The great Mark Schatz on bass fiddle. It can't get much better.

First saw Fleck and Bush in New Grass Revival about 72 or 73 at the Walnut Valley Blue Grass Festival in Winfield, Kansas. Nobody had ever seen anybody do bluegrass like that and we were all just blown away. Still the best banjo/mandolin pair, ever!

Sam Bush,Bela Fleck,two of my all time favorite players!!What a fantastic band!!!

BluegrassLibrary, you never cease to amaze me! And for anyone watching this out there, if you want to see this guys do that live, just head to Telluride Bluegrass Festival this summer! These guys (minus Mark Schatz) are the regular House Band this year and most years, which means a whole set of this stellar musicianship!

All of the are absolutely tops. Bryan Sutton just kills me.

Absolutely the three best at what they do.........breathtaking musicians.

Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and some chronically underrated geniuses! Saw Brian Sutton playing for Noam Pikelny between Punch Brothers tours a while back, and it was stellar. Stuart Duncan I know from the prolific Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, and Edgar Meyer (Edgar having recorded an album for the ages "Strength in Numbers: Telluride Sessions" with Jerry, Bela, Sam, and Mark O'Connor). Mark Schatz I know as also chronically underrated for his work with Nickel Creek. Great musicianship here.

this was great. these guys were lucky to have bela fleck there- who is not only the best banjo player of all time but arguably the best musician of all time. i think it is perfectly fitting he plays he least understood instrument.

All legendary talent!

Saw Jerry at the Lowell folk festival ions ago. He is/ still is the best.

Damn thats the best of the best!!!!

@BluegrassLibrary - awesome! thanks for the info and the GREAT videos that you post.

It is a fantastic recording.

The guy on the Dobro is absolutley fantastic

The Blugrass Sessions; Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Volume 2, is one of my favorite albums! I was about to mention it when I saw your post. I saw some of the line-up on Austin City Limits, but was not aware of the live download, THANKS!! To anyone into bluegrass I can't recommend The Blugrass Sessions enough. The Cd is FULL of music; just under 80min.! featuring: Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, Mark Schatz w/ special guests Vassar Clements, John Hartford and Earl Scruggs.

"that guy on dobro" Now that is funny. Great video!

Fleck For life. He seriously rules.

Jazz has always been my preference, but this really strikes a chord with me!

fantastic!

I didn't know they did "Major Honker" live. Sweet!

The very best!!!

To all of you who are lucky enough to be able to appreciate these guys, you might like to download The Bluegrass Sessions from nugs.net. It is the same lineup, live, and has the entire performance. It is only available in MP3 format, but it is free and legal. Click on the "free stash" button that you should find in the upper right corner of the nugs.net page. There are many other live concerts in the free stash section as well. Hope you enjoy.

I cant believe the band introducer didnt mention BELA FLECK!!!!!

Excellent creation! :)

The tune is "Major Honker," an original of Bela's, the closing track from his "Tales of the Acoustic Planet Volume 2: The Bluegrass Sessions" CD.

This is awesome,only ones missing are Vince Gill and Tony Rice. Thanks for posting.

Mr. Stuart Duncan! A one of a kind fiddler. It's nice that Michael Cleveland is following in his foot steps. If you like this vid oyou will love Bela's new double CD album called 'My Bluegrass Heart'. More astonishing fresh grass like this!

These guy rule . .they rule. Thank you for posting. This isn't that long ago - It's the "sessions" tour. Tony allegedly had shut his hand in a car door and couldn't make it. "But don't worry ," sam said in the intros, "meet yer new best buddy, Bryan Sutton." and boy was he right - does this guy whup some ass on guitar or what? ;P

best U2 gig ever!

Jerry Douglas absolutely is the best dobro player ever. Stuart Duncan is my personal idol though, simply because I play the fiddle, and that man could play anything and make it sound amazing!

He's tuning that damn banjo HaHa I love it bela is tha man

That is some good picking and string

as Douglas would say: MONSTERS all of them!

Sam Bush is crazy!

@ungaknunap Yes he is! And Mark is great, but Stuart flies a bit more daring out on the improv limbs of the tree not knowing where he's going, which I love. His early Hot Club de Nashville stuff is some of the sweetest fiddle I've ever heard.

@stillwater215 Earl is a legend, he commercialized the banjo. Bela just took it around the moon and back. Bela will always be the best. He is the banjo player everyone wants to sound like.

HA!!! Get you some on dobro!! Damn Jerry's dobro must be set on destroy

Cream of the crop!!!!!

He is on the list. Look at the description. It's impossible to fit all names in the title.

Tales from the Acoustic Planet Volume II: The Bluegrass Sessions.

Gotta love the guy stuffing himself at 3:47.

@principalbass Did you read my second comment? I apologized for being condescending or patronizing, pick your word, and I'll do it again for your benefit. I didn't mean to come off that way, and I'm certainly happy for first time or casual bluegrass fans to watch the performances on KZfaq and learn to appreciate these wonderful musicians. It's been my experience that people who watch the KZfaq videos are usually people who are already fans of the genre. Sorry again...

