Dom Flemons Archives - Bluegrass Today

Dom Flemons – looking forward and back at the same time

Dom Flemons is one of those unique artists who is as dedicated to education as he is to entertaining. Not that he comes across as any sort of stern lecturer or headmaster. His dedication to bringing the archival traditions of Appalachia and the role the early black musicians played in its progress, have made him the essence of what it means to be a timeless troubadour.

It’s been that way since early on, when his early interests in the artists that inspired him — Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Chuck Berry — led him to dig deeper into the firmament of folk tradition, courtesy of artists like Woody Guthrie, Tom Paxton, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. He pursued that passion by busking and participating in poetry slams within the Arizona environs where he was raised, developing his skills on banjo, fife, guitar, harmonica, percussion, quills, and rhythm bones in the process. By the time he joined the pioneering African American Grammy-winning string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops, he was fully immersed in the musical heritage of American folklore, and after eight years, five albums, and an EP, he eventually decided to pursue a solo career full-time.

Now, with five of his own albums under his belt, including his 2018 offering, Black Cowboys, which garnered a Grammy nomination Best Folk Album and a Blues Music Award in the Acoustic Music category, he’s rightfully earned the handle by which he’s now known, The American Songster.

Exceedingly gracious as always, he offered Bluegrass Today an opportunity to talk about his life and legacy and, of course, the mission he maintains as far as bringing tradition to the fore and inspiring others to do the same.

You may recall we met backstage at the first Earl Scruggs festival, after you finished your set and you were getting ready to make your way back home. We have mutual friends and, of course, I dropped their names right away.

Well, it’s so good to talk with you.

So let’s start by discussing the educational aspect of what you do. From an outsider’s perspective, it clearly seems as important to you these days as the entertainment aspect of your performances. Would you not agree?

I do think that they go hand in hand with each other. There are so many different elements to the songs that I do, so I do try to bring an educational element into it, even within my performance of the songs, the ways that they’re written, the styles that I’m playing, and even the words to several of them as well. They all fit into that. I try not to spend too much time belaboring the educational points with the audience, but I feel like the music tells the audience a lot of the history with the way they’re written.

So when did you first develop a passion for bringing this historical music to the fore?

After starting to play professionally around 2005, I found that once I started to travel, playing the old time music sort of came naturally. Then, around 2014 or so, I started to see that as digital technology began to become the dominant form of mass media people were taking in. I started to become a lot more conscious of trying to write music that would educate people through the composition itself, because I found that a lot of times, people were consuming the music in a much different way. I also found that attention spans were becoming a bit shorter, and I realized that it was important to start figuring out ways to not only interpret older songs, but to tell a story. I found that in writing new songs, it was important to figure out ways to tell stories that were not as well known. And so I started making a more conscious effort to do that.

It seems like you’re almost toeing the line between reverence for the tradition and moving it ahead at the same time, while creating original work that reflects the traditional template. Do you find that it’s almost like walking a tightrope, so to speak, given that you bring these other elements into the mix to make it a bigger and greater sums of its parts?

I think that in some ways, it’s just part of what went on. When I get in front of an audience, I find that it’s something that people are appreciating, because it brings a certain authenticity to the performance. It’s about being able to have this bigger story, so that it becomes a multilayered message. And so in a certain way, it’s one of those things where I try to bring a lot to each song and to take the audience on a journey, whether it’s a very short song or a much longer song. Sometimes I try to embed some type of memory that I have from when I learned a certain lick or a certain way of playing. I try to present that to the audience so that they can appreciate it a different way when they hear it. It’s one of those things that I’ve become much more conscious of, especially as I’ve been presenting more original material. I’m trying to find those spaces where the audience can expand their own knowledge of the music just through hearing the songs. When you hear it in the song, you get to hear the drama, and you get to hear the the movement and the beat and the rhythm and that gives you a flavor of of what those those old days were like.

I have to imagine that it’s not always easy being up there by yourself just trying to capture the attention of an audience. People’s attention spans are very fickle nowadays, and so when it’s just you up there and you don’t have a backing band to share the spotlight, it must be kind of intimidating or challenging. You’ve been doing it a while, so does it get any easier?

