Dom Flemons was born in Phoenix, Arizona, on August 30, 1982, a fifth-generation Black and Mexican native of the state. He studied English at Northern Arizona University from 2000 to 2005, performing on the streets of Flagstaff and exploring recorded music through the campus library. In 2005, he attended the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, and after graduating he moved to North Carolina to pursue music professionally.
Flemons became a co-founder and original member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a Grammy-winning group, and built a solo career as what he calls the American Songster. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones, and his performances connect musical research with a repertoire drawn from several American roots traditions.
The group's high point with Flemons aboard came early. Their 2010 album Genuine Negro Jig won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album, carrying the old-time string-band tradition the Drops had revived into the center of American music.
His 2018 album Black Cowboys explored African American history in the American West and received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. Traveling Wildfire, released in 2023, turned toward his own experiences and songwriting. Both projects were released by Smithsonian Folkways. The university where he first studied music awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2022.
His work with the Smithsonian also brought him into contact with historic instruments. In the summer of 2018, he served as the first Artist-in-Residence of the Making American Music Internship Program at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Collaborating with John Troutman and Vania Kinard, he developed Making American Music: The Smithsonian Sessions, drawing on instruments and repertoire associated with earlier musicians. The project connects present-day performance with the physical objects and musical knowledge those artists left behind.
