MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: Grammy Award-winning Renee Fleming is often most seen and heard on the world's greatest opera stages.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NORMA, ACT I: CASTA DIVA")
RENEE FLEMING: (Vocalizing).
MARTIN: And Bela Fleck is a Grammy Award-winning banjo player, best known for his blend of roots music with other genres.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELA FLECK'S, "VERTIGO")
MARTIN: Now they've joined forces for an album of Appalachian bluegrass, where even Dolly Parton makes an appearance. It's called "The Fiddle And The Drum." There are mountain songs, ballads and folk hymns celebrating traditional American music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IN THE PINES")
RENEE FLEMING AND DOLLY PARTON: (Singing) You've caused me to weep. You've caused me to mourn.
MARTIN: I started our conversation by asking how this unusual partnership came about.
FLEMING: I learned to play the guitar when I was about 12 years old and then added other instruments to it - badly, by the way - sort of after I had recorded a lot of my standard repertoire, and I thought it would be really fun to examine this music. So the label said, you've got to meet Bela Fleck. So we met in New York and started this project a long time ago.
MARTIN: Bela Fleck, what about you? Do you remember how you met?
BELA FLECK: Well, I'm still blushing, but, yes, I remember Renee had a list of maybe hundreds of songs she liked 'cause she loves to do a lot of research and she came down to Nashville and we recorded a few things, kind of did some demos. And so we finally found a space to explore it and we continued it and we completed it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE FIDDLE AND THE DRUM")
FLEMING: (Singing) And so, once again, my dear Johnny, my dear friend.
MARTIN: What intrigued you, though, about the collaboration?
FLECK: Well, I am a big fan of female vocalists of all stripes and a huge Joni Mitchell fan and Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. So this is someone at the highest level coming up and saying, hey, do you want to do something you've always wanted to do?
MARTIN: You mentioned Joni Mitchell. The album takes its title, "The Fiddle And The Drum," from a song that was first recorded by Joni Mitchell in 1969.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE FIDDLE AND THE DRUM")
FLEMING: (Singing) How did you come to trade the fiddle for the drum?
MARTIN: It's sort of organized around themes of loss and war. What was the thinking there?
FLECK: Yeah. We both love these first six songs and thought they went together for some reason that was never spoken.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE SCARLET TIDE")
FLEMING: (Singing) We'll rise above the scarlet tide that trickles down through the mountain and separates the widow from the bride.
MARTIN: Renee, while I have you here, you resigned from your role as artistic adviser to the Kennedy Center after President Trump's takeover. You pulled out concerts that had been scheduled for this year. You've performed there many times. You were a Kennedy Center honoree. You know, it's set to shut down for two years, starting in July. And I just wonder, you know, what are your thoughts about that?
FLEMING: Oh, it's all been painful. This was always the most beautiful bipartisan institution. There was something for everybody. It was a gorgeous, diverse audience. I loved walking through. I was proud to be part of the Kennedy Center. And hopefully, everything can be stopped.
MARTIN: And, Bela, you also pulled out of performances that had been scheduled.
FLECK: I think the whole thing is very sad and very unmusical. I think music is about breaking down barriers, welcoming people, even what Renee and I are doing, you know, reaching out from different musical idioms towards finding a way to make music together. That's more like what the Kennedy Center is about. And it just felt it was going in a direction that was hard to watch and hard to be a part of.
(SOUNDBITE OF RENEE FLEMING SONG, "IN THE PINES")
MARTIN: OK, Renee. Dolly Parton, the legend...
FLEMING: I know.
MARTIN: ...Joins you for this incredible duet.
FLEMING: Exactly.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IN THE PINES")
FLEMING AND PARTON: (Singing) In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines. And we shiver when the cold, cold, wind blows.
MARTIN: How did that happen?
FLEMING: Well, I said to him - I said, well, of course it would be a dream to work with Dolly Parton, but I can't imagine that could ever happen.
MARTIN: I just think it's kind of cute how you feel like she wouldn't have returned your phone call, but OK.
FLECK: Yeah, me too.
FLEMING: (Laughter).
FLECK: I'm with you on that.
MARTIN: I mean, I'm clocking that.
FLEMING: When I heard what she did, I thought, wow, to blend in with another person's voice and style is not a small thing. You don't just do it, you know, in one take.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IN THE PINES")
FLEMING AND PARTON: (Singing) Look up. Look up. Look down. Look down that lonesome road.
MARTIN: Renee, you know what? I was curious about what's going on with your voice. Is there something different physically about how you use your voice for this type of music compared to opera?
FLEMING: Yeah. Well, definitely. I have found over time that when I'm singing outside the classical genre, I need to typically stay in my lowest range because otherwise it starts to sound operatic. In Broadway, there's something in between that I can manage stylistically. But for this album because it's atmospheric, it's mournful, it made sense to really stick with this lower range, unless I'm doing the whoops and the oohs.
MARTIN: (Laughter) Is there...
FLEMING: And those are fun.
MARTIN: Did you feel like a different person singing this music?
FLEMING: No, because it's not any different for me than the difference between singing French opera and Strauss and German opera. I mean, it's - those all require stylistic shifts based on the centuries in which the music was composed, the language, the actual style of the particular piece. It's all the same. It's really just adapting to a different genre and style.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY EPITAPH")
FLEMING: (Singing) Don't waste their beauty on cold, lifeless clay.
MARTIN: Do you have a hope for you hope to find this album?
FLECK: Yeah. Well, I mean, I start in a different position. Maybe Renee can relate to this a little bit, but I'm a banjo player, so everybody's expectations of me are so low...
MARTIN: (Laughter).
FLECK: ...It's almost impossible for me not to shatter them.
(LAUGHTER)
FLECK: And so if you have ideas that this is like, what a terrible idea. And then you hear it, it's really quite nice.
MARTIN: That is Grammy Award-winning banjo player Bela Fleck and Grammy Award-winning soprano Renee Fleming. Their new album together is "The Fiddle And The Drum." Thank you both so much for talking with us.
FLECK: Thank you.
FLEMING: Thank you, Michel.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE CUCKOO")
FLEMING: (Singing) Till the fourth day of July. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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