Dom Flemons is well known as an original member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and is a fantastic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. With a recent solo release under his belt, he is hitting the road relentlessly, gathering more tales from the touring life and sharing his wonderfully crafted stories and traditions he has picked up along the way with audiences all over. He is somehow able to weave a tapestry of the old time music with his own style and panache that is fresh and makes the music unique. As an instrumentalist, he is impressive and as a songwriter he is phenomenal.
Strap yourself down and get ready for a great read. This was one of the most enjoyable and engaging conversations I have had about music in a very, very long time.
Red: The show you are playing here in town is at Club Passim on October 10th. Have you played there before? What’s your connection to the venue?
DF: Oh yes, definitely. Gosh, the first time I played there must have been 2007, but I had known about it beforehand. A lot of my experience in learning folk music was from performers who had played at Club 47, so I was well acquainted with all that stuff. Also, over time I have gotten to meet Betsy Siggins and folks who run Folk New England back when the archives used to be in Passim and now I keep up with both places. But yeah, it has been a real treat to get to know some of the people who have been out there innovating the genre before there was really a circuit in any way. Its been a really cool journey. So Yeah, Club Passim…I also did a concert with Tom Rush at Symphony Hall so I have become well acquainted with the Cambridge and Boston folk music scene. It’s really always an honor to get over to Passim and I will be playing two shows this time around. I’ll have my brand new trio with me and I will have a drummer and a bassist with me. I will also have a group, “Grace and Tony” with me. They call themselves ‘punk bluegrass’, but they have a really, very great songwriting and storytelling in their music. Last fall I met them on my solo tour and I try to work with them whenever I can. It’s a really great time.
Red: So later on you will be hitting the road with Old Crow (Medicine Show), right? In November?
DF: That’s right, we are just locking in those dates. I am excited about that as well. I have known those guys for a lot of years too. I first met them in 2008 over in Ann Arbor and had been a fan of theirs for several years. It is really exciting to do some opening spaces by myself with them. I have known them for a long time, we did some stuff with the Chocolate Drops and so now its going to be really great to do some of my own openings.
Red: So you are touring in support of your new record “Prospect Hill”, but something I have read about you previously is that you have served in the producer role quite a bit. 25 records or something along those while you were living in Phoenix? Do you feel that serving in the producer role has impacted you when going into the studio?
DF: I did two albums solo already and this is my third. The records before that were ones that I had recorded before I started playing music professionally. I used a 4 track, Tascam studio, started with that then evolved into 8 tracks. Learned how to overdub and record and get over the sound of performing myself. That’s a tough thing for folks to get over, hearing themselves, the first time and not be ultra critical right off the bat. Over time I have learned to try and figure out how to record in a way where I don’t get in my own way with it. Then in terms of producing, the songs I chose, I tried to choose songs that really showcased me in a very broad sort of way while still being coherent. Where as in the Chocolate Drops I played a very specific role and very specific parts in order to accentuate the group and the string band music. But I play a lot of genres, so with this album it was something I really wanted to show off a lot of styles that I play while doing it very concisely and quickly. This one I really scrutinized a lot of the details on the record in a way that the instrumentation was thought out well beforehand. How the songs sounded in terms of length, in terms of what was happening when I had a group of different musicians playing a part. It really was not a “just sit in front of microphones” deal. The way that I was able to pull off the live sound, though, was when we recorded. I recorded what I call conservative takes and wild takes. So we would do several conservative takes to get the arrangement right and then we would do one just to get a good sounding take without embellishments. When I am recording I find that sometimes when you just let it all hang out, it is too much for a record. People walk away with the impression “well, would that sound great live?”. I wanted to make sure that this time around we got that “live-ness” but we didn’t lose the quality of a good record. That was something that was real important to me and I focused a lot on. Making sure that the record was great and that people can put on the record and say “Ok, I want to go out to the gig”. Also now I am trying to work on more releases. Maybe just one in the spring, don’t have to be big ones. Now with vinyl, I may put out a few LPs. Just to get a couple more products out there since I am still working as an independent now.
Red: Something else that is fairly obvious in listening to your music is the span of genres. Everything from Piedmont blues to hints of bluegrass, even rock, and folk with the storytelling aspect. A bit of a “modern roots” kind of a genre in and of itself. What is the importance of you, as a purveyor of that type of music, in incorporating that into your sound?
