I first came across the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the MerleFest music festival in North Carolina not long after they formed in the mid-2000s. The premise of this exciting band was simple — to take back the African-American string-band tradition that flourished in the 1700s and 1800s, yet faded away in the early 1900s. As the 20th century progressed, the banjo, which originated in Africa, became a go-to instrument for white Appalachians and other musicians, along with the fiddle.
The Drops brought back those black string band traditions in a big way. A truly talented group of artists, they melded Celtic, Hip Hop and other influences with fiddle and banjo tunes and branched out from there.
The heart and soul of the Drops is Rhiannon Giddens, an amazing singer and multi-instrumentalist who is the last remaining original member. These are heady days for Giddens as she recently appeared on the Lost On the River: The New Basement Tapes album, where she resurrects some unreleased music by Bob Dylan along with Jim James, Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett and others. Burnett also produced Giddens’ upcoming solo album due in February.
The CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS play at Miami University Hamilton Friday, Oct. 24. Find tickets/more info here .
