There are many folk singer-songwriters out there, but not all concern themselves with folklore. Dom Flemons does. A modern-day troubadour, Flemons breathes new life into old-time music, often accompanying himself with a banjo or guitar. Listening to him perform feels like an auditory journey back in time, and if that illusion wasn’t already cemented, it certainly will be when his upcoming record, Making American Music: The Smithsonian Sessions, releases in January 2027.

The inception of the project dates back to 2018, when Flemons became the first Artist in Residence at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Being around countless legendary instruments, including the 140-year-old Emory guitar that once belonged to Mississippi John Hurt, Flemons felt deeply inspired to revive history through music. Fortunately, he was invited to record with some of those precious instruments that are ordinarily safely guarded at the museum’s vault.

The sessions resulted in Flemons’ third studio album on Smithsonian Folkways, which is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. And though there’s only one single available so far, Flemons performs a few of his unreleased songs from the album to give a taste of what’s coming for the listeners of Soundcheck. - Sırma Munyar

Setlist: 1.Lost River Blues 2.Night And Day 3.Take Me Back to Bronzeville

(Dom Flemons photographed by Emily Cummings)

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Grace Cummings is a contemporary Australian musician whose songs often have the big, technicolor sound of the 1960’s. But the featured sound is always her striking voice – as we’ll hear when she plays solo in our studio. Her latest album, Bloodhorse!, wrestles with darkness and doubt, Shakespeare and spirituality. And speaking of spirituality, sax player Isaiah Collier has spent much of this year marking the centennial of John Coltrane’s so-called spiritual jazz by playing Coltrane’s classic A Love Supreme around the country. But at the same time, Collier has also been singing his own brand of spiritual R&B. He brings his band to our studio to play some of his latest tunes from his EP, Joy.

Grace Cummings set list: 1.John Lennon 2.I'm Not Crazy 3.FAKE

Isaiah Collier set list: 1. Where I'm Loved 2. Joy

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New York-based Rasputina, the steampunk cello-rock outfit led by Melora Creager, draws lyrical inspiration from history and the headlines. What began as an ad seeking women for an electric cello choir became a touring electro-chamber outfit known for original songs with unsettling perspectives and inventive arrangements of rock classics, all with an eye for retro fashion of the 19th century.

Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic and faith healer, is the figure after whom the band is named - although their lyrics may look further back in history to the 1590’s with the Shakespearean authorship controversy (The Oxford theory that the actual author was Edward de Vere), show music of Elizabethan times (the first) by Thomas Weelkes, and madrigals. (During their interview, Creager seemed open to the suggestion to adapt the J.S. Bach Cello Suites with pedals, and invoked My Ladye Nevells Booke, a collection of works for keyboard by English Renaissance composer William Byrd.) Even as inspiration may also come from macabre events – mutiny, disease, war, and/or news headlines over the centuries, the storytelling is always front and center.

Rasputina’s trajectory from major label to indie cello rockers happened early on in the 1990’s (despite the origin myth of having formed in the 1890’s), when after having toured with Nirvana, Creager made a choice to opt out of fame and world domination. Recently though, Rasputina has been offering some music online, yet some things are still kept old school and in limited runs; their latest release, Daddy Likes Bread, is a three-song seven inch vinyl record, available only in person, at “recitals” where the band does public performances. Rasputina, the “Traveling Ladies’ Cello Society” (Bandcamp), is once again coming to a music hall near you after a years-long break; they play live, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Holocaust of Giants 2. Draconian Crackdown 3. Hunter’s Kiss

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