Carolina Chocolate Drops

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #131 (August/September 2007).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Bringing It Forth

by Tom Nelligan

Some musical traditions are lucky enough to stay strong and healthy over the years, carried on by generation after generation of singers and instrumentalists while being comprehensively recorded by folklorists and fans. Others, sadly, quietly disappear as the elders pass on and no one takes their place. Then there are those that largely slip from the public consciousness but persist in the cultural background through the playing of a few dedicated musicians until the moment is right for a rebirth. African-American string-band music falls in the latter category, and something of a revival is currently being launched by a hot young trio from the Piedmont region of North Carolina called the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

The three Drops are fiddle and banjo players Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson and multi-instrumentalist Dom Flemons who all share lead and harmony vocals. They've been playing together for just over two years now, but they're so fluid and comfortable with their music that it sounds as though they've been working at it for decades. Like many of the best revivalists, they learned their craft by studying with an old master, starting with traditional songs and fiddle tunes and then adding their own contemporary flair and energy and contagious sense of fun. Their music is simple but rich, lighhearted but visceral, both a historical flashback and a modern shout.

"People say there's a lot of joy in our music and it's true," Flemons observed before a showcase set at last February's Folk Alliance conference in Memphis. "When we play, it just feels uplifting because you know you have roots in it and you feel it."

All three members of the group have been making music since they were children. They all began with interests other than traditional string bands, but traveled paths that led them to meet up at the Black Banjo Gathering, a music-sharing conference held at Appalachian State College in Boone, North Carolina, in April 2005. They also share a common mentor and friend in 88-year-old North Carolina fiddler Joe Thompson, a living archive of the black string-band tradition who is a source for much of their material and an inspiration for their style.

[cover #131]