Wonder why Bryan didn't get a 2nd break like everyone else? I would have loved to here more of the good ol' flatpick. Recorded this song off a bluegrass special they ran off CMT years ago. Still sitting around on a VHS somewhere. Now if only still had a VCR lol...

i love lorrie morgan

To " goldensleeves" it's a cromatic starting at the D string at the 9th fret in triplets.

i luv lorrie morgan!

Does it get any better?!?

Sam bush is really good on the mandolin

@brodank That's Lorrie Morgan. She was married to Keith Whitley before he died.

from which year is that video? They all look still so young.

@AnnaGolly just saying... O'Connor may not be in the spotlight as much anymore, but don't doubt he's still a beast. He's also an awesome Mandolin and Guitar player. Stuart is a very tasteful and awesome session player. O'Connor is a world class player and composer. Not sure if Stuart would be comfortable in a jazz or classical setting, but O'connor is comfortable in ANY setting.

How does Bela do that banjo lick at 3:29? Is he doing that "roll" on just one string? I know the thumb is still going throughout the lick but I'm not talking about that. How does he make that happen? I wish the camera was closer. Does ANYBODY KNOW????????

I can't believe she didn't mention Bryan and Stuart..

Ah, yes, St. Jerry of Douglas.

They properly mashed this tune!!!

that's Stu duncan on the fiddle

What year was this?

vince gill also!

check out "seven by seven" Vintage NGR They're KIDS and Cowan's 'do alone is worth the price of admission

What year was this performance recorded? Man, I miss TNN. Spike TV is dog doo.

@phakajuju She did:)

@chomperknocker - Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you or to be condescending to anyone. I read my comment and I probably was a little haughty with it. I was just making a point that you can have your opinion on who's the best anything player in Nashville, and there will be spirited arguments all around until you get to dobro. Jerry Douglas is simply the best ever, and no one else even enters into the discussion. I'm happy for anyone to listen to our music, though, and won't do it again.

Stuart Duncan looks like Dana Carvey

What year is this? It looks like the late 90's but by then Jerry used Scheerhorn's guitars, and this is his R.Q. Jones...??

Why is here Brian Sutton and no Tony Rice?

She didn't know Mark O'Connor and Brian Sutton. That's a vocalist for you.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I posted that before the end of the video

WHY NOT MENTION THE OTHER GUYS? They're legends also.

Early Bryan.

@JimmyDeLocke Yeah I thought that was kind of rude.

n2gqs..You have it reversed. Earl was a HUGE influence on both Bill and Bela, and if asked, either would be the first to tell you so. Earl's influences were Smith Hammett, Snuffy Jenkins, and other N.C. locals he heard as a youngster. Bela is probably the only other banjo man to be considered in some degree a world wide legend in the sense that Earl is. Bill is a consummate musician and the primary opener of the melodic approach. Who is best? Bela the complexity; Earl the tone-- both unique.

man, when was this? they're all so skinny!

Earl will be remembered as the one who started the bluegrass banjo, and Béla will be remembered as the one who took it everywhere else. Naturally, Béla took influence from Earl. More legendary? That's a tough one.

@jeffk1007 Yep. That's all I can say.

Gosh, it's great and all... but I wish Sam would get into the music a little bit... (yes, I'm kidding!) Great vid!

Best in Nashville? Try THE WORLD........

hhmmm... okay so it's the index, middle, and ring finger just like flamence guitarists do sometimes?? So he's not using his thumb on that particular string, right? I mean his thumb is picking a different string, right?

Who is the Interviewer? she is cute

1:32 Sutton is God

Practically everything I hear these awesome guys play (when they get together) has that same drifty, improvised feel that bores me to tears. I am in absolute awe of their virtuosity, but I confess that their improvisational ideas leave me cold. Full disclosure: I feel the same way about a lot of jazz; once I lose track of the melody they are riffing on I get that "there goes grandma again" feeling. As it is, the "melody" on this one isn't that compelling to begin with.

Wow, no love for Stuart Duncan.

that's single string style mate. triplets with 3 fingers on one string.

umm it's really not that old...you want to see a young Sam Bush check out the short video of The Bluegrass Alliance with Sam and Tony Rice...or some New Grass Revival with Sam and Bela

The guy on the dobro? You don't listen to much bluegrass, do you 46r11? The guy on the guitar is pretty good, too, isn't he? How about the lad on the fiddle? Not bad, I guess. These five - Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Bela Fleck on banjo, Sam Bush on mandolin, Bryan Sutton on guitar, and most of all Jerry Douglas on dobro, are arguably the best players of their particular instruments in Nashville, which means they're arguably the best in the world, especially "the guy on the Dobro."

Would you all stop making music a competition. Some of the best players in the world are in this video and you make it to be a sports game of who's best. Stop putting musicians against each other in a death match and just enjoy what they are presenting. I have had the pleasure of meeting a few of the musicians on this stage and the furthest thing on their mind is "I am better than you". Stop analyzing the music and enjoy!

OOPS -- NEVER MIND . . .

I bought the NGR hits CD. The studio version of this song does not compare. At all.

tony rice is still the guitar king....

@ungaknunap Mark O'connor can smoke Stuart. Hands down.

@ungaknunap Yes he is! And Mark is great, but Stuart flies a bit more daring out on the improv limbs of the tree not knowing where he's going, which I love. His early Hot Club de Nashville stuff is some of the sweetest fiddle I've ever heard.