Dom Flemons – Traveling Wildfire. : Smithsonian Folkways
Dom Flemons“American Songster” and founding member of the legendary Carolina Chocolate Dropshas released a new album following a long break due to the pandemic. Traveling Wildfire is the follow-up to the groundbreaking, critically acclaimed full-length “Black Cowboys”. Published in 2018, Flemons laid the foundations for a return to African American contributions to cowboy culture and the settlement of the West.
Focus on own songwriting
“When I started working on my new album ‘Travelling Wildfire’ I wanted to take a different side of my music career and focus on my own songwriting. Since I began performing professionally in 2005, my primary focus has been to showcase the lesser-known songs and heritage stories that form the bedrock of American roots music. I’ve done this while playing a range of musical styles and vintage instruments rooted in tradition. This time I wanted to change the mode and bring my original songs into focus by highlighting stories I wrote with my own pen,” writes Dom in his lengthy, highly readable liner notes for the album.
The music historian and singer has used the past three years to calm down and recover mentally and physically following years of endless and exhausting restlessness when it comes to music. He heralded a new phase in his life by moving to a new home. He moved to Chicago with his wife Vania and their daughter Cheyanne Love.
A new chapter
He also dealt with the political and social developments in the USA and their influence on American identity and combined this with his personal experiences in a kind of “audio-impressionistic painting that refers to my personal epiphanies, spiritual developments and experiences from the real world”. Living during the precarious time,” said Flemons.
Cleansed in a way, but above all strengthened and rested, Flemons began a new chapter in his career. He listened to a lot of music, was inspired by his own music collection and worked on a new album. Dom once more: “These 15 songs will also give the listener a glimpse into the personal side of my musical repertoire, which coincides with my love of country, western, blues, Americana and folk music. I carefully selected these songs because they individually symbolize the themes of true love, family heritage, survival, time travel, and the juxtaposition of light and dark, while allowing room for further interpretation.”
It has become a musically varied album. Traveling Wildfire begins with a country three-pack. Dom is a big fan of country music and its great songwriters like Charley Pride, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Ernest Tubb, Jimmy C. Newman and Hank Williams. The theme of the three songs, held in waltz time, is the dark side of love.
handling crises
Traveling Wildfire was written around his 39th birthday on August 30, 2021. While he and his family were sheltering in a Nashville hotel room from Hurricane Ida, he was simultaneously watching the news reports of major flooding in New Orleans and massive wildfires in California. This inspired him to create this mesmerizing, haunting, darkly shimmering neo-gothic folk song. A dark piece full of thoughtfulness and fear of the consequences of the pandemic and natural disasters as well as the unsafe life “on the road”. Even with “It’s Cold Inside” the mood remains gloomy. Dom wrote the song back in 2014 during an artistic and personal crisis. And the song also addresses physical crises that haunt him following an injury on stage in 2010 to this day.
In addition to the beautiful music that Dom gives us with this album, the outstanding thing regarding this long player is the openness and honesty with which he talks regarding various personal crises. Flemons, who always seems cheerful in public, also has vulnerable sides – good that he shows them to us. “Traveling Wildfire” is his most personal to date. The music historian and presenter of the songs of others becomes a singer-songwriter here in front of the audience. Fascinating.
Memories of the Afro-American reconstruction efforts
Despite the focus on their own song material, there are still one or the other traditional folk song interspersed on this record. Like “We Are Almost Down to the Shore,” an old African American gospel song. Flemons sings it in a very different version of the lyrics by Jimmy Strother, an African-American, blind musician who performed in medicine shows and entertainment districts. In 1935 he shot his wife dead following, as he said, she had violently tormented him for years. Legendary folklorist Alan Lomax recorded Strother’s version at the Virginia State Penitentiary. Flemons performs the song here as a country gospel. With the song regarding hope and survival, Flemons has ended his catharsis on this album and the mood of the album lightens up visibly.
On the follow-up to “Black Cowboys”, Dom then picks up on the theme once more with two tracks. He co-wrote Nobody Wrote It Down with Carl Gustafson. It powerfully recounts the repressed story of the African American people who made crucial contributions to America’s construction. From the Buffalo Soldiers to the railroad conductors. The second track is the cowboy song “Saddle It Around”. “Big Money Blues,” “Old Desert Road,” and “Rabbit Foot Rag,” then, are all blues songs inspired by the Piedmont Blues and Delta Blues of artists like Mississippi John Hurt.
Reminiscence of Bob Dylan
Towards the end of the album he pays tribute to two contemporary songwriters. Eric Andersen’s song “Song to JCB” is once more a throwback to JC Burris, a multi-instrumentalist and nephew of the well-known Sonny Terry. And with the Dylan song “Guess I’m Doing Fine” Dom fulfilled a big wish. It was Bob Dylan who got him to make music in the first place. He first saw him in concert in 1999, and then met him in person in 2012 when he appeared with the Carolina Chocolate Drops on Dylan’s opening act. Now, in preparation for this album, he had his manager knock on Dylan’s team that he wanted to play a song by Bob. To his surprise, they suggested “Guess I’m Doing Fine.” Dom knew the song, written in 1964 and only officially released as part of the Bootleg Series in 2010, from a “real” bootleg disc that he had bought in 1999. His version musically brings out the bluegrass side of the song with the help of Sam Bush’s fiddle playing. In terms of content, the song fits well with Flemon’s artistic and personal situation.
“With… ‘Guess I’m Doing Fine,’ I present my version of an unreleased Bob Dylan song that he recorded in 1964. On my own personal journey, I’ve found that these lyrics resonated with me because the song speaks regarding situations I’ve experienced myself and it’s a reminder of the power that comes from breaking new ground.” Flemons said in a statement on social media.
The album’s conclusion finally ends with a happy melody. The instrumental song “Songster Revival” is Dom’s clear announcement “I’m back” and at the same time a greeting to many friends he had not been able to meet in the last three years due to the pandemic.
Conclusion: Dom Flemon’s most personal album is also his best yet. Not primarily because he turns his insides out, but how he does it. Reflective, poetic, serious and yet full of hope. The great liner notes open up the space behind the songs and the singer keeps on spreading the untold African American story. A valuable piece of Americana!
Dom Flemons – Traveling Wildfire: Das 2023er Album
title: Traveling Wildfire
Artist: Dom Flemons
release date: March 24, 2023 (Digital)
release date: 12. Mai 2023 (CD)
Label: Smithsonian Folkways (Galileo)
Formate: CD, Vinyl & Digital
Tracks: 15
Genre: Americana
Trackliste: (Traveling Wildfire)
01. Slow Dance with You
02. Dark Beauty
03. If You Truly Love Me
04. Traveling Wildfire
05. It’s Cold Inside
06. We Are Almost Down To The Shore
07. Nobody Wrote It Down
08. Saddle It Around
09. Big Money Blues
10. Old Desert Road
11. Rabbit Foot Rag
12. Tough Luck
13. Song To JCB
14. Guess I’m Doing Fine
15. Songster Revival