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A photo from Beck’s summer concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion ranked among Rashad Polk’s Top 10 Photos of 2019 (but not this photo). (Photo by Rashad Polk)
Editor’s Note: This year, we asked our bloggers to name their Top 10 shows of 2019 or choose their Top 10 photos of the year. We will run them over the course of mid-December as our Best of the Year posts.
Editor (again): The very skillful Rashad Polk picked 10 of his photos as the best of 2019 — take it away, Rashad!
Dom Flemons performs at Hill Center on June 30, 2019. (Photo by Rashad Polk)
A show with Grammy Award winner and two-time nominee Dom Flemons was a journey through history and culture as much as a musical experience at Hill Center in DC recently.
Dom Flemons (Photo courtesy Smithsonian Folkways)
Dom Flemons received a Best Folk Album Grammy Award nomination this past year for his album Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys. Black Cowboys sheds a light on the music, culture, and the complex history of the golden era of the Wild West by following the footsteps of the thousands of African American pioneers that helped build the United States of America. In 2010, as a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dom won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk for Genuine Negro.
In a conversation with Parklife DC’s Mark Engleson, Dom discusses his path from Phoenix to DC, the reception he’s gotten for Black Cowboys and for a broader history of the American West, and his upcoming gig at the Hill Center at the former Naval Hospital on Sunday, June 30.
Dom Flemons performs in Durham, North Carolina, on Sept. 8, 2016. (Photo by Thomas Barta)
At the Kingmans Island Bluegrass and Folk Festival on Saturday, I endured sun and rain, met some cool dogs, suffered for some ice cream, and most of all experienced some very good bluegrass, Americana, and blues bands on one full day.
Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival (Photo courtesy Living Classrooms)
Make sure to put the Kingman Island Bluegrass and Folk Festival on your calendar for Saturday, June 9. For just $35 a ticket, you get eight and a half hours of music, from noon to 8:30, with five stages of acts to choose from. The festival is family friendly, including your four-legged children!
The festival has booked a diverse set of outstanding artists to perform this year. Headliners Ganstagrass, known for the Emmy-nominated theme song to the FX series Justified, play a unique brand of bluegrass/hip-hop fusion.
