Fleck had long been interested in the banjo, but Washburn’s path to a music career was more roundabout: a proffered record deal in the halls of a bluegrass convention in Kentucky changed her trajectory from becoming a lawyer in China to a traveling folk musician.

Echo in the Valley is the follow-up to acclaimed, self-titled debut that earned the duo a 2016 Grammy for Best Folk Album. This time around, their mission was to take their double-banjo combination of three-finger and clawhammer styles to the next level. Their rules for the recording: all sounds must be created by the two of them, the only instruments used were banjos (they have seven between them, ranging from a ukulele to an upright bass banjo), and they had to be able to perform every recorded song live. Echo in the Valley connects us to our past through wild re-imaginings of traditional Appalachian tunes, with original songs inspired by a man who ferried Syrian refugees to safety and by Native American voices lamenting a distancing from nature.