When I started to play out as a solo performer, any nervousness I had about playing for an audience by myself I used to translate that into a certain energy that I could project out off of the stage. And so nowadays, it’s actually kind of a thrill to be able to stand up there on my own and to be able to hold an audience’s attention. Over the years, I’ve figured out different ways to be able to craft my performance in my set so that I have enough songs and stories that can hold the audience’s attention. I like to play for an audience and to show the power of a solo performer. A lot of the musicians that I’ve respected and have listened to are solo performers without backing bands. And so just to be able to present that to an audience is something that I take a lot of pride in doing.

You’ve been the recipient of numerous awards, kudos, and accolades. Do you feel like you’ve been placed on a pedestal and that suddenly you have to live up to expectations? Does that put added pressure on you?

Every once in a while, I’ll get to thinking about it. But one of the things that keeps me on level ground is knowing that from the beginning, I started out as a fan of music, and that the enthusiasm that I brought with me to the professional realm of music is something that still drives me to this day. I try to just always think back to my of being a fan of music and the enthusiastic I had for that. That allows me to kind of sidestep the pressure of being someone who’s gotten the fame and received awards or has been elevated in different ways. It’s about being able to keep a little spot in my heart that remains the pure fan who first started out on this journey.

Still, you have become known for bringing this traditional music back full circle, while also creating new music that’s in that same spirit. So is it still a major part of your mission to get black musicians to reclaim their part of the Appalachian music experience?

Absolutely. I would say that I’m still dedicated to that idea of having more African American people involved and playing Appalachian music, and also appreciating it, learning it, and reinterpreting it. I’m definitely interested in continuing that mission. It’s actually been quite amazing to see that after close to 20 years since starting with the Carolina Chocolate Drops there have been quite a few different musicians who have wanted to take on this music. There’s also been a national conversation about the reclaiming of the music. So the thing that I’ve noticed and have been most surprised by, has been the deeper philosophical and theoretical discussion about African American contributions to Appalachian music, and to bluegrass, and to country.

You’re referring to a broader national discourse then…

It’s gone beyond the specialized community of Appalachian music, and has now become a full national conversation. I think that those are all very good things to have in the mix. However, I still haven’t seen a full African American string band come out of that, one that’s playing old time music like we did in the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Our group was doing a sepia toned version of the New Lost City Ramblers, in terms of reinterpreting old time music and presenting it in a very traditional style. That’s something I haven’t seen yet, but which I hope to see some point down the line.

But I’m also interested in still elevating those stories that people have not heard before, you know, talking about the relevance of some of the folks from the folk revival that lean into black Appalachian music. I feel like there’s been a lot of information that has come out about some of the musicians, but I still think that there could always be more that could be done. There’s a lot of great music, that people need to hear. And so that’s something that I’m always interested in… presenting the music and disseminating it out to people. That’s something that hasn’t gone away. It’s just sort of changed over the past several decades, because at first it was more of a culture thing of mix tapes you were able to give to people. You could kind of package it up for people.

So what changed?

Nowadays, so much of the music is available online. It’s changed the nature of how people are getting into music. And then of course, social media, videos and things like that allow people to connect to it in so many more ways than they were able to before. It used to be communicated through a grapevine that involved people meeting in person. That’s changed quite a bit over the years with the new technology. It’s been very interesting and exciting to watch because now there are people who are interested in wanting to play it and sharing it with others.

Are you actively involved in seminars and panel discussions at different forums?

I am, I will get invited to places like Folk Alliance, and do online panels and things like that to talk about the music and the history. It’s a little bit of both. Of course, the concerts are the main way I like to get the music out there. I’m very pleased to say I’m getting an award from the Southeast Regional Folk Alliance this May.

With all those instruments that you play, are you self taught? How did that develop?

My only formal training was on percussion and drums. I started out in grade school playing percussion and drums, but I picked the guitar and all of the stringed instruments all on my own. With percussion, you’re always introduced to a world of multiple instruments. And so that was kind of what got me started into thinking about playing a bunch of different instruments. I moved on to the guitar and harmonica, and then just started teaching myself how to play, and after that, I got into the banjo.

