Album Review – Béla Fleck’s “My Bluegrass Heart”
Béla Fleck has always been more enigma than musical artist. Nobody was that particularly surprised when Béla jumped the rails of all conventions in bluegrass, and went frolicking through the fields of God knows what early in his career, taking the banjo where no banjo had gone before. Nothing can contain a creative dynamo like that. Just feel lucky he remained in music, and didn’t veer into neuroscience or astrophysics or something. Even if you couldn’t follow Béla into the deep forays toward the final frontier of what is humanly possible in musical composition, you were glad someone was venturing there.
But bluegrass was always the jumping off point, even if much of what Béla did would have been labeled as “Ain’t no part of nothin'” by the father of bluegrass himself, Bill Monroe. Yes, just like country, the conflicts over what is and what isn’t bluegrass are constant, and tiresome. It’s just when bluegrass boys and girls go off the script, it’s usually towards something even more cerebral, not something more trite and derivative.
Now Béla Fleck has journeyed back to his original compass point in his latest album, My Bluegrass Heart. No, there’s no reels about how pretty Jenny broke his poor heart or how Uncle Pen could sure cut a rug. This is still Béla bluegrass, entirely instrumental, fearless in scope, and compositionally astounding. Béla Fleck didn’t just rope in names like Billy Strings, Chris Thile, Brian Sutton, Sierra Hull, Michael Cleveland, Molly Tuttle, and Edgar Meyer to perform on this project to impress you by the depth of his Rolodex. They just happen to be the only players alive out there that can actualize this kind of crazy stuff.
Old friends Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and David Grisman also show up to contribute to this massive, 19-song treatise that never delivers a dull moment, even if after a while it may leave you in a daze from the dizzying instrumentation and a lack of lyrical reference points. It’s a lot to digest to say the least, but if you’re looking for some starting points or takeaway songs, possibly start with the opening title “Vertigo,” followed by the very fun and energetic “Slippery Eel,” “Boulderdash” with Tony Trischka and Noam Pikelny, and “Us Chickens” also has some more accessible moments for those who struggle to navigate through this heady bluegrass material.
That’s what you get with Béla Fleck: his assets are also his limitations for some, or most of the potential audience. Nobody would ever go second guessing Fleck’s prowess or creativity. But not everyone can follow along and find sincere enjoyment in the results. Not to compare everything in bluegrass in 2021 to Billy Strings, but that’s what’s so cool about him. Billy’s able to balance traditionalism, innovation, and top-notch instrumentation in a way that renders the music accessible to a curiously wide and omnivorous audience.
Make no mistake though, if you want to hear the absolute pinnacle of bluegrass in 2021 when it comes to just sheer blazing imagination and artistry, then accept no substitutes. Béla Fleck and My Bluegrass Heart are it, period. In fact, that’s been the case for over 30 years. This happens to be the third chapter in a trilogy he launched with 1988’s Drive and continued with The Bluegrass Sessions in 1999. My Bluegrass Heart is a masterwork, and a brilliant love letter to the bluegrass art form articulated by some of its greatest living artisans, led by one of the most creative minds of any musical art form.
9/10
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December 12, 2021 @ 11:02 am
Well, that’ll get your brain working.
December 12, 2021 @ 1:09 pm
Wow, sounds fantastic, I like instrumental albums as well as singing, and this sounds just great.
December 12, 2021 @ 1:40 pm
Impressive prowess or excessive noodling?
December 12, 2021 @ 5:59 pm
I found the songs too purposeful to categorize as noodling. But then again, as a Grateful Dead fan, I like “excessive noodling”, so I’m biased.
December 12, 2021 @ 6:07 pm
Yeah, I think there’s a a bit more composition to these songs than may be apparent on the surface. Sure, there are spaces for improvisation, but this doesn’t feel like a “noodling” album to me. My guess is they’re all standing in front of sheet music with pretty rigid guideposts, and maybe some opportunities to noodle in between them.
December 13, 2021 @ 12:56 pm
“A bit more”
Exactly.
December 13, 2021 @ 3:58 pm
Me, too, I listen to them for hours at a time, never thinking about dialing up another artist for my listening.
