Dom Flemons is a folk musician from Phoenix, Ariz., who plays multiple instruments, including 4-string banjo, guitar, jug, and bones. After meeting Rhiannon Giddens and Sule Greg Wilson in 2005 at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, N.C., the three musicians started the band Sankofa Strings, with occasional guest and fellow Black Banjo Gathering participant Justin Robinson. Dom Flemons moved to North Carolina in 2006, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops convened shortly thereafter, consisting of Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson. The Carolina Chocolate Drops released their first record through Music Maker Relief Foundation in 2006.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops recreate and reinterpret the sound of African American string bands from the Piedmont region of the Carolinas in the 1920s and 1930s. The band takes a studious approach to the genre, receiving tutelage from Piedmont Old-time musicians and taking into account the culture and history surrounding the music. The band has toured across the United States and Canada, playing at music festivals, concert halls, and other venues. It also performed in a scene of the 2007 film The Great Debaters. In 2010, the Carolina Chocolate Drops album Genuine Negro Jig (Nonesuch Records) won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album.
From the guide to the Dom Flemons Papers, 2004-2009, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.)