It sort of just continued from there. I would find an instrument and it’d become something that I took a fancy to, and then I tried to learn everything I could about it. That was part of how I was able to learn all these instruments. Once I started to hear fife and drum music it took me back to my drumming background. I played in the marching band in high school, so I was I was drawn to the way they had bass drums and snare drums and fife and drum music. So then I started to learn how to play the fife. It was similar to jug band music.

I had heard about jug band music by listening to people like Jim Kweskin’s jug band and some of the ’60s groups, and from there I got into the ’20s groups. I just got that notion to learn it. There weren’t a lot of teachers of course, so I had to just start figuring out to make the tone on the jug. How to blow into it. But slowly, steadily I figured out a method of playing, so then I was able to take that with me when I left Arizona and I became one of the few modern African American jug players. I don’t know if there’s anybody else that’s really taking it on and gone anywhere with it. But I came into the scene as a jug player.

There again, that makes you stand out. It appears that you’ve never forgotten your roots.

It was such a natural journey backwards. And of course, I came up at a time when so much of the of this music was being repackaged, and things were being reissued. There was sort of a golden age for CDs to bring a lot of this music back to the forefront. I was fortunate that I came up at a time where there were a lot of Smithsonian Folkways recordings that were out there on CD, and being issued at that time, and there were labels that were they were putting out albums that I would collect, like the old Yazoo records. It was just a wonderful time to be a fan of all the old time roots music, because you could see a timeline to that would take you from the ’70s and back into the ’60s, the ’50s and into the ’40s. And it was very easy to be able to reach back in a way that was very multifaceted.

I think that was a very unique moment in American musical history, because it, it was right before the internet. It was a time where a collective memory as and the release of all this older music kind of converged at the same time. So with all of this music I was listening to, I had to physically pick it up and physically listen to it. And then I could also read the liner notes and get my information from there. So I was very active in being able to take in the knowledge and the information of that music. So it was, it was a nice moment to be able to have both of those things as compared to now.

Welcome Cheyanne Flemons!

We told you last week about the two releases expected this month from Dom Flemons, banjo player, singer, and historian of the importance of African peoples in the development of American music and folk ways. First up was his new album, The Black Cowboy, chronicling the experience of black men in the old west.

That was followed by the announcement this week of the birth of a daughter, Cheyanne Love Kinard Flemons, to his wife, Vania Kinard. She made her entrance on February 19 at 8 lbs, 3 oz, stitching out to 19.5”.

Mother and child are doing well, and we wonder how long before the little Flemons has her hands on a banjo.

Congratulations Dom and Vania, and a big Bluegrass Today welcome to Cheyanne!

Dom Flemons announces a double release

Tonto had the Lone Ranger. Roy had Dale. Batman has Robin. What did they have ? Friends, life would be impossible without them.

Dom Flemons, The American Songster may not be a superhero to some, but I like to call him my friend. Flemons’ life is about to change. He announced today (February 14, 2018) the release of an 18 track CD project.

Tom Ketchum, Bill Pickett, Nat Love, and John Ware are just a few of the famous black cowboy names that we all remember. In fact, there is an astonishing 1 of 4 (about 25%) of the cowboy settlers in the west that were black. These cowboys worked alongside white cowboys and the Mexican vaccaro, but many times they have been left in the dust. With February being celebrated as Black History month, Flemons’ release of Black Cowboys is perfectly timed.

Dom has been out on tour, but has not slowed down his studio production at all. In the recent past, Flemons was forefront at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, held in Elko, NV, where he hosted a bones workshop for fellow enthusiasts of all ages. While in Nevada, Flemons performed at The Roots of the Cowboy Session. Being a Grammy award winning musician, singer-songwriter, and slam poet who got his start playing local coffee houses, Dom Flemons maintains the ability to continue to be a songwriter who appeals to contemporary audience.

On Black Cowboys, he continues to wow, and draw from a variety of styles of music that incorporates a history of black culture, including the African American view on the Old West. When one listens to Goodbye Old Paint and Home on the Range, stories of African American cowboys can be heard. On this newest CD you will find narratives that tell stories of how the black experience played a significant role in the western cowboy life. Flemons has pulled out all the stops in this release, while incorporating field hollers, the East Texas blues, bluegrass, the talents of the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, and a tribute to John Henry as well as many other noticeable titles.

