Your Cart UMS
Thursday, February 7, 2019 7:30 PM // Hill Auditorium

Echo in the Valley
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn

Performance
Photo credit: jim mcguire
 

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn met at a square dance and began playing music together over a decade ago, marrying shortly thereafter.

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.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Thursday, February 7, 2019 7:30 PM
Hill Auditorium

Echo in the Valley
Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn

Performance

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn met at a square dance and began playing music together over a decade ago, marrying shortly thereafter.

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.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

SUPPORTING SPONSOR

  • Michael and Leslee Perlstein

MEDIA PARTNERS

Love great music, theater, and dance?

Love great music, theater, and dance?

Surely your inbox has room for one more email... Sign up for notifications on upcoming events and season updates.

Thanks! We'll keep you updated.