Spouses’ passion for banjo shows in their musical union

Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck know that, figuratively speaking, one plus one doesn't always equal two.

The couple, both among the world’s most skilled banjo players, have created two children, but their sons’ love for the instrument has yet to emerge.

“When you have one banjo player and another banjo player and they create another person, that person is a golfer,” Washburn said of 5-year-old son Juno.

The putting prodigy still spends plenty of time puttering around backstage while his parents team up to bring an expansive vision of the banjo to national audiences, including a Sunday stop at the Mccoy Center in New Albany.

While Fleck hopes 6-month-old son Theo will show more of an interest in the banjo than his brother does, he hopes to instill a deep appreciation for life’s chosen work, regardless of

what it might be.

“I think we’re sharing the idea that being passionate about what you do is important, but not the idea that you have to do what we’re passionate about,” he said.

Fleck, 60, found his life’s passion at Juno’s age, when he first heard Earl Scruggs’ chipper banjo riff on “The Beverly Hillbillies” television intro.

He didn’t have the ego to try it for himself — it sounded too fast and complex — and waited another 10 years to pluck the instrument for the first time.

Washburn, 41, found the banjo at age 21 but didn’t become a full-time musician until a decade later, when a record company offered her a deal seemingly out of the blue.

For most of their careers, the two musicians worked solo — Fleck most notably backed by jazz/bluegrass instrumental group the Flecktones — but Juno’s birth in 2013 necessitated a new vision for combining work and life.

The couple's self-titled debut, released in 2014 and winner of the 2015 Grammy Award for best folk album, intertwined Washburn’s clear vibrato with a swath of banjo varieties: Fleck’s personalized baritone, a ukulele banjo, a cello banjo and a fretless banjo, plus their everyday models.

The duo added a bass banjo to second album, “Echo in the Valley,” released in 2017.

Fleck and Washburn’s collaborations sound like a cozy living-room jam session with a dozen banjo friends even though only two instruments are vying for sound space at any given time.

Working toward a full sound, Washburn said, reflects their eagerness to prove the instrument is more than a musical garnish.

“We both have this desire for the world to realize the banjo is enough,” she said. “It’s not just an auxiliary instrument, but it can be the center of a creative pursuit and carry its weight, and carry the whole weight.”

They took cues from banjo orchestras of the late 19th century, where a dozen or more players would perform intricate, graceful versions of popular tunes.

“That’s surprising to people who aren’t around banjos,” Fleck said. “They don’t think of the banjo as elegant, but it can be very beautiful, very moody and powerful. It can be propulsive. It can be happy. It can be a lot more than people expect is in that instrument.”

While their albums together have a definite Americana flavor — a style they’re both familiar with — they found themselves most at odds when drafting lyrics.

Washburn tends toward the poetic, using nature

imagery and softer sentence structure.

Fleck aims for the throat, favoring short words and forceful ideas.

In “Bloomin’ Rose," a cautionary tale about misusing natural resources, Washburn begins with a gentle description of “green grasses soften(ing) my birth,” while Fleck’s verse discusses “a big wheel barrel(ing) on through.”

When they come to an impasse, the couple often shelves the song for a week. By the time they return, the grudges have usually faded.

“I’m not saying now we’re going to be the Gershwins,” Fleck said. “But I think we made a record that’s honest to who we are and I really like playing them. The more I play them, the more I feel they're expressions of us.”

— Julia Oller joller@dispatch.com @juliaoller