DOM FLEMONS LEARNS RARE AFRICAN-AMERICAN FOLK INSTRUMENT FROM MIKE SEEGER, IS LAST LIVING PLAYER IN QUILLS TRADITION

NEW SOLO ALBUM 'PROSPECT HILL' OUT JULY 22

Dom Flemons – the American songster whose new album 'Prospect Hill' comes out July 22 on Music Maker Relief Foundation – carries on a traditional instrument he learned from Mike Seeger. Flemons demonstrates and talks about the panpipe-like instrument in this video.

Flemons told me, "Most audiences, they've never seen anything like that. Whoa!" He first picked it up from Mike Seeger at a Black Banjo Gathering. Flemons said, "He was a revelation, making new music out of traditional music elements. He was the only guy I heard playing the quills. I met him and asked him where I could get quills. He showed me a couple of things. I'm the last living black quills player in the country."

Another inspiration was the 1920s recordings by songster Henry Thomas, who has been covered by Bob Dylan and Canned Heat, and 1960s recordings by Joe Patterson. Hear Henry Thomas' "Old Country Stomp" here.

Playing the Newport Folk Fest, Flemons befriended Bob Jones and Murray Lerner, who led him to footage of Alabama's Joe Patterson, the only known historical footage of a quills player. Flemons says, "With Mike included, there are four quills players whose recordings are readily available. You blow over it like you're blowing over a bottle. It's a goofy instrument!"

Flemons' new solo album 'Prospect Hill' comes out July 22 on Music Maker Relief Foundation.