Jerry performed some fine bluegrass work himself.
December 12, 2021 @ 1:49 pm
Looking forward to listening to this record. Side note, Alan Messer is an excellent photographer.
December 12, 2021 @ 3:18 pm
This is the sort of thing us amateur muscians hear and immediately swear off playing forever. As in, whats the friggin point, Im a total hack by comparison. Haha, just what comes to mind hearing this.
Geez, and of course the bass player would use a bow. Of course he would…. showoffs!!
December 12, 2021 @ 10:12 pm
Brilliant. I’ve seen him live in a few different contexts, he never fails to mesmerize.
December 13, 2021 @ 12:26 am
Just… Nailed it.
December 13, 2021 @ 5:09 am
So sick of hearing about Billy Strings. Bryan Sutton is the only guitar player worth talking about when it comes to this album. Bryan is probably the bestt bluegrass guitar player alive as well as a first call session guy. He is 100% more melodically and technically advanced than Billy by a mile and will blow the doors off anybody if he chooses to but most likely he’ll go for taste and tone over speed and flash. Billy is an amazing guitar player and he is humble to boot, but he is a pattern player with a long way to go to make it to legend status, but none of that matters with the sales and shows he’s doing. Sorry for the rant, but to overlook Sutton’s contribution to Bela’s projects is a sin.
December 13, 2021 @ 5:43 am
I haven’t listened to the album but I put Slippery Eel on my playlist and it melts my face every time I hear it. Next level stuff.
December 13, 2021 @ 6:34 am
For sure, I’ll never say Billy isn’t an incredible talent. I’d love to have a modicum of his ability, but the constant Billy praise just exacerbates the long standing issue that so many bluegrass stalwarts are overlooked by something shiny and new. I know and admit Billy brings a new audience to bluegrass but I also know from extensive personal experience that these new “fans” don’t give an actual shit about bluegrass and where it comes from.
December 13, 2021 @ 8:05 am
I’m on the Billy Strings train and finally got to see him live a few times this year; but noticed 100% that the crowd were not bluegrass fans. I got super excited during a Flatt & Scruggs cover one night, only to see absolutely no one else singing along. Then the only portion of one of the nights I didn’t enjoy, because I hate the song, was a cover of Cher’s ‘Believe’; which was the song everyone in the damn place did sing along with. I was a little surprised at the energy and love the crowd had for that cover. I’ve tried to go back and listen to that cover to see if I can learn to appreciate it, and still no; despite my love of B Strings.
December 13, 2021 @ 8:48 am
Billy Strings does not play 100% traditional bluegrass, but he spends a lot of time going back to the old songs (as well as playing some originals that are pretty traditional). When he does pure bluegrass, he’s a LOT more traditional than the bland, Nashville-influenced bluegrass artists (the same handful who repeatedly get the same IBMA awards year after year producing watered-down country and folk on acoustic instruments rather than actual driving bluegrass).
December 13, 2021 @ 8:41 am
But Billy himselfncares. Bryan has also been one of Billy’s biggest boosters and they seem to really enjoy working together. One thing he sees is that Billy’s style is so deeply rooted in Doc Watson that he’s pretty much a Doc encyclopedia. So I don’t think the tension you have exists with them. If you haven’t you should check out the YouTube video of them playing together at the Station Inn or the Doc Watson tribute at Grey Fox (I think.)
I understand the frustration some bluegrass folks can have with this. What makes Billy so huge is that he’s playing bluegrass/old time music with a rock god attitude and effects pedals. Which, of course, means that he’s selling out those concerts with jam band fans and a style that owes as much to Jerry Garcia as anyone. But that is the tension at the heart of bluegrass. At the end of the day it’s a business and it’s the people selling out concert halls and ,these days, getting viral videos that are going to get the most attention. That’s Billy.
From a historical perspective I think bluegrass has never come to terms with the fact that it has roughly the same relationship to Jerry Garcia that country proper has to Ray Charles. He had the best selling bluegrass record for decades and the Deadheads coming in is when it really started making money. And Billy Strings seems to be combining those two things into a new, arena filling version of bluegrass.
