Dom Flemons has his own word for what he does. Not folk singer, not roots musician — “songster,” a term that reaches back to the traveling tradition that predates all the categories we now use to sort American music into bins. On The American Songster Tour, he arrives at Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs on Thursday, October 1, playing banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, fife, bones, and quills over the course of an evening that spans more than a century of American song.
About the Show
Flemons came to national attention as a co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, the first Black string band to win a Grammy. He has worked as a solo artist since 2014, building a catalog that ranges through country, blues, bluegrass, folk, and early Americana, treating tradition as living material rather than artifact. His 2023 album Traveling Wildfire, on Smithsonian Folkways, earned a Grammy nomination alongside recordings by Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon. An earlier record, Black Cowboys (part of Smithsonian Folkways’ African American Legacy Recordings series), spent seven weeks on Billboard’s Bluegrass charts, tracing the largely unacknowledged history of African American cowboys in the West. MOJO Magazine has written that “few have pumped as much lifeblood into tradition as he has”; WBEZ Chicago described his mission plainly: he is “on a mission to uncover, preserve and push forward America’s musical past — particularly Black musical traditions.” He holds a Grammy Award with four nominations in total, two Emmy nominations, and was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry as a solo artist in 2018. In 2025, he was inducted into the American Banjo Hall of Fame. His collaborators include Yo-Yo Ma, Tyler Childers, Taj Mahal, Branford Marsalis, and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Venue & Logistics
Caffè Lena, at 47 Phila Street in Saratoga Springs, holds 110 people, and Flemons has called it “one of the sacred venues of folk music.” “To be able to stand on the stage where so many great performers have stood is a real honor,” he has said. It is one of the anchor listening rooms in the capital region, and this is Flemons’s second visit in roughly 16 months; he last played here in June 2025 as part of Caffè Lena’s 65th Anniversary Folk Heritage Series. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The show runs from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. and is all ages.
Tickets
Tickets are $29.28 for members, $32.53 for general admission, and $16.27 for children and students; all prices are inclusive of fees. A $5 livestream option is available through Caffè Lena TV, with proceeds benefiting the artists. No refunds. Buy tickets