On the 16th of October, Béla Fleck is to release the recording of a stellar Nashville night as a live album called Live Heart. On January 8, 2022, he and a multigenerational gang of musical heavy hitters came together at the Ryman Auditorium to perform the songs they’d recorded together on his My Bluegrass Heart, which would go on to win the 2022 Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. Sam Bush, Michael Cleveland, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Sierra Hull, Edgar Meyer, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton, Tony Trischka, and Molly Tuttle, and a sold-out crowd arrived during a major East Coast blizzard.
“We somehow managed to take and own the stage that night,” says Fleck. “My amazing peers, friends, and iconic performers really brought the fire; I’m very proud to bring you this fantastic live performance.” Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart band will also be touring Stateside throughout 2026, including special performances with Renée Fleming for their 2026 collaborative album, The Fiddle and the Drum.
“Béla took such a collaborative spirit with this,” says Hull. “He has an ability to bring out the best in people, to allow them to bring what they’re good at and let them shine.”
The icy weather totally stymied Chris Thile’s travel to Tennessee, leaving the original album ensemble one man short onstage. In the liner notes, Thile writes, “It killed me not to be there in the most hallowed hall in bluegrass that wintry night back in 2022, but this recording gives us all a front row seat to this balletic intergenerational relay race.”
This album is a homecoming for the 19-time Grammy winner; the third chapter in a decades-spanning bluegrass trilogy which, by his counting, started with 1988’s Drive and continued with The Bluegrass Sessions (1999). Over the long and lauded course of his unique creative run, 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.
“Live Heart” Track Listing:
Side A
Blue Mountain Hop
Vertigo featuring Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Bryan Sutton
This Old Road
Side B
Slippery Eel featuring Michael Cleveland and Billy Strings
Hug Point featuring Molly Tuttle
Round Rock featuring Michael Cleveland and Jerry Douglas
Old North Woods
Side C
Us Chickens
Tentacle Dragon (Revenge of the) featuring Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton
Psalm 136 featuring Sierra Hull
Side D
Strider featuring Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle
Our Little Secret
Charm School featuring Sam Bush and Billy Strings
Side E
Wheels Up featuring Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle
Hunter’s Moon
Baptist Pumpkin Farm
Side F
Boulderdash featuring Tony Trischka
When the Storm Is Over featuring Sam Bush
Dark As The Night, Blue As The Day featuring Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle
Tennessee featuring Billy Strings
