Dom Flemons
Stackolee
Dance Tunes, Ballads and Blues — 2007
Dom Flemons, known as "The American Songster," is a versatile musician dedicated to preserving and revitalizing traditional American music. In 2007, he released the album Dance Tunes, Ballads and Blues, featuring his rendition of the classic folk song "Stackolee". This track showcases Flemons' commitment to the rich traditions of American roots music.
"“Stack-o-lee” is a political drama. Lee Shelton, who was Stack-o-lee, was a black Democrat and Billy Lyons was a black Republican in St. Louis, maybe about 10 years after Reconstruction fails, and you have a black community that’s saying “OK, the Republicans freed us 40 years ago, and we’re still not seeing anything. So, what do we do now?” You start having blacks going to the Dixie Democrats to try to get more civil liberties and civil rights. This is 10 or 20 years before you start having real protests in the black community. So, the way to work that is that you have to find these other ways of speaking, so “Stack-o-lee” is a character that really embodied the strong black man and how he has to be a warrior to go out there to be an example for himself as well as the people around him."