December 14, 2021 @ 8:18 am
Definitely didn’t intend to come off as critical to Billy, he is an amazing musician and a great human being. The charity he’s shown to his community is something you just don’t see anymore. He is rooted in the deeper traditions of bluegrass and you can hear it in his playing when he wants you to. I think there is a deep level of respect between him and Bryan and their station show was legendary. Right or wrong my issue is with his fans that choose to ignore what brought Billy to the masses and appreciate the music that birthed his style. Bluegrass needs to progress and evolve, modern third generation bluegrass artists almost universally love and appreciate the traditional first generation of music that started it all but a lot of Billy’s new fanatics don’t give a single shit about any of that.
December 13, 2021 @ 8:40 am
Fleck’s record is spectacular. As is Billy Strings, and Molly Tuttle and Sierra Hull and…
I’m in my mid fifties. I’ve loved and played bluegrass since my teens. The talent level these days is stellar but I find myself hoping for some bluegrass equivalent of the Ramones or something less chops heavy that injects a feel or spirit or something that I just can’t hear despite the staggering creativity on display. Maybe less chops means it’s not bluegrass; I don’t know.
December 13, 2021 @ 8:58 am
“I find myself hoping for some bluegrass equivalent of the Ramones”
Check out the .357 String Band. Also Grandpa’s Cough Medicine. Good bluegrass, but with attitude.
December 13, 2021 @ 9:36 am
Two of my very favorites. It’s just the one tune, but also check out one of the most underrated songs ever, LSS’s Blood on the Bluegrass. Don’t know if ya like old-time or Irish stuff much, and recording old-time kinda defeats the purpose, but the Freight Hoppers or Hackensaw Boys might be up yer alley, or some of the southern Irish bands a la Cutthroat Shamrock.
December 13, 2021 @ 11:46 am
https://youtu.be/PD5crfk1kmo
180 Proof – Grandpa’s Cough Medicine
December 14, 2021 @ 3:17 pm
Maybe bluegrass needs people to write bluegrass tunes that connect with people. I love what Fleck & Co. is doing, but it’s getting to be a music that appeals mainly to other musicians, sorta like a country version of bebop.
December 15, 2021 @ 8:36 am
Ya ain’t wrong. Po’ Ramblin’ Boys at least are doing that to some degree, plus they’re old-school as hell.
December 13, 2021 @ 10:49 am
great , informed discussion here , imo . that in itself is refreshing and encouraging as opposed to some of the tangents ‘music’ discussions often lead to around here . bela fleck is a walking music clinic on a lot of ‘acoustic ‘ fronts , as any long time fan will attest to . he can and does do it all . and he’s inspiring a newer generation still …including the hulls , the strings and tuttles. what i’ve listened to on this outing thus far i almost hear as a ‘state of the art ‘ in terms of the talents , skills , passions and commitments of all involved . bela provides the forum . then , of course they will all take this experience with them to their hearts and to our ear and hearts in their respective ensuing projects and shows. win-win-win . to ignore ANY artist’s ‘take’ on acoustic music – bluegrass, old tyme, swing etc…is to ignore a huge factor in the sound of what plays into keeping COUNTRY honest , I think .
December 13, 2021 @ 11:51 am
I knew this review was coming down the pipeline when you wrote the Grammy Bluegrass piece. I tried to get ahead of it by digging into the album so I could have something constructive to contribute. But, it’s 19 tracks long and I’m still exploring.
I’ve tried getting into Bela Fleck in years past and felt stupid – like I needed a PHD. I’m happy to have something in rotation by him that’s more approachable to the common man.
December 14, 2021 @ 7:18 am
yeah you’re right, listening to this album i felt like an ape reading Dostoevskij. Mind blowing.
December 14, 2021 @ 3:19 pm
Just curious. What was your reaction listening to Tony Rice?
December 14, 2021 @ 9:27 am
As pointed out in the article, the album is DENSE – light bends around it! – but if you purchase the vinyl release, it’s been condensed down to 9 tracks. At first I was annoyed by this, feeling like I’d been short changed but on reflection, it actually helps the release (and hey, it’s not like it’s hard to find the full version). So if you want a more manageable version, that’s your way in.