers, and a new generation of bluegrass musicians? “I’m at the point where I have created my personal language,” he responded, “but I am looking for ways to contin- ue to stretch and expand it, and apply it to new things. I am more comfort- able now with being myself musically, and less tense about what will or won’t happen. I’ve also had more than my share of fortune musical experience and connections. So over all, I’d say I’m getting away with it!” Donald Liebenson is a Chicago-based entertainment writer. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune , Chicago Sun-Times , Los Angeles Times , and on RogerEbert.com. The first Ravinia concert he attended without his parents was Procol Harum in 1970. Béla Fleck is joined in his return to Ravinia by his My Bluegrass Heart band: (left to right) bassist Mark Schatz, multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, guitarist Bryan Sutton, fiddler Michael Cleveland, and mandolinist Sierra Hull. PREVIOUS PAGE: WILLIAM MATTHEWS; THIS PAGE: ALAN MESSER RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JUNE 15 – JULY 3, 2022 18