The Rose Bowl Tavern held a matinee show of Dom Flemons’ stylings of old-time music and Piedmont blues on Saturday.
Flemons, also known as “The American Songster,” grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and moved to North Carolina to learn Piedmont blues fingerpicking, a style of rhythmic guitar picking native to the Piedmont region including both a bass line and melody. Flemons would go on to join Grammy Award-winning string band The Carolina Chocolate Drops.
The buzzing crowd sat drinking beer and eating popcorn in anticipation of the musician’s entrance. Flemons entered the venue wearing his signature upturned wide-brimmed hat and silver detailed suspenders — the picture of Americana.
Flemons, a 41-year-old multi-instrumentalist, said he liked to begin his shows with the oldest instruments, bringing out the rhythm bones — a pair of slabs made of wood or animal bones that rest between the fingers of the musician — and a harmonica to play “Cindy Gal.”
During the performance, the artist focused mainly on delivering guitar-picking ballads accompanied by his singing and narration.
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Flemons performed an assortment of folk song covers as well as songs from his newest album “Traveling Wildfire,” which is currently nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Folk Album.
The Chicago-based musician said the audience caught him at a lucky time, as he is heading out to Los Angeles for the Grammys ceremony next week.
Flemons played songs by folk and blues greats Elizabeth Cotten, Bill Monroe and Bob Dylan. The artist performed his composite of two versions of a Dylan song titled “Guess I’m Doing Fine,” sharing themes of friendship, gratitude and adversity with the audience.
Throughout the show, Flemons often focused on history, speaking about how it often inspired him. He sang songs off his 2018 album “Black Cowboys” about cowboys like Bass Reeves and Nat Love. The record was Grammy-nominated for Best Folk Album.
Flemons wrote “Steel Pony Blues” inspired by Nat Love and his connection to Holbrook, Arizona, where Flemons’ grandfather settled his congregation. The spritely ballad illustrated its setting of railroads and trains with its steady picked bass line.
He added humor to his set with a song inspired by a young girl in Nashville, Tennessee, referring to him as “The Hot Chicken Man,” which Flemons decided to take on as a new nickname. The song “Hot Chicken,” about the East Nashville regional dish, earned big laughs from the crowd with lyrics like “Doctor suggested hot chicken.”
The matinee concluded with Flemons’ variation of “Brown Skin Girl” by DeFord Bailey performed on the harmonica. He began adding a multitude of pitch-altering techniques, making a once-simple pattern complicated. Flemons finished his performance by flipping the harmonica upside down in a circular motion while playing, earning him his second standing ovation of the night.
