Episode 20: A Conversation with Dom Flemons

Alright everyone, grab your seats. Get your pencils and notebooks out and put on your thinking caps. American music school is in session! Our teacher for this episode of For Songs is Dom Flemons, founding member of the Grammy winning, groundbreaking African-American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Listen and learn how Dom has spent his career unearthing and highlighting the vital role Black musicians played in American folk music. We discuss the breathtaking Prospect Hill: The American Songster Omnibus, his 2014 album that he reissued and repackaged last February, just as the pandemic shuttered life as we know it. Prospect Hill covers a century or more of musical history, ranging from folk, country, jazz, blues, to early 80s hip hop. Dom talks about his musical prowess and how the purchase of a new banjo called Big Head Joe contributed to the revisiting of the album. So get comfortable and take good notes—and welcome Dom to For Songs.