The Carolina Chocolate Drops

Rhiannon Giddens

I had the great fortune of catching the same plane out of Atlanta as The Carolina Chocolate Drops last week. I had seen them perform once before, so I recognized  Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens. I said: "Hey, I'm on my way to the middle of nowhere to see you play!" which was true.

We were all on our way to The Acoustic Cafe, an under-the-radar small fest in the hills outside Birmingham, Alabama, which draws some of the finest string players you will find anywhere.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops explore and expand old time black string band music. In 2010, the group won a traditional folk Grammy for their album  “Genuine Negro Jig,” and they've been touring ever since. Only one member of the group -- Rhiannon -- hails from North Carolina (Greensboro.) The rest live in New York and New Orleans.

Dom Flemons

On the plane, Dom and I talked about the genesis of the group and their 250-nights-a-year touring schedule. Rhiannon and Dom met at the Black Banjo Gathering in North Carolina in 2005, and joined musical forces.

Along the way, the Carolina Chocolate Drops have revived old forms of traditional music -- fiddle tunes, minstrel songs, antique country blues,  and waltzes. They are multi-instrumentalists who keep the show moving, jumping up to dance, do tricks, sing a capella, and generally blow everybody's minds.

Hubby Jenkins

Their performance at The Acoustic Cafe was edge-of-your-seat thrilling. They played everything -- bones, a jug, banjo, fiddle, upright bass, guitar, a replica of an old minstrel banjo. I think the The New York Times had it right when they called the Carolina Chocolate Drops concerts “an end-to-end display of excellence… They dip into styles of Southern black music from the 1920s and ’30s—string-band music, jug-band music, fife and drum, early jazz—and beam their curiosity outward. They make short work of their instructive mission and spend their energy on things that require it: flatfoot dancing, jug playing, shouting.”

Leyla McCalla

The Carolina Chocolate Drops have a new album, Leaving Eden. They are excited to be playing the venerable Winnipeg Folk Festival in Canada in July, and they are happy  that their brand-new music video -- the infectious "Country Girl," has made its way into rotation on Country Music TV. Sucess couldn't happen to nicer folks.

They played this song at The Acoustic Cafe and had everybody up dancing. Here it is for your listening pleasure: