Music Maker 25: 'Pickers & Storytellers': Dom Flemons, "Blind Boy" Paxton, Jake Xerxes Fussell & Gail Caesar

Music Maker 25 opens at The Fruit with a celebration of the next generation of Piedmont Blues boundary-pushers and tradition-preservers. Founding Carolina Chocolate Drops member Dom Flemons, 2018 GRAMMY nominee for Black Cowboys and "equal parts studious folklorist, multi-instrumentalist, and American griot" (St. Pete Catalyst), pulls from repertoire covering more than a century of American musical tradition. Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as "virtually the only music-maker of his generation playing guitar, banjo, piano, and violin to fully assimilate the blues idiom," Jerron "Blind Boy" Paxton reaches back with his faithful renditions of 1920s and 30s songbook repertoire. Two accomplished pickers - Durham-based Jake Xerxes Fussell and Pittsville, Virginia-based Gail Caesar - further demonstrate that the future of the music is in good hands. Each artist will perform a short set and close out the show together in a finale of their favorites.