The Lone Ranger was very likely inspired by Bass Reeves, a Black deputy U.S. marshal, and the defining version of Home on the Range was collected by John Lomax from a Black cook in San Antonio. This episode follows Dom Flemons, the American Songster, born August 30, 1982 in Phoenix, Arizona, of African American and Mexican heritage, as he digs those buried stories back out of the music. From high school percussion, coffeehouse guitar and harmonica, an English degree at Northern Arizona University, and national poetry slams in 2002 and 2003, he traced Bob Dylan and the Beatles backward to Woody Guthrie, Tom Paxton, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott.

Mentored by Flagstaff folklorist Sule Greg Wilson, Flemons attended the first Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina in April 2005, met Rhiannon Giddens, formed Sankofa Strings, and by November 2 ...