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    AiC News (more news)
February 1, 2025
Lots Happening Behind the Scenes

It's been a while since we made an update. In fact the site was down for a bit while we made some tech upgrades, but we've been back up for quite some time and we've been busy. But you may not have noticed if you haven't been looking for it.

First, tomorrow (Feb 2) is the 67th Annual Grammy Awards and Bela is up for 4 awards himself, plus Chick is up for another award for their album Remembrance. With these 4 nominations, Bela has now been nominated 45 total times with 17 wins. And, of course he still holds the record for being nominated in the most different categories (21 of them!). He'll also be performing at the Grammys Permiere Ceremony at 3:30pm ET so check out that live stream.

Next, we've moved off of Twitter and mostly off Facebook/Threads and we are now posting most of our updates on BlueSky, so follow us there for more frequent updates, trivia, and other fun Fleck/Flecktone related posts. @archivesincowtown.bsky.social

In addition to BlueSky, we've also got a few more accounts that we spun up to expand the archives.

  • YouTube: We've been posting older videos from our collection, some full live shows and even some bonus tracks from older albums that you may or may not have heard. Plus we have about a dozen different playlists aggregating videos of Béla, New Grass Revival, The Flecktones, and others.
  • Sporcle: We've started making quizzes! We have 3 now, one for Flecktone Songs, another for Bela Fleck discography and another about Bela's Grammy nominations. Check them out if you want a challenge.
  • Spotify: We've create our first playlist on Spotify in honor of the Grammy awards this year. It's a playlist of every song Béla was nominated for (minus 2 that aren't on Spotify). And it ended up being a great showcase of his career.
We'll adding to these sites and post updates on BlueSky so come check us out and follow us so you don't miss any Flecktone fun.

As for the site, there has been a LOT happening.

  • We've been backfilling a lot of older dates from the Flecktones and the many side projects. Adding setlists where we can find them. Check out some special performances like Béla Fleck with Friends & Family at Red Rocks and Béla's Rhythmn, Raga & Rhapsody at Carnegie Hall for some interesting setlists, then just browse around the years and check out the different tours.
  • While backfilling dates, we also backfilled a lot of Flecktone setlists specifically for their later one-off tours including a Trio tour and a few dates with just Béla and Vic. Check those out in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
  • We also made some UI updates to different pages like the Artists page and Album pages. Slowly we'll take this site out of 2004 when it launched and maybe into the 2020s if we can.
  • We also have done tons of research on pre-Flecktones Béla Fleck. There's plenty more to come, but we've started adding Spectrum dates and we've increased our New Grass Revival content by about 1000% adding all their studio albums and around 200 shows, 40 of which have setlists. For some specific goodies, check out the Farewell for Now Tour from 1989 where we have around 60% of the setlists entered.
  • We've done more with albums, in fact we've added almost all of Béla's 60+ albums including Flecktones and NGR. Check out the updated Songs page for a jumping off point to those albums. Then dive into specific songs to see setlist history.
  • And finally, perhaps the most fun part, we've been getting data dumps from the Flecktones sound engineer Richard Battaglia with tons of setlist data. We hit 2005 the hardest so far, adding lots of setlists for the different Béla projects that toured that year including the Acoustic Trio, the Stanley Clark & Jean-Luc Ponty Trio! and the Béla Fleck & Edgar Meyer tour. Just browse around and you'll find lots of new setlist data.

As we close out Béla's 50th year of touring (and our 20th anniversary year), we plan to continue bringing you updates to the site itself, new and exciting touring data, and, with our new social accounts, fun video, audio, and even trivia where we can. So follow us everywhere so you can take part as we celebrate these huge milestones!

Tweet Tweet
September 21, 2013

So updates have been few and far between these days. The hiatus has caused a drop in my Flecktone focus, unfortunately.

I have managed to make my way through a handful of audience recordings and add a few new setlists, mainly from 1997 and 1998. I have also been tracking down some of the unknown tracks played throughout the years trying to figure out exactly where they came from (list includes a Mike Marshall tune the Flecktones played back in '96 as well as a few miscellaneous songs from Bela solo albums).

But, more importantly, I recently began adding some side project dates for 2013 and getting ready for the dates in 2014. While there is still no plan to end the Flecktones hiatus (based on various reports), there are plenty of opportunities all over the world to catch the Flecktones individually with their side projects.

