Critically Critically Acclaimed folk artist Dom Flemons wins top honors in the 20th Annual IAMA (International Acoustic Music Awards) with his song “Traveling Wildfire”. He also won Best Folk/Americana/Roots Award as well with his song “Traveling Wildfire”. He also made history as the first African American to ever win the top award in IAMA’s 20 year history.
Chicago, Illinois based Dom Flemons is an American old-time music, Piedmont blues, and neotraditional country multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. He is a proficient player of the banjo, fife, guitar, harmonica, percussion, quills, and rhythm bones. He is known as "The American Songster" as his repertoire of music spans nearly a century of American folklore, ballads, and tunes. He is a member of the Folk music group “Carolina Chocolate Drops” from their inception in 2005 until 2013. Flemons has released five albums in his own name, although two of those were collaborations with other musicians.
With Carolina Chocolate Drops, he won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. Dom Flemons also received a Grammy nomination this year’s 66th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Folk Album for his album "Traveling Wildfire".
“It is a great honor to win the Overall Grand Prize as well as the Best Folk/Americana/Roots category at the International Acoustic Music Awards. Over the past 25 years, it has always been my goal to create music that entertains, educates and inspires people of all communities. Using a variety of instruments and old-time music styles it has also been my mission to make sure the music that I inherited from my friends and mentors lives on into the present. Thanks to my team and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings for all of their support in making this prize a reality”, said Dom Flemons, this year’s top winner.
Dom Flemons is signed to Smithsonian Folkways Records. Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C.
Visit inacoustic.com/winners/ for the list of winners.
