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Béla Fleck goes back to bluegrass, his first musical love

Béla Fleck
Alan Messer
/
Courtesy of the artist
Béla Fleck

Béla Fleck is arguably the greatest living banjo player in the world. He's also one of the most adventurous. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, he's experimented with jazz, folk, pop, rock and classical music, picking up 15 Grammys along the way, never afraid to try something new.

The "new" this time, is actually something old. Fleck cut his teeth, so to speak, playing bluegrass, his first musical love. For the first time in more than two decades, Fleck has returned to the genre with My Bluegrass Heart, an ambitious double album featuring some of the best players in the world, including Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, alongside a new generation of bluegrass lovers like Chris Thile, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull and Billy Strings. We'll talk with Bela about what brought him back to the grass.

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