Making American Music: The Smithsonian Sessions [CD]

GRAMMY Award-winning musician, multi-instrumentalist, and music scholar Dom Flemons, known as "The American Songster," has played a central role in bringing Black American roots music into contemporary consciousness. Following his two touchstone releases on Smithsonian Folkways, Flemons returns with Making American Music: The Smithsonian Sessions, the first album of roots music to be recorded on historic instruments from the collection of the National Museum of American History. Performing solo and with his new all-star Black string band The Traveling Wildfires, as well as longtime Smithsonian staff, Flemons breathes new life into guitars played by Elizabeth Cotten and Mississippi John Hurt, quills made by Joe Patterson, and more, through his original compositions and traditional songs written over two centuries. Liner notes by Flemons and Smithsonian curator and co-producer John Troutman illuminate the instruments, repertoire, and creative process behind this extraordinary convergence of American songcraft, musicianship, and sound.