DF: I think it’s important for people to hear the old time styles. Something people don’t really realize is that no matter how old timey I make the arrangements, if you hear the originals, you cannot tell the difference. About 60% of this record were songs that I wrote and crafted and with all the years I have been playing in this genre, I tried not to get too bogged down with trying to do contemporary or modern. I spent a lot of years learning these old styles of music and I don’t feel like I have to dumb it down. People in the folk community had to do that for years for the industry stuff. Its always a struggle of how much “old timey” can you take out before its commercially viable. Its an interesting spot where I have been playing professionally for 10 years and thats been the credo. But now theres a new crop of people who are coming around who know nothing about the genre, but they’re interested. In a digital age, its very tricky to get those people around. It’s a juggling act of how do you get in front of people with your message. I have been doing localized press and going to record stores and distributing my album directly to record stores. But people think they have been taught, no one is going to buy a record or a physical record. But that is a lie. I’ve been building my relationship up with record stores I have been going to for years, because I am a record collector and just trying to connect with those people. Because everybody wins when a fan can go into their local record store and pick up my album. I win because I get to show the numbers that, you know, my physical album can sell. And the record store wins because it brings them in some economy and new faces. Now with so much technology and access to information through the digital technology has really opened this up, not just for me, but for others. Earlier this year a notion came to me that 2014 is the year of the folk singer. As I have gone along I have found that the elements that first brought that notion to me have kept on happening. Folk singers cover a lot of ground. Musical ground, as well as story telling ground, and then also political ground as well. I feel that folks probably have learned, from the 60s, at least I have that music cannot change the world, but music can get people thinking about changing. In my record we are talking about different philosophies and concepts and ideas. But with this record I tried to make it so you didn’t have to think about all that stuff, you just listen to the record and say “wow, there are a lot of layers here”, you don’t have to particularly know why. I put a lot of little references into my songs that reference older songs that I really enjoy myself, personally. There’s a lot of that going on at one time. Then I try to sequence it so you have to listen to it twice before you take it out of the player.
(photo by Jim Brock)
Red: Community building is something that we are really in tune to here (mentioned Locals Covering Locals, etc.). Where you come from, do you have this type of community in the folk scene? How has building on those types of collaborations by playing with other folks influenced you?
DF: Oh yeah! Well you know, when I started out when I was 16 I listened to records, but in Phoenix my mom listened to a news segment on the Phoenix Folk Festival, now called the Glendale Folk Festival, and I went out to it. It was down the street from where I lived and from there I met some very wonderful, wonderful people who played a lot of different types of folk music. Phoenix is spread out so there’s a lot of different types of people there. So, I got to meet hundreds of different performers, not many big professionals-a couple here and there, but local people playing different styles of music. There was a guy Bob Sanstead, he is still around. A very skinny old man, with a shoestring strap. He played banjo and saw and played old timey numbers. A guy name Long Austin played cowboy music. I could name off a couple of dozen people that were influential to me. I would see them at the festival and then go visit them at their local gigs around town. I did that for years, almost 6 or 7 years before I started playing professional and I got to try out a lot of different styles. So that was going on in Phoenix. In North Carolina – there’s a constant flow of music coming out of North Carolina. There’s no sign of music depreciating in North Carolina. And it’s a lot of different types, there’s old time and bluegrass but also jazz, a lot of jazz comes out of North Carolina. Just to name some heavy hitters: Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, theres 3 big, heavy hitters really from rural North Carolina. There not from the main parts…at the same time you got Blind Boy Fuller, you got Brownee McGee, also Doc Watson. Billy Strayhorn, he is from Hillsbourough where I live right now. That was Duke Ellington’s main collaborator. It keeps on going. In North Carolina they have done a lot to have localized music and to have a strong community of music. I also ran open mics, I did slam poetry for many years. I ran the slam when I lived in Flagstaff. I also was performing myself, performing poetry without an instrument, so I learned how to perform without instruments. So I could use both. Local, community music to me is always the best. Even with the old folk music you usually will find if you search deep enough, it goes back to either a single person or a single organization that was advocating for music and over generations you have these amazing musicians that emerge out of these scenes.
Red: Is there anyone that maybe has not hit the success milestone yet, that isn’t as well known that you would like to turn folks onto? People you run into on the road that are just “doing the do”?
DF: Let me think here. Well right now I am touring with the duo, Grace and Tony. I feel like they need a little more access to their music, people should check them out. That would be something right there. In terms of living, touring people, I would say anyone from the Central Time Tour that I just jumped off with Pokey LaFarge. Pokey is getting out there more and more and I have known him for a lot of years. Again, community building too. As I have been a musician, Pokey and I have been in touch since 2008. We talk on the phone and we bounce ideas off each other and we have for years. That’s another way that community has been built. When you start playing with people in music, especially with the Central Time Tour, there is a pact that everybody kind of spiritually signs together hoping that they might meet up again and when they do have great hospitality for one another. We are all working for the great good. I’d mention anybody on that tour. Those are some of the best people I’d say to get out there and see, they are slugging away. Pokey and I do pretty well out of the bunch, but even me and Pokey we could always use more support! It is really a never ending battle in terms of keeping your music going and people listening to your music so they don’t get complacent.
Red: Anything else?
DF: I’m so excited to make it back over there to Passim because I really, really enjoy it. I also just picked up a copy of a wonderful record called “Folk Singers Around Harvard Square” which is Joan Baez’s very first album and I’ll bring that with me. I’ll probably play that in the house music before, I have been bringing a record player along with me for house music. So I can put on some records that I have picked up along the way in my journeys.
——————
Dom Flemons is at Passim TOMORROW night, October 10th. There are two shows for this night. Get tickets now!