Dom Flemons

There may be no syndicate of American folk music in 2025 more vital and entertaining than Dom Flemons. Though a native of Arizona, Flemons cofounded the Carolina Chocolate Drops 20 years ago; his collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson sparked long-overdue conversations about the real roots of American music, and they became both stars and emissaries in the process. Flemons had a solo career before the Drops disbanded, coining himself the American Songster in 2008. But his work has truly blossomed in the dozen years since that split, from his eye-opening Black Cowboys album to his indispensable work on Protobilly, a box set about the minstrel origins of American country.

That is the kind of combination and range you can expect from Flemons live, where his facility as a high-caliber banjo player and fleet picker meets his ever-expanding but already encyclopedic knowledge of American folk songs and their sources. A disarming storyteller, Flemons leads an audience through an idiosyncratic tour of American sound, opening unexpected side doors to reveal origin stories and playing arrangements with bones or pan flutes that reimagine antediluvian standards. A national treasure who both preserves and updates national treasures, Flemons remains the premier American Songster.