B?©la Fleck shared some information about live tour support for his new Rounder CD, Throw Down Your Heart, in a recent interview.

The album is an audio chronicle of B?©la’s musical journey’s through western Africa in 2005. He recorded with a number of musicians in Mail, The Gambia, Uganda and Tanzania and their collaborations make up the 18 tracks on the CD.

Obviously, a recording like this will be difficult to reproduce on tour, but Fleck explained how they plan to give it a try.

“For the first tour, in March and April, we will bring over 4 artists, all of whom appear on the recording. These are Toumani Diabate, the preeminent kora player from Mali, Vusi Mahlasela, South Africa’s apartheid fighting vocalist and guitarist, D’Gary, the amazing fingerstyle guitarist from Madagascar and Anania Ngoglia, a singer and thumb piano player from Tanzania.

We will play separately and together and demonstrate the subtlety, depth and beauty of African acoustic music (with an American banjo player!).”

The complete tour schedule, updated regularly, can be found on B?©la’s web site.