Dom Flemons: Bones, jugs and history

Bones, jugs and history.

These are three ingredients factoring into Dom Flemons’ process. The folk singer and former member of Carolina Chocolate Drops has taken that group’s spirit of old-timey tradition into his solo act.

Flemons talked about three of the many instruments in his arsenal.

Bones “It’s like one of the oldest instruments known to human civilization. They find rhythmic clackers all over the world. They’re still played a lot in Irish music, but they first became popular in the United States in the blackface-minstrel era. That’s something that opens up a whole can of worms about our nation’s past, just talking about this theater art form that grew in the mid-19th century. Basically it was a form of white men, usually poor white men, blacking up their faces and selling a product saying that this is authentic folk music. And then over time there were black entertainers that became blackface musicians and entertainers as well. (The Harlem Globetrotters’ theme song, ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ that was of a bones player by the name of Brother Bones.)

“It doesn’t look like a lot but it makes a lot of sound, a lot of noise. I use cow rib bones. I have a set that are short ribs and then I have a set that are shin bones. I got them from two different private makers. One was from a fellow in England and then another fellow who’s in Vermont.

“There’s a very strong community of bones players. It’s an instrument that’s really in no way suffering from possible extinction. There are thousands of bones players all over the world. Once I got into the community, all the sudden they appeared.”

Quills “You find them everywhere from Asia to Spain to all the way to the United States. It’s an instrument that’s associated with older slave culture. They’re the same thing as a panpipe with cane reeds that are in different lengths so you get different tones.

“I first heard the quills through the recordings of a musician from East Texas named Henry Thomas. Henry Thomas played in the late 1920s and he played guitar and quills. As I studied him more, I found that there were several of his songs that were in popular music. Taj Mahal is probably the most famous, having done a version of Henry Thomas’ ‘Fishing Blues.’ The group Canned Heat used the melody of one of Henry Thomas’ numbers for their song ‘Going Up the Country.’ Even Bob Dylan used one of Henry Thomas’ melodies for his song ‘Honey Won’t You Allow Me One More Chance.’ This stuff tends to get around quite a bit.”

Jugs “Funny enough, I was just listening to ‘Play It Like You Did Back to George Street,’ which is a Shake It Records anthology of Cincinnati Blues, which features the Cincinnati Jug Band on there.

“It’s great. It’s fantastic. I had already heard this stuff before, but reanalyzing all this history, the liner notes are brilliant, the remastering of the recordings is great, and I think it’s just amazing that a record store in Cincinnati wanted to embrace its own musical traditions and be able to put it out on a record. Then of course you connect it to King Records and the record industry of the Cincinnati area, that’s some heavy stuff.”

If you go

What: Dom Flemons with Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle

When: 4 p.m. Sunday, May 22

Where: The Southgate House Revival, 111 E. Sixth St., Newport; 859-431-2201

Tickets: $12 advance; $15 day of show