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Dom Flemons - Prospect Hill

Dom Flemons – Prospect Hill

Original price was: € 12,10.Current price is: € 4,99.

SKU: Dixiefrog 8771 Categories: ,

Description

Dom Flemons is the “American Songster,” pulling from traditions of old-time folk music to create new sounds. Having performed music professionally since 2005, he has played live for over one million people just within the past three years. As part of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, which he co-founded with Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson, he has played at a variety of festivals spanning from the Newport Folk Festival to Bonnaroo, in addition to renowned venues such as the Grand Ole Opry.

In July 2014, Dom released his third solo record with Music Maker Relief Foundation, and his first since leaving the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Prospect Hill finds Flemons digging deeply into ragtime, Piedmont blues, spirituals, southern folk music, string band music, jug band music, fife and drum music, and ballads idioms with showmanship and humor, reinterpreting the music to suit 21st century audiences. He was featured on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross and his new album has received praise from The Boston Globe, Paste Magazine, Living Blues Magazine, and more.

Track Listing:
1. ‘Til The Seas Run Dry – 3:00   2. Polly Put The Kettle On – 2:19   3. But They Got It Fixed Right On – 2:47   4. Have I Stayed Away Too Long – 3:15   5. Georgia Drumbeat – 2:50   6. I Can’t Do It Anymore – 2:18   7. Sonoran Church Two–Step – 2:40   8. Too Long I’ve Been Gone – 2:53   9. Marching Up To Prospect Hill – 1:28   10. It’s A Good Thing – 2:45   11. Grotto Beat – 2:20   12. Hot Chicken – 3:20   13. San Francisco Baby – 3:31   14. My Money Never Runs Out – 3:05

Reviews:

Amazon.com: Dom Flemons: Prospect Hill: Music
This 21st century "songster" carries on the legacy of his forefathers.
By Steve Ramm TOP 100 REVIEWER on July 26, 2014

Dom Flemons is probably best known as a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops (a group he left last fall to pursue a solo career). With the CCDs he got to sing some but most of the time it was his instrumental prowess that was featured. Now Dom takes his place upfront with this solo CD. It's not his first solo project - that was in 2007. But, in the last 7 years Flemons has discovered more old time records and had time to compose more songs (in the old time style) Nine of the 14 tracks on this 38-minute CD are his compositions.

In reviewing another wonderful CD recently - "Classic African American Songsters" (Smithsonian Folkways) - I googled the phrase "African American Songster" in the "images" section and what did I come up with? LOTS of photos of Flemons! Yes, he is carrying on the tradition started early in the last century.
For this CD Flemons roped in his friend and fellow "songster", Guy Davis to join him both instrumentally and on backing vocals on about half the tracks.

The "songsters" were performers who played "pop" and "hokum" songs and often travelled with medicine shows (Again, check out the Smithsonian set - a perfect companion for this one). There are a couple of instrumental tracks - on the title track Flemons and Davis go it alone, with the former on "bones" and the latter on harmonica (and both tapping their feet). There are more than just folk instruments here. Both tenor and soprano sax are in the mix.

A few comments on the packaging: There is a 31-page colorful booklet with all the lyrics glued inside the digipak. It's great to have it here, though I wish it was removable from the package. Each song has a comment from Flemons as well, though some are particularly hard to read, thanks to the font size and the fact that the contrast of white print on a beige background ("Grotto Beat" for example) requires a magnifying glass to read. This will not drop any "stars" from my review but I hope this is considered on the next release.

This CD comes from the Music Maker label, which is a non-profit organization that uses the net proceeds to help older blues performers. It's a worthy cause and I was glad to see Flemons chose them for this release.

I had the chance to "hang out" with Flemons in his current home-base of Durham, NC in May , when we both attended the annual conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (google them), and between the lectures, Dom had a chance to play. I recorded it and, with his permission, I put it on Yutube . If you want to know what a "Songster" sounds like, this will give you an example. (search You tube for "Dom Flemons in impromptu performance at ARSC Conference in Chapel Hill"

Flemons is sharing his many years of studying black "folk music" in this CD and carrying on the tradition. Check it out.

I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.