Black Cowboys is an outstanding overview of different facets of black history. Smithsonian Folkways and Dom have worked diligently for its release. Hours of research have been put into the narratives, and the project is packaged with a 42 page booklet of these stories.

When asked if there was a documentary in the works, Dom brought the memory of The Bronze Buckaroo, with its all black cast and a story of black singing cowboys in 1939. Dom hopes to bring to the world a multi-faceted release, a comprehensive rundown of the black cowboy and their life. You can purchase this CD on March 23rd at www.theamericansongster.com or www.si.edu. Pre-orders are available now.

By now, you are probably wondering about the double release?

Dom and his wife, Vania Kinard, will bring a new addition into their lives on February 17. They will be welcoming their first child, Cheyanne, who I am certain will have a banjo, bones, and a ukelele somewhere in her life almost immediately. Flemons states “We are gearing up for a double release.”

Congratulations Dom! On your new CD and the birth of Cheyenne.

Dom Flemons – Back to the roots

Recently, The American Banjo Museum, the Oklahoma Arts Council, and the Oklahoma History Center partnered to bring Back to our Roots: An exploration of Roots Music to Oklahoma City. The evening was a discussion of the intersections of jazz, blues, roots, and bluegrass music; as well as the influence of race, emancipation, and desegregation on the evolution of music throughout the United States of America.

Dom Flemons has been transplanted from his birthplace, Phoenix, Arizona, to the hills of North Carolina, however, one thing remains clear. His roots are those of the American Songster. At the age of 35, Dom has traversed every genre of music from blues and rock & roll, to jazz and Gospel. And after watching a documentary of the History of Rock & Roll, a segment of the folk revival put a spotlight for him on Bob Dylan. That segment sparked an interest and Dom dug deeper into the folk genre.

Flemons began to see that the reach of his musical fascination included more than just folk music. Not only did Dom desire to learn more about folk traditions, and the styles of old time banjoist Clarence Ashley (1895-1967), he was introduced to the skills of bluegrass artists such as Flatt & Scruggs, setting up an empowerment of knowledge of all genres of music.

With his extremely unique clawhammer variant on a four string banjo, Flemons shares that he spent countless hours researching styles of playing at the local library. “Rhythm can be heard but not seen. I had no idea that to play rhythm on a banjo, you had to have 5 strings.” Flemons picks a 4 string with a double thumbing style. The tuning he uses is also unique for a tenor banjo. The American Songster utilizes an open G tuning, that he picked up from his guitar playing.

Flemons is a mixer, literally blending traditional styles of music with a contemporary approach, creating new sounds to accommodate a wider audience of listeners.

It was in 2005 when Flemons co-founded The Carolina Chocolate Drops, an old time string band. Molding the talents of Rhiannon Giddons, Justin Robinson, and Dom Flemons, this outstanding trio made the climb to the top, opening for Bob Dylan in 2011. But in November 2013, Dom announced he was leaving the CCD to embark on his own solo career, and that he has done.

When discussing the rootball of bluegrass, he said that you can move the music forward as long as you don’t forget the requirements of specific genres, such as the instruments and how they are played. “As long as you have those requirements, you will never get far away from the roots.”

Dom shared his connection with the rhythm bones as well. In 2005, at the Black Banjo Gathering in North Carolina, Cliff Irvin introduced the bones and their history to him. Flemon’s approach to the bones is taken first hand from the history of the minstrel bones. A double fister, Dom shared that Irish music is easier to play with just one set of bones. His background in percussion helped him pattern different styles of rattling the bones.

Since Dom’s music career began with folk music, he soon realized that storytelling is actually part of the traditional way of including historical context. African Americans were in the background of traditional bluegrass, just like every genre of US music. Black minstrel and black vaudeville lays very near to his heart.

Referring Bill Monroe’s classic song Uncle Pen, he mentioned Arnold Schultz, a traveling migrant worker, who played the guitar and fiddle. Schultz, who pioneered the Mecklenberg style of guitar picking, had influenced Monroe and his groundbreaking style of mandolin playing. Dom likes to remind audiences that African American musicians were standing tall, even at the beginnings of bluegrass development. “Music always brings people together, going above cultural barriers,” as Dom put it.

