The Fiddle And The Drum is the new collaborative album from Renée Fleming and Béla Fleck, and My Epitaph is the latest single from it. Originally written and recorded by Appalachian folk artist Ola Belle Reed, the song is a reflective meditation on compassion and the importance of caring for others in the present. On this song, the pair are joined by the iconic Aoife O’Donovan. When asked about the recording Fleck says “This is an example of how you can say so much in a simple folk song. It’s a great place to post someone’s creed, as Ola Belle did so elegantly here,” whilst Fleming adds, “The message of the song, summed up in the lyric, ‘what we’d do for each other, let us do it today,’ is so wise, and bears repeating now, when loneliness has become an actual epidemic. Aoife’s harmonizations add so much richness. It’s amazing how, in this music, a handful of players can bring so many textures and colours to a song.”
Though best known for her career on the world’s great opera stages, Renée Fleming has long held a deep love for American folk music. Sometime in the late aughts, she and Béla Fleck first discussed the idea of recording an album rooted in the Appalachian tradition. After years of busy schedules kept the idea on the back burner, the two finally revisited the idea in 2023 and brought The Fiddle and the Drum to life. The Fiddle And The Drum is released on May 29th via Thirty Tigers.
