Best known for his work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, singer and multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons has learned his trade the old-fashioned way.

Years of performing (and often re-creating) a wonderful, sometimes-neglected repertoire of music from Southern African-American traditions, Flemons can swing from Piedmont blues to ragtime and back again, accompanying himself on banjo, guitar, quills, bones and a variety of other percussion without his audience losing a dance step.

Much of that same range is present on this third solo album, which Flemons recorded with a variety of sidemen. There’s the bouncy double entendre of “But They Got It Fixed Right On,” credited to “Georgia” Tom Dorsey and Tampa Red, the jazzy country blues of “Have I Stayed Away too Long?,” and the Sonny Boy Williamson-influenced take on the traditional “Polly Put the Kettle On,” long a crowd pleaser in concert.

Recently, Flemons has been branching into early rock as well, as can be heard on his own “I Can’t Do It Anymore,” featuring Keith Ganz on electric guitar. At their best, such Flemons originals evoke the timeless vivacity of the historical numbers: notably the instrumental “Marching Up to Prospect Hill,” propelled by the Arizona native’s wordless hoots and frenetic bones, while “Too Long (I’ve Been Gone)” could have been a ’20s blues tune, were it not for the updated (and quite pretty) arrangement.

Other originals, such as the up-tempo “Hot Chicken,” aren’t yet ready for the pantheon, but with 14 tunes, this recording still comes out a winner.