Category: Blog

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Folks and Friends!

Make sure to check out my photos from my tour out to Elko, NV. It was great to be invited back to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering! This year I hosted a bones workshop for people of all ages. I performed at the Roots of the Cowboy session with Brian Farrow, Cowboy Celtic, Sourdough Slim and Robert Armstrong. Brian and I even got the chance to perform for a group of kids outside the Western Folklife Center. It was a fun time!
One of the highlights of the tour was driving through the mountains and stopping off at the Pony Express Trail rest area. It was great to read about the history of the early pioneers and learn about how they discovered America. Driving on these historical highways is one of the best parts about traveling.
See you folks down the road!
Location: Ely, Nevada and Elko, Nevada
People: Dom Flemons, Brian Farrow, Cowboy Celtic, Sourdough Slim, Robert Armstrong
Photo Credit: Vania Marie Kinard

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Hello Folks! I’m excited to share a couple of photos from the Sun Records viewing party with the cast and crew. We spent the whole day at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, CA watching the entire season one episodes. It was a grand time!
My character in the TV series is blues musician Joe Hill Louis ” The Be-Bop Boy” King of the One Man Band! It was great to share the set with actor Chad Michael Murray who plays Sam Phillips and Margaret Anne Florence who plays Marion Keisker in the show. Special thanks to the Music Director, Chuck Mead for inviting me to play this role.
I had a fun time hanging out with the many talented actors, musicians, and entire production crew in Santa Monica, CA. Plus, it was great to celebrate the release of this original CMT series with everyone at the ThinkFactory Media office too. Everyone did a fantastic job at making this show memorable and enjoyable.
I’m so honored to have a part in this new hit TV series on CMT because it showcases the excitement and enduring history of early Rock and Roll music.
Make sure to tune in!
Sun Records airs on CMT on February 23rd, 2017 at 10PM EST.
People: Dom Flemons (Joe Hill Louis), Chad Michael Murray (Sam Phillips), Keir O’Donnell (Dewey Philips), Drake Milligan (Elvis Presley), Chuck Mead (Music Director), Jerry Phillips
Photo Credit: Vania Marie Kinard
CMT & ThinkFactory Media

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Goodtime-FRONT.jpg

Here is a poem for Dom Flemons who will be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame with the original Carolina Chocolate Drops! We met in Flagstaff at a poetry reading back in the day. – Gary Mex Glazner

(For Dom Flemons)

Dom + Arizona + Lowell Observatory…
Where they discovered a new star.
They call it the Intergalactic Folksinger,
It pulses a deep, blues-rich light,
Far, far away from
The outer solar system,
Calls us from before time,
Calls us to the future…
How you catch that sound?
How do you make it new?
How do you make it old?
Bring those voices to life?
Bring their bones to life?
A pinch of Piedmont,
A dash of handsome,
A bushel of “What Got Over,”
Two stepping… “Til the Seas Run Dry…”
A skillet full of “Hot Chicken…”
Here’s hoping your,
“Money Never Runs Out!”
Spinning, spinning,
O sweet orbit,
Gravity,
Sing us home…
Sing us Dom…

 

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imagesOn October 20th, I will be inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame with the original Carolina Chocolate Drops! I’m beyond appreciative of all the many wonderful people, friends and family who have supported us on our journey! It was just over ten years ago, that I went to the Black Banjo Gathering at Appalachian State University to delve deeper into the Black/African/Caribbean roots of the banjo. It was only a happy accident that I met Rhiannon Giddens and Fiddler Joe Thompson. Several months later after having moved to NC as a result of this gathering I founded the group with all the original members. From the first gig we ever did, I knew that the idea and symbolism represented by the Carolina Chocolate Drops was meant for greatness. From the humble beginnings playing at the Cotton Ginning days in Dallas, NC to the Grand Ole Opry and then winning the Traditional Folk Music Award at the GRAMMYs! I accept this honor humbly and with true gratefulness! Yet, I would be amiss if I did not take this honor as a sign of the work I have ahead of me in this long life. I am pleased to be honored along with Justin Robinson, Sule Greg Wilson and Rhiannon Giddens as the original recording members of the group. As I make my way down the road, I cannot help but be reminded of the proverb that Sule taught me, Sankofa, which has guided me through life’s journey. I hope that others will use it to find their own path as they explore our rich history! Until then.. See you all down the road! Here’s to the year of the Folk Singer!
Dom Flemons
The American Songster
10.18.2016

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Louisiana Musicians Need YOUR Help!
Dear friends, fans, and supporters –

Last week we told you about 91 year old blues legend Henry Gray, who lost his home in the Louisiana Flood, and how Music Maker stepped in to help. This week, we are asking for YOUR help.

Music Maker has created the Baton Rogue Musicians Fund (BRMF) in partnership with the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation. The fund will directly support musicians who have been impacted by the Louisiana Flood.

We have already learned of dozens of artists who need assistance, and are currently working to identify their needs and sending emergency relief. Some will have lost everything; most will have lost their source of income from regular gigs being disrupted. Emergency relief has already been sent down to Henry Gray, Lee Allen Zeno and Buckwheat Zydeco.

We need your support to make the biggest possible impact. 

It is rare that we make a request with such urgency, but there is a great and immediate need for emergency relief for these musicians in Baton Rouge. Please give what you can, because, as Grammy winning artist Taj Mahal recently told us:

“These musicians are the foundation of all popular music in the world. When disaster turns on them it is not time to turn our backs. Let’s show them the respect!”
Diggin’: Clyde Langford – Tore Up

Clyde is a deep Texas bluesman that plays from the heart – here!
Sam Frazier, Jr. Receives Some Great Honors!
Sam’s church & the Birmingham Record Collectors honor him – here!
Keep up with Music Maker’s gigs 

See who’s playing in your area! You never know when a Music Maker artist will be rolling through your town. Check out the Tour Calendar.
Keep The Roots Alive. Donate Today.
Copyright © 2016 Music Maker Relief Foundation, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
PO Box 1358
Hillsborough, NC 27278

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Per Talking about the Blues Radio:

“I had the pleasure and honor yet again to rap with the American Songster himself, Dom Flemons, who pulls from traditions of old-time folk music, about the show he performed in and hosted to honor the legendary Folk Singer Huddie William Ledbetter, AKA Leadbelly at the Leadbelly fest in February at Carnegie Hall.

(more…)

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To send him home, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. requested a modern gospel composition performed by its greatest singer. In 1968, Mahalia Jackson sang out of pain, she sang out of praise, at both the funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church and the memorial at Morehouse College. She was a large black woman with a kind and pleasant face. When she opened her voice and unleashed this powerful praise music, she vocalized the sentiments that form the foundation of the modern black church:

Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, let me stand.
I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m ’lone.
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light.
Take my hand, precious Lord, 
Lead me home. 

Read more here.