Dressing in the manner of a vaudeville performer is definitely in his bones. Dom is a huge fan of silent movies, and that is where the stage dress of the American Songster began. He attempts to keep his look the same so people will always know what to expect. Donning a plaid shirt, similar to the Kingston Trio wore in the ’60s, was chosen because of the simplicity of colors and ease of purchase from a regular department store. Corduroy pants gave him a dressier appearance versus blue jeans, (cuffed and pleated), but once again, easy to purchase. Plus suspenders and a hat that he first purchased in Australia. He referred to it as a Kubra, the Stetson of Australia. This iconic style sums up Dom Flemons, but after spending several hours with him at the Museum, I found that there was much more to Dom than a plaid shirt, corduroys, suspenders, and an Aussie hat.

This man has his own rootball and he is sticking to those roots.

On Top Of Old Smoky preview video

The good folks with the Great Smoky Mountains Association have released a video preview of their third and most recent album of the traditional mountain music of the region.

On Top Of Old Smoky – New Old Time Smoky Mountain Music includes 23 old songs and tunes reinterpreted by more than a dozen top old timey musicians. These newly-made recordings are all of songs originally collected by folklorist Joseph Hall when he traveled through the Smokies during the 1930s, and again in the ’50s.

Artists who appear on the record include Dolly Parton, Norman Blake, Bryan Sutton, Alice Gerrard, Tony Trischka, Stephen Wade, Sheila Kay Adams, Martin Simpson, Dom Flemons, Jody Stecher, Kate Brislin, Courtney Hartman, and David Holt.

Have a look and listen to the video for a taste of what the CD contains.

On Top Of Old Smoky – New Old Time Smoky Mountain Music is only available directly from Great Smoky Mountains Association online.

American Originals a Hit in Cincinnati

This report on a special multi-genre musical show in Ohio comes from Artie Werner, manager and bass player with The Missy Werner Band.

Cincinnati Music Hall was a great place to be this past weekend, where artists of several genres joined together to present American Originals, a tribute to the music of Stephen Foster. The three day concert event was the vision of Cincinnati Pops conductor John Morris Russell and was held on January 23rd, 24th, and 25th.

As we prepared for the show, Russell furthered my education about Foster’s music, telling me: “American Originals celebrates the remarkable legacy of Stephen Foster as well as the music of 18th century America that created the foundation of our nation’s musical ethos. These are songs that define ‘classic.’ They have stood the test of time and are still sung in anthems, pop songs, and covers across the country and around the world, though often folks have no idea they were created by a man who only lived to 37 and died penniless in complete obscurity. Stephen Foster was baptized in the music of early America and his songs were born of the diversity of the musical experience he heard on the bustling docks of the Port of Cincinnati.”

Included on the bill were country music star and Grammy award winner Rosanne Cash, Grammy winning producer and performer Joe Henry, Cincinnati area based and world renowned performers Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler of Over The Rhine, Aoife O’Donovan (currently touring solo, trio with Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins, and also a member of Crooked Still), “American Songster” Dom Flemons, formerly of Carolina Chocolate Drops fame, and local bluegrass band, The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars. They were formed in 1996, and play every Sunday evening at The Comet, a club in the Cincinnati suburb of Northside, hence the name. Members are Ed Cunningham, Jeff Roberts, Harold Kennedy, Missy Werner (yes, of The Missy Werner Band), John Cole and Artie Werner. All tunes were performed with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra with John Morris Russell at the helm. Each artist performed three or four numbers either separately or as ensemble, while the Pops took on a couple of their own. Of the nineteen songs on the program, twelve were Foster classics.

Over 9,000 patrons attended the event. The show was produced and recorded live, with a compact disc to be released this fall.

It was a pleasure for me personally to meet and perform with these brilliant artists, songwriters, and musicians. One of my favorite numbers was the energetic grand finale presentation of Camptown Races, a composition which paired the performers in duets to sing different verses with four key changes, culminating with a final stanza and chorus by all, a dynamic mix of voices and music. It was also gratifying that a group of over 50 musicians and vocalists could pull it off with only three two-hour joint rehearsals. Congratulations to John Morris Russell and the Cincinnati Pops organization for creating this fantastic event. The banjo truly does sound great with an orchestra.