Dom Flemons

Black Cowboys is the new album from multi-instrumentalist, songster, and co-founding member of the Grammy Award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dom Flemons. More than a collection of songs from the "Wild West," the record sheds light on the prominent but often overlooked role African American pioneers played in westward expansion. Flemons is also a historian, music scholar, and collector. He has long carried a torch of awareness that many traditional American songs and tunes in fact originated from, or were influenced by, the musical and storytelling traditions of African Americans and Native Americans. On his rendition of "Home on the Range," arguably one of the most celebrated Western songs of all time, Flemons explains that the popularized version came from a variant recorded in 1908 and sung by a black bartender in San Antonio. With this recording, Flemons further solidifies his place at the contemporary forefront of the American song tradition, and presents an innovative blend of traditional forms with a modern sensibility for the 21st century. www.theamericansongster.com