VIA PRESS RELEASE | Grammy Award winner and two-time Emmy nominee Dom Flemons is known as “The American Songster.” Flemons is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, actor, music scholar, historian, and record collector. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, fife, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, and rhythm bones.
A co-founder of the Grammy®-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, he was a member of the group from their inception in 2005 through 2013. As a solo artist beginning in 2014, Flemons has performed at prestigious venues all around the world including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Grand Ole Opry, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Newport Folk Festival, opening ceremony at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Cecil Sharp House, and served as a U.S. representative at the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching, Malaysia.
His third solo album, Prospect Hill, was released in 2014 after Flemons spent many years learning and playing with tradition bearers such as Marty Stuart, Taj Mahal, Guy Davis, Mike Seeger, and James “Boot” Hanks, among many others. After spending decades listening to a variety of vinyl records, 78s and CDs, Flemons took these musical influences and transformed them into an album that redefines “The American Songster.” In 2020, this seminal release returns in an amazing expanded edition.
Prospect Hill: The American Songster Omnibus, due out February 28, 2020, is a two-CD and Digital collection containing a three-part journey: the original Prospect Hill album; the 2015 Record Store Day nine-track EP “What Got Over” (originally vinyl only, now making its first appearance on CD/Digital); and a third section, The Drum Major Instinct, a set of 12 previously unissued instrumental tracks that focus on moods, rhythm experimentations, and “the beats.” The two albums serve as a comprehensive overview of Flemons’ repertoire, which spans over 100 years and bridges the gaps among blues, country, jazz, bluegrass, folk, and hip-hop beats. Flemons has recorded original songs and instrumental tracks that paint a mosaic of American music ranging from the songsters of the 1920s to the present.
With extensive liner notes from Flemons and his wife, Vania Kinard, matched by extraordinary photography from Timothy Duffy (whose works are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, National Museum of African American History and Culture, the New Orleans Museum of Art, among others), this new collection truly showcases Flemons’ artistry as a multi-instrumentalist, talents as a songwriter/producer, and dedication to deserving the moniker and brand “The American Songster.”
In 2019, Flemons was chosen to be a “Spotlight Artist” at the “Soundtrack of America” event in New York City, which was curated by the world-renowned, award-winning producer Quincy Jones and Emmy Award-winning director Steve McQueen. In 2018, Flemons released a solo album, Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys on Smithsonian Folkways and received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, Blues Music Award nomination for Best Acoustic Blues Album, a Liberia Awards nomination for Best Folk Album, Washington D.C.’s Wammie Award for Best Folk Album, a Living Blues Award for New Recordings/Traditional & Acoustic album, and the ASCAP Foundation Paul Williams “Loved the Liner Notes” Award.
This recording is part of the African American Legacy Recordings series, co-produced with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Black Cowboys spent 55 weeks on the Billboard Bluegrass Charts, peaking at #4. Items from the album have been included in the American Currents Class of 2018 exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame alongside Reba McEntire, Jeannie Seely, Chris Stapleton, Molly Tuttle, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Kane Brown, Dan Auerbach, Dan + Shay, John Prine, and more.
Flemons has appeared in films, television and commercials including David Holt’s State of Music on PBS, CMT’s Sun Records portraying bluesman Joe Hill Louis, as a juke-joint musician in the Golden Globe-nominated, Oprah Winfrey executive-produced, and Denzel Washington-directed feature film The Great Debaters, and most recently in a television commercial for Bank of America in tandem with Ken Burns’ Country Music docu-series. He was nominated for two Emmys at the 2018 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Mid-America Awards for PBS Episode: Songcraft Presents Dom Flemons and for the co-written song “Good Old Days” with songwriter Ben Arthur.
So, experience a musical vision through the eyes of “The American Songster” as he brings to light the obscure voices, rare instruments, and century-old traditions of early American popular music through modern interpretations in this timeless release, Prospect Hill: The American Songster Omnibus.
TRACK LISTING:
Disc One
Part One — Prospect Hill
1 ’Til The Seas Run Dry
2 Polly Put The Kettle On
3 But They Got It Fixed Right On
4 Have I Stayed Away Too Long?
5 Georgia Drumbeat
6 I Can’t Do It Anymore
7 Sonoran Church Two-Step
8 Too Long (I’ve Been Gone)
9 Marching Up Prospect Hill
10 It’s A Good Thing
11 Grotto Beat
12 Hot Chicken
13 San Francisco Baby
14 My Money Runs Out
Disc Two
Part Two — What Got Over
1 Big Head Joe’s March
2 Milwaukee Blues
3 Clock On The Wall
4 Keep On Truckin’
5 Hot Chicken (Alternate Version)
6 Have I Stayed Away Too Long? (Alternate Version)
7 Going Backward Up The Mountain
8 ’Til The Seas Run Dry (Alternate Version)
9 What Got Over
Part Three — The Drum Major Instinct
10 Wingtips
11 Going Backward Up The Mountain (Instrumental)
12 Sugar Dance
13 Grotto Beat (Instrumental)
14 The Songster Arrives
15 Georgia Drumbeat (Instrumental)
16 Clock On The Wall (Instrumental)
17 Hot Chicken (Instrumental)
18 Too Long (I’ve Been Gone) (Instrumental)
19 What Got Over (Instrumental)
20 The Grand Manifesto
21 Blue Butterfly
