JPM:  How long have you been playing music together? How has playing together affected your individual styles?

BF:  We got together as a couple about 10 years ago. And we started playing music at family gatherings. But it was just an occasional thing. Then Abby’s grandma June asked us to play a show at her church. We threw together a set, and it was so easy and so much fun to be together on stage.  It has taken us a while to actually take our duo out on the road, but in the last year we tested the waters, and had a wonderful time touring.  When we had our baby Juno, now 17 months old, we knew we needed to find a way to tour together. So we recorded our new album Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, which came out last week. It’s number 1 this week in the Bluegrass charts and it’s one of the top 120 albums in Billboard, so we are having a great early response.  As far as our styles, we love to allow each other’s way of playing have a gentle influence on us. But we try to stay strongly ourselves.

JPM:  What do you feel that technology is doing for the recording process, negative and/or positive? Do you plan on recording an album together?

BF:  A positive might be that we were able to record a very high quality audio recording in our basement, between feeding the baby, and other household duties.  The technology of recording is pretty incredible.  And using the technology of social media to get it out there has also been key in our early success with record sales.  Negatives – you used to be able to put a lot more music into people’s hands, and measure your progress by record sales.  Now it’s a lot harder to track the impact you are having, and you don’t get paid much for success.

JPM:  In your process of writing, where do you feel you get most of your inspiration?

BF:  I get a lot from finding music that interests me. When I find something just right, it jogs my brain into activity. The process is something like – hmm, I never thought of that – well if you can do that, than you must also be able to do this and this and this, and a whole bunch of new ideas arrive very quickly.

JPM:  How does life and growing older change your style of writing and playing?

BF:  I am valuing playing simpler music that connects with traditions a lot more now. The music Abby and I are doing might not have been as exciting 20 years ago, when i was trying so hard to push the boundaries of what I could do with the banjo in Jazz, and Classical musics.

JPM:  What does playing a historic venue, like the Saenger Theatre in Mobile, AL, do for the artist and also the fans?

BF:  We love the old theaters, and it’s a joy and an honor to play them. And when you play music that has a lot of traditional sounds in it like ours, there’s something very special about playing in places where that kind of banjo music was played a century ago.

JPM:  Who do you feel was your biggest musical influence in your life?

BF:  That’s tough – I have a few big ones. Earl Scruggs, and then Tony Trischka on banjo, and Chick Corea in jazz are major guys for me. But there are so many others.

JPM:  Who is in your music player today?

BF:  Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer, The Earls of Leicester, The Wood Brothers, and new U2.