Béla Fleck Announces Ryman Live Album With Billy Strings, Sierra Hull & More

Béla Fleck will release Live Heart: My Bluegrass Heart at the Ryman on October 16 via Béla Fleck Productions/Thirty Tigers. The 20-track live album documents Fleck's star-studded January 8, 2022 concert at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium featuring Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and other bluegrass standouts.

The concert brought together many of the musicians who contributed to Fleck’s 2021 album My Bluegrass Heart, which went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. The Ryman performance was originally scheduled for the previous night but was postponed due to severe winter weather.

Fleck opened the concert with “Blue Mountain Hop” alongside Bush, guitarist Bryan Sutton, Douglas, bassist Edgar Meyer and fiddler Stuart Duncan. A recording of the performance serves as the first single from Live Heart and arrives with accompanying video.

“We somehow managed to take and own the stage that night,” Fleck stated. “My amazing peers, friends, and iconic performers really brought the fire. I’m very proud to bring you this fantastic live performance.”

“Béla took such a collaborative spirit with this,” added Sierra 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 rotating ensemble also included fiddler Michael Cleveland, multi-instrumentalist Justin Moses, bassist Mark Schatz and banjoist Tony Trischka. Chris Thile, who appeared on My Bluegrass Heart and was originally expected to participate in the Ryman concert, was unable to reach Nashville due to the winter storm. In the liner notes, Thile wrote, “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 completed a trilogy of bluegrass albums Fleck began with 1988’s Drive and continued with 1999’s The Bluegrass Sessions. Fleck wrote and produced the Grammy-winning collection.

Live Heart: My Bluegrass Heart at the Ryman is available for pre-order as a two-CD set and on triple vinyl. Watch Fleck and the ensemble perform “Blue Mountain Hop” below:

Fleck’s My Bluegrass Heart band has several more performances ahead in 2026, including three special concerts with Renée Fleming. The collaborators will perform in Nashville on September 15, Los Angeles on September 22 and New York City on December 3, with Aoife O’Donovan joining them for the latter two shows.

Live Heart: My Bluegrass Heart at the Ryman Tracklist

1. Blue Mountain Hop
2. Vertigo featuring Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton
3. This Old Road
4. Slippery Eel featuring Michael Cleveland and Billy Strings
5. Hug Point featuring Molly Tuttle
6. Round Rock featuring Michael Cleveland and Jerry Douglas
7. Old North Woods
8. Us Chickens
9. Tentacle Dragon (Revenge of the) featuring Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton
10. Psalm 136 featuring Sierra Hull
11. Strider featuring Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle
12. Our Little Secret
13. Charm School featuring Sam Bush and Billy Strings
14. Wheels Up featuring Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle
15. Hunter’s Moon
16. Baptist Pumpkin Farm
17. Boulderdash featuring Tony Trischka
18. When the Storm Is Over featuring Sam Bush
19. Dark As The Night, Blue As The Day featuring Sierra Hull and Molly Tuttle
20. Tennessee featuring Billy Strings