Dom Flemons Integrates New & Old Approach To Distinct ‘Traveling Wildfire’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

The fact that “The American Songster” Dom Flemons, Grammy Award winner, multi-instrumentalist, and musicologist records on Smithsonian Folkways is a statement in itself about his ability to unearth historical cultural gems from the country, western, blues, and folk genres. That’s how he’s made his reputation since leaving the Carolina Chocolate Drops in 2013.  Although he doesn’t abandon that quest here on Traveling Wildfire, for the first time he focuses mostly on his own songwriting. He hints at his spiritual evolution and the current social climate, albeit very subtly in terms of the latter. More directly he sings about black love, survival, legacy, and growth through both his own songs and his interpretation of traditional folk songs. Although he still seems obsessed with Black cowboys, the title of his 2018 album, he does it very differently this time. Suffice it to say, you haven’t heard this side of Dom Flemons before.

Produced by Ted Hutt (Old Crow Medicine, Lucero), it features Flemons on fifteen different instruments, some of which are custom-made, along with Matt Pynn on pedal steel and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos on drums. Guest musicians include Sam Bush on fiddle, the Pogues’ James Fearnley on piano accordion and a duet with Lashon Halley (co-lead singer of Dustbowl Revival).

Flemons takes a rather bipolar approach, with the first half an extension of sorts of his Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys with a mix of traditional country western and his own style of cosmic country. Here he sublimates his instrumental versatility in service to the songs. The second half goes into his folk blues mode, with a greater emphasis on cover tunes and his stellar picking. The intensity builds from the serene sonics of the first half, almost like an intimate conversation in the wee hours of the morning, some of which gets rather dark and reflective, into the familiar style in the second, tapping into resilience, hope, and humor, simulating his own personal journey.

He opens with three original country love songs, beginning with “Slow Dance With You” touching on Black love and romance, a subject that Flemons feels has been ignored in country music. For this writer, the sound lies somewhere between Charley Pride, Ray Price, and maybe even Dylan’s Nashville Skyline. “Dark Beauty” is especially dreamy while the standout “If You Truly Love Me” is more upbeat. The title track was penned while weathering Hurricane Ida in Nashville and watching the flooding of New Orleans and wildfires in the west. This tune, and “It’s Cold Inside,” written after an injury he suffered, are both haunting and even psychedelic in a cosmic country vein, not like Gram Parsons but almost like Hank Williams on an acid trip. Flemons sings smoothly but the vibe is aptly eerie. 

Following these original compositions, Flemons intersperses covers with his own, beginning with a song learned from a prison recording by Jimmie Strother, “We Are Almost Down the Shore,” rendered as a duet with Lashon Halley. Note also that Flemons included a very detailed booklet on the background of each of these songs. Strother’s history, for example, is rather intriguing. “Nobody Wrote I Down,” originally co-written with Carl Gustafson and Billy Branch, is one of two western-themed country blues songs. It references Pony Express and Buffalo soldiers. The second, from Rev. Gary Davis, is “Saddle It Around,” not with the typically recognizable Davis guitar patterns, telling the story of a Black cowboy traveling down the road and being arrested for no crime. 

Flemons follows with three of his own folk-blues ballads (“Big Money Blues,” “Old Desert Road,” and “Rabbit Foot Rag”) in the style of the Delta and Piedmont while also turning to the work of Eric Andersen (“Song to JCB”) and an obscure Bob Dylan tune, “Guess I’m Doing Fine” rendered in bluegrass with Sam Bush on fiddle. The former Andersen tune also appears in a longer version that Flemons recorded for the recently issued 3-CD tribute to Andersen, Tribute to a Song Poet (Y&T Music). The song tells the story of JC Burris, a multi-instrumentalist and nephew of Sonny Terry. On “Tough Luck” Flemons pays homage to the banjo as an original African instrument by playing a custom-made five-string gourd banjo and on the celebratory closing instrumental “Songster Revival” Flemons on various instruments is joined by Tutt (guitar), Marc Orell (bouzouki), and James Fearnley (piano accordion).

Flemons was intent on presenting two aspects of his current approach to music. All considered, Traveling Wildfire is purposely uneven and seems to be a transitional album or bridge to a new phase where Flemons presents more originals. Whether he continues to integrate this “old and new” approach or decides to surprise us again, we’ll be more prepared next time.

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