I’ve spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate, very simple and emotional, about that music.

Fleming links scholarly curiosity (“hours and hours doing research”) with family memory (“My grandfather was a fiddler”), suggesting that her engagement with Appalachian folk music is both professional and personal. The quote frames the tradition as emotionally direct—music that communicates without elaborate artifice—while also implying that simplicity can be a sophisticated artistic value. Coming from an opera singer associated with highly formal repertory, the remark highlights a bridge between classical performance and vernacular American roots, and it hints at how lineage and regional sound can shape an artist’s sense of authenticity and expressive immediacy.