Encore:
Encore:
Encore:
*** Set II ***
Encore:
*** Set II ***
*** Encore ***
Encore:
*** w/ Béla Fleck & The Flecktones ***
*** w/ Béla Fleck & The Flecktones and Jeff Coffin ***
*** Set II ***
*** Encore ***
David Byrne: You've been touring all these places where I haven't toured, where a lot of people don't tour. Thailand, India, Philippines, Mongolia, Singapore, Manila. I've heard they have really super mainstream acts going, but you don't count as that until they redefine mainstream. When you go to places like that where they have maybe no expectations or no definition, hard and fast definitions, what's their reaction? Béla Fleck: Well, I remember we went to hear the local jazz band in Ulan Bator and the last jazz artist that had been there was Glen Miller and they were playing that kind of stuff in their band. So I don't know what they thought about us. I don't know whether they thought it was jazz or not. We're not really that concerned about whether it is or not. It's just because it's such a hybrid kind of music that by not defining it so clearly we get to hop from genre to genre. You can go play a bluegrass festival, an alternative rock show or a jazz festival or now we're doing some folk festival shows. And that really is cool for us because we get to be inspired by the greatest musicians in all these different fields. Victor Wooten: Another neat thing, too, because some of those places we were going were so remote they didn't have the preconceived notions of what we were going to be or what we were supposed to be. It was like a National Geographic special. We got to go way back in the hillsides of Indonesia and play for those hill tribes and it was amazing. Béla Fleck: The whole town came out. Victor Wooten: They were saying that most of these people had never seen live music before and they were hoping to get maybe 500 people at this place and they were thinking that the whole tribe had come, it was over 2,000 people. And in each place we went we would learn at least one of their songs, one of their native songs, and we would play it in our own way. And man, in this one particular instance, when we went into their song the whole audience was just up clapping and singing along. And it was just like a huge party. And it was neat because they get it. We were relating. We never met but we were instantly relating and I think a lot of it has to do with not having so many expectations. Just accepting whatever's going to happen. And I think that was the best, going to these remote places and having that, rather than going to places that are so Americanized that they want you to perform a certain way. David Byrne: You're all in Nashville, speaking of being in left field. Béla Fleck: That would be considered right field actually. David Byrne: But your position there... you mentioned Adrian Belew and there's a lot of people in Nashville now... Béla Fleck: John Hiatt, Leon Russell,... David Byrne: But you don't fit the Nashville stereotype. Béla Fleck: It's a friendly environment. For instance, here we are in New York City. This is a very difficult place to live and survive and make music and I have to take my hat off to people who do it. Especially in a start-up situation. But Nashville is just a lot easier. It's friendly. There's great studios. All the record companies have portals down there so even if you're not into country mainstream you can attract attention. Sometimes it's easier coming from a different place. In fact when we first got together and made this record and started pitching it around to labels, the ones in the big cities, in New York and LA, didn't get it. And Nashville did and they hung in with us. And so, after a while everybody else, went, "Oh, maybe we should have signed you guys." So it came later. David Byrne: You toured a lot, this is going way back, just building up a following without radio play for a long time. Béla Fleck: And a lot of that was built on a lot of work I had done in the past with the band New Grass Revival. And it was a very progressive bluegrass band so it had all of the acoustic music people's awareness but it also was very forward leaning. And actually on Country Music TV we had a video out which barely stayed on the air for a little while because it was too weird. But we played all of the rock clubs and the small theaters and stuff and so when we put this group together at least we had that to work from. We could call the promoters up and say, "Remember me? I played with New Grass, we did well, would you give this a shot?" And so at least we had someplace to start and then from there it was just a sheer ability of the group to either turn people on or not. And generally, we did. And that's what our audience built up from there. And we worked a lot. We've done a lot of shows. And we kept coming back. Future Man: And yeah, the nature of it was the evolving experiment. That's what I tell people. When we started we were only supposed to do it one time. It was for a TV show. David Byrne: Working together? Future Man: Yeah. David Byrne: It was a trial thing at first? Future Man: Yeah. Well Béla got offered to do a PBS special featuring his music and Béla's from New York and he always wanted to play jazz like Chick Corea or somebody, but with the banjo. And that was too far out or something. Then Victor visited Nashville and he heard Victor play over the phone. And an engineer friend of ours named Curt Storey called up Béla and put the phone in Victor's bass and proceeded to do that thing that he does. Those things, some of those things. And Béla heard that and so I think that was the nucleus for a band he wanted to put on the end of this show. And they started listening to drummers and they called me up. I was in Virginia testing out my first drum guitar thing. I was playing in a dance band to try to flesh out the idea. And he called me up and we just talked but just off our conversation, he kept calling. I didn't know why he was calling. Because no one really knew what I was doing and then finally I just said, "Well okay, we'll try it." Béla Fleck: "... We'll have a drum kit there just in case..." Future Man: In that Lonesome Pines special you'll see the drum kits in the back in case everything goes out on TV. So it's just the nature of an experiment out in front of the public. But we did it one time and we're still doing it so some things went right but the experiment continues. It's still the nature of an experiment unfolding.