  • Vic will be doing a small tour with his brothers this December and more touring in early 2014
  • Levy has tours and clinics set up across the US
  • Coffin is on tour with the Mu'tet right now and will hit South America and Africa this winter with DMB
  • Futureman is also touring with the Mu'tet and is always playing gigs in the TN area
  • And Bela, the new dad, has tours set up with a variety of folks from his lovely bride to Brooklyn Rider to Chick Corea

The 2013 page is empty at the moment, so I encourage you to check out their official sites for tour dates and tickets. And albums too, Vic and Bela have both released new music within the last year or so and Coffin & the Mu'tet are working on one to be released early next year.

In the mean time, Archives in Cowtown has launched into the Twitter universe, so follow us (@CowtownArchives) for updates on side projects, tour dates, new recordings, updates to historical AiC data and all sorts of other Flecktone related fun. While updates to the site are fairly sporadic, the AiC will remain active on Twitter.

Last little nugget of info, I'm excited to be doing some work on the DMBAlmanac these days. The Almanac inspired the creation of this site and it is a great honor to be part of that team. If you are a DMB fan and you do not know about the Almanac by now, get ready to waste hours of time digging through the most comprehensive tour archive out there.

— Tex

Daily Dose Day
May 25, 2011

Si Twining, of Bruuuce.com, has put together a marathon of sorts to benefit two great charities. On May 30th, he will be making available 5 free tracks an hour from 5 different artists, 125 tracks total. That's 125 tracks from artists including Bruce Hornsby, Bela Fleck, Dave Matthews, Phish and The Grateful Dead.

So head on over to DailyDoseDay.com for details on how you can take advantage of the free music and make a donation to a great cause. Donations will benefit the ALS Association as well as the NSPCC for abused children in the UK.

We'll get by with a little help from our friends
March 5, 2011

Well, here we are. Today marks the 7 year anniversary of the Archives in Cowtown and thus we are up for renewal on our domain and web hosting. Times are a little tougher than normal this year so, even though I never wanted to do this, I'm going to ask for some help.

I have plenty in store over the next year for the AiC. I'm hoping to roll out version 2.0 with many, many upgrades. Of course none of that will matter if I can't make the renewal fee. It's a relatively small fee ($150), compared to most, so hopefully we can knock it out and move on.

So if you like the site and are ready for the great things that are coming down the line, feel free to help me out via PayPal, or if you'd prefer another method, shoot me an email and we can work out the details: cowtownarchives@gmail.com.

Got a buck? Try one of these tracks.
December 14, 2010

The holidays can be happy . . . and stressful, so how about a few tunes to take your mind of the craziness that is the holiday season. We've found a list of random Flecktone related tracks that may interest you. Any of these tracks would make a great gift for a friend . . . or yourself.

1. Flecktones - "White Christmas"
2. Flecktones - "The Stranger"
3. Flecktones - "Magic Fingers" (live)
4. Victor Wooten - "Peace Jam" (live)
5. Victor Wooten - "Liz & Opie"
6. Bela Fleck - "On the Road"
7. Bela & Abigail Washburn - "Keys to the Kingdom" (live)
8. Bela & Abigail Washburn - "Annabelle June"
9. Bela & Jerry Douglas - "Another Morning" (live)
10. Bela & Tony Rice - "Whitewater"
11. Bela & Chick Corea - "Skit" (bonus track)
12. Bela & Ben Sollee - "Danse macabre"
13. Bela & Boubacar Diebate - "Tiedo"
Bela gets another Grammy nom!
December 3, 2010

Bela has been nominated for another Grammy. Part 2 of Throwdown Your Heart has been nominated for best contemporary world music album. Throwdown Your Heart is music from Bela's journey through Africa as he explored the roots of the banjo.

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards take place on February 13th, 2011 on CBS.

Click here for all the Nominees

Upcoming Shows:

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
2025-02-22
Koger Center for the Arts
Columbia, SC

Fleck, Casteñada & Sanchez Trio
2025-03-24
Dakota Jazz Club
Minneapolis, MN

Fleck, Casteñada & Sanchez Trio
2025-03-25
Dakota Jazz Club
Minneapolis, MN

Fleck, Casteñada & Sanchez Trio
2025-03-27
Downtown Knoxville
Knoxville, TN

Fleck, Casteñada & Sanchez Trio
2025-03-29
Presidio Theatre
San Francisco, CA