Mark O'Connor & Bela Fleck's "Slopes" performed by 'Strength in Numbers'

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Mark O'Connor and Bela Fleck composed "Slopes" together for Strength in Numbers featuring Mark on guitar and Bela on Banjo.

Sam Bush - Mandolin
Jerry Douglas - Dobro
Bela Fleck - Banjo
Mark O'Connor - Violin, Guitar
Edgar Meyer - Bass


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"The new moments - new excitement." A lot of people back then, and even now make a big deal about the technical virtuosity of the playing in Strength In Numbers... Frankly I never really believed that the magic was completely about that - there was an emotional spirit to most of the pieces and the music-making, that leaps beyond anything technical. I always believed that the reason why the album was so good, is that it captured a "beautiful rebellion" that only people like us in their 20s could have experienced. Now of course, it would not have happened without the technical facility of each player - but no instrumental group could exist without chops of course. That is why this was so much more I think. It was a willingness to listen to each others every bow and pick stroke, not because we had to in order to make it work... but because we absolutely needed to for our own growth and sense of discovery. In order for us to feel right about our musical world that we were beginning to approach as people who could actually end up making a difference. We achieved that through being creative.

When we were talking about putting this on stage this Thursday for a 22-year reunion or something like that...at Telluride Bluegrass some were talking about covering the notes, each of us practicing with the tape until we saw each other the night before the big set... We could have tried to do it that way. But then we only had 10 songs, and two of people's favorites featured instruments I didn't play anymore (guitar and mandolin) and I co-wrote those two as well - it would have had to somehow grow and extend out from before - just logistically - in some form or fashion... Five creative players can't remain the same people they were. Five human beings - myself, who no longer plays the guitar. I realize now more than I ever did perhaps how good I was at the guitar, simply because it is gone from me now. Maybe chronic bursits and tendonitis in the right elbow that prevents me from controlling a flatpick with the precision I would require, ever again it looks like, makes you different. God said it was time to move. I would have to look in other directions to make up for the losses that life bestows. And of course I live a very rich life of music making in new settings. It is hard to go back, not impossible... but this weekend proved to me that the fluidity and power of creativity is stronger than we realize. It always wins, even though you just took one to the chin and one to the gut, the need to change, won the day, as we feel our loss of doing the reunion Thursday. -Mark O'Connor