Andy Chase

On stage and in print, Béla Fleck consistently comes across as genuine, friendly, and down to earth. I'd love to meet him someday - I almost feel like I know enough about 5-string banjo that I'd be able to have a meaningful conversation with the guy beyond the usual fan-stammering.

When he was in Northampton with his acoustic Trio last August, I hear tell he spent a couple of hours busking downtown. I was at work less than a mile away. A year earlier and I would have been working downtown, and probably would have heard (and quite possibly recognized) the playing through the office window. I try not to be too bitter about that.

Anyway, I love this snippet from the interview at http://www.blueridgecountry.com/faces/bela.cfm:

"I just try to play the banjo as if it were a musical instrument.

And sometimes when I say that people laugh, but it is a musical instrument [laughs] – it’s got strings, it’s got frets, and you can play anything on it that you can figure out how to finger and play."

Tagged:

• banjo
• belafleck