Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on 2026-09-02
Credit: Jesse Borrell
Béla Fleck will release his new album, Live Heart: My Bluegrass Heart at the Ryman, on October 16. The first single, “Blue Mountain Hop,” is out now.
On January 8, 2022, Béla Fleck and a multigenerational gang of musical heavy hitters came together at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to perform the songs they’d recorded together on his My Bluegrass Heart, which would shortly 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, along with 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.”
Live Heart: My Bluegrass Heart at the Ryman will be released October 16 on 2CD and 3LP sets.
PRE-ORDER LIVE HEART: MY BLUEGRASS HEART AT THE RYMAN
Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart band will be touring throughout 2026, including special performances with Renée Fleming for their 2026 collaborative album, The Fiddle and the Drum.
Fleming will be backed by Béla and the My Bluegrass Heart Band on September 15 at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville as part of AmericanaFest, September 22 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and December 3 at Carnegie Hall in New York City, with guest vocalist Aoife O’Donovan joining the band in Los Angeles and New York.
Tickets are on sale now.
“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.”
My Bluegrass Heart 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: MY BLUEGRASS HEART AT THE RYMAN 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
MY BLUEGRASS HEART TOUR DATES
Sept 2 - Mount Gretna, PA - Mt. Gretna Playhouse
Sept 3 - Richmond, VA - Maymont Park
Sept 4 - Mill Spring, NC - Earl Scruggs Music Festival
Sept 15 - Nashville, TN - Schermerhorn Symphony Center feat. Renée Fleming & Sierra Hull
Sept 17 - Atlanta, GA - Rialto Center for the Arts
Sept 18 - Athens, GA - UGA Performing Arts Center
Sept 19 - Blacksburg, VA - Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre
Sept 20 - Annapolis, MD - Annapolis Baygrass Festival
Sept 22 - Los Angeles, CA - Walt Disney Concert Hall, featuring Renée Fleming
Sept 26 & 27 - Santa Fe, NM - Lensic Performing Arts Center (Rhapsody in Blue)
Oct 8 - Clarksville, TN - Austin Peay State University
Oct 9 - Livingston, KY - The Moonshiner’s Ball
Oct 10 - St. Louis, MO - Sheldon Concert Hall
Oct 11 - Eureka Springs, AR - Hillberry Music Festival
Oct 13 - Columbus, GA - River Center PAC
Oct 14 - Gainesville, FL - University of Florida PAC
Oct 15 - Birmingham, AL - Alys Robinson Stephens PAC
Nov 3 - Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House
Nov 4 - Evanston, IL - Cahn Auditorium
Nov 5 - Grand Rapids, MI - St. Cecilia Music Hall
Nov 6 - Brookfield, WI - Wilson Center
Nov 10 - Kent, OH - The Kent Stage
Nov 11 - Indianapolis, IN - Clowes Memorial Hall
Nov 12 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre
Nov 13 - Toronto, ON - Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music
Nov 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
Nov 15 - Old Saybrook, CT - The Kate
Dec 1 - Charlottesville, VA - The Paramount Theater
Dec 2 - Northampton, MA - Academy of Music Theatre
Dec 3 - New York, NY - Carnegie Hall, featuring Renée Fleming
Dec 4 - Concord, NH - Capitol Theatre
Dec 5 - Stowe, VT - Spruce Peak PAC
Dec 6 - Ithaca, NY - State Theater of Ithaca
Dec 7 - Munhall, PA - Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall
Dec 10 - Puerto Morelos, QR - Strings & Sol
