CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS
Colored Aristocracy
 



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Sep 13 2008 8:00P
Pickin’ In The Pines
Flagstaff, Arizona

Jan 24 2009 8:00P
Orpheum Theater
Memphis, Tennessee
Sep 14 2008 8:00P
Pickin’ In The Pines
Flagstaff, Arizona

Jan 29 2009 8:00P
Royal Theater
Danville, Indiana
Sep 19 2008 8:00P
Watermelon Park Festival
Berryville, Virginia

Jan 30 2009 8:00P
Ann Arbor Folk Festival
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Sep 21 2008 8:00P
Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
Bristol, Tennessee

Jan 31 2009 8:00P
Ann Arbor Folk Festival
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Sep 23 2008 8:00P
Capitol Arts Theatre
Bowling Green, Kentucky

Feb 24 2009 8:00P
The Lyceum Theatre
Clovis, New Mexico
Sep 27 2008 8:00P
Grand Ole Opry
Nashville, Tennessee

Feb 25 2009 8:00P
Gig Performance Space
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Sep 28 2008 8:00P
Weinberg Center for the Arts
Frederick, Maryland

Feb 26 2009 8:00P
Rio Theatre
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Sep 29 2008 8:00P
Kennedy Center
Washington, Washington DC

Feb 27 2009 8:00P
Macey Center
Socorro, New Mexico
Sep 30 2008 8:00P
World Cafe Live
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Feb 28 2009 8:00P
WMNU Fine Arts Center Theater
Silver City, New Mexico
Oct 2 2008 8:00P
Iron Horse Music Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts

Mar 1 2009 8:00P
Outpost Performance Space
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Oct 3 2008 8:00P
Symphony Space
New York, New York

Mar 2 2009 8:00P
Outpost Performance Space
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Oct 4 2008 8:00P
Somerville Theater
Somerville, Massachusetts

Mar 3 2009 8:00P
Flickinger Center for Performing Arts
Alamogordo, New Mexico
Oct 9 2008 8:00P
Ryman Auditorium
with Old Crow Medicine Show!
Nashville, Tennessee

Mar 4 2009 8:00P
Simms Performing Arts Center
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Oct 10 2008 8:00P
Ryman Auditorium
with Old Crow Medicine Show!
Nashville, Tennessee

Mar 14 2009 8:00P
The Ark
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Oct 11 2008 8:00P
Fall Shakori Hills
Grassroots Festival

Pittsboro, North Carolina

Mar 15 2009 8:00P
The Ark
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Oct 24 2008 8:00P
Mountain Music Benefit
@ Lyric Theater
Blacksburg, Virginia

Mar 27 2009 8:00P
Bloomington Center For the Arts
Bloomington, Illinois
Oct 25 2008 8:00P
Virginia Discovery Museum
Charlottesville, Virginia

Mar 28 2009 8:00P
Cedar Cultural Centre
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Nov 12 2008 8:00P
Walberton Village Hall
Arundel

Mar 29 2009 8:00P
Cedar Cultural Centre
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Nov 13 2008 8:00P
Fiddlers
Bristol

Apr 18 2009 8:00P
Ferst Center for the Arts
Atlanta, Georgia
Nov 14 2008 8:00P
London Jazz Festival
London

May 9 2009 8:00P
Discovery Theater
Anchorage, Alaska
Nov 15 2008 8:00P
Darwin Suite
Derby

May 12 2009 8:00P
Seattle International
Children’s Festival

Seattle, Washington

Nov 16 2008 8:00P
The Sage
Gateshead

May 13 2009 8:00P
Seattle International
Children’s Festival

Seattle, Washington

Nov 18 2008 8:00P
Festival Blues Sur Scene
Paris

May 14 2009 8:00P
Seattle International
Children’s Festival

Seattle, Washington

Nov 19 2008 8:00P
Paradiso Upstairs
Amsterdam, Zuid-Holland

May 15 2009 8:00P
Seattle International
Children’s Festival

Seattle, Washington

Nov 20 2008 8:00P
Crossing Border Festival
Den Hague, Zuid-Holland

May 16 2009 8:00P
Seattle International
Children’s Festival

Seattle, Washington

Jan 22 2009 8:00P
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, Georgia

May 17 2009 8:00P
Seattle International
Children’s Festival

Seattle, Washington

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  • The Carolina Chocolate Drops toured close to 200 shows, and was in Paste Magazine's Top 50 CDs, and became Music Maker's first Established National Act!

  • Listen to the Carolina Chocolate Drops on NPR's Weekend Edition.
  • Great Debaters - Chocolate Drops Featured Songs

    ...Carolina
    Chocolate Drops, who have their feet firmly planted in the legacy of African-American musical history and could deliver performances -- shifting from gospel to blues and jazz to a more rural-based old-timey sound -- that would work within the context of the film yet still appeal to modern audiences. The soundtrack doesn't attempt to replicate the past but rather to absorb it and regenerate the music as something alive in today's world. It largely works, particularly on the tracks featuring Hart and the Chocolate Drops, a modern acoustic string band in the tradition of African-American fiddle and banjo groups of the era of the film's focus.
    (Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide)
 

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The Carolina Chocolate Drops
are a group of young African-American stringbandmusicians that have come to together to play the rich tradition of fiddle and banjo music in Carolinas' piedmont. Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson both hail from the green hills of the North Carolina Piedmont while Dom Flemons is native to sunny Arizona. Although we have diverse musical backgrounds, we draw our musical heritage from the foothills of the North and South Carolina. We have been under the tutelage of Joe Thompson, said to be the last black traditional string band player, of Mebane, NC and we strive to carry on the long standing traditional music of the black and white communities. Joe's musical heritage runs as deeply and fluidly as the many rivers and streams that traverse our landscape. We are proud to carry on the tradition of black musicians like Odell and Nate Thompson, Dink Roberts, John Snipes, Libba Cotten, Emp White, and countless others who have passed beyond memory and recognition.


A Little on Piedmont Stringband Music


When most of people think of fiddle and banjo music, they think of the southern Appalachian Mountains as the source of this music. While the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina are great strongholds of traditional music today, they are certainly not the source. The nuances of piedmont stringband music stem from the demographics of the piedmont and thereby its focus on the banjo as the lead instrument. Among black ensembles, the banjo often set the pace and if a fiddle was present and it often was not, it served as accompaniment and not as the lead instrument as is more common in the Appalachian tradition. A guitar or mandolin would have been rare, but unheard of, in these bands but the foundation of this tradition lies rooted in the antebellum combination of fiddle and banjo.

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Modern Jug-Band Music
Carolina Chocolate Drops are three young black musicians revisiting, with a joyful vengeance, black strong-band and jug-band music of the Twenties and Thirties - the dirt-floor dance electricity of Mississippi Sheiks and Cannon's Jug Stompers. Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind (Music Maker) is dazzling in its velocity and virtuosity, while the a capella lament "Another Man Done Gone" and waltz "Short Life of Trouble" ensure that you don't miss the blues that drove those pioneers to make such defiantly ecstatic music.
(ROLLING STONE CD Reviews: Fricke's Picks)

Chocolate Drops Revive String-Band Sound
A trio of musicians from North Carolina are reclaiming the string-band music traditions of the black Piedmont. The Carolina Chocolate Drops are the hottest thing to hit the old-time music community in decades 
(NPR WEEKEND EDITION by Karen Michel)

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are fast becoming one of the most popular bands on the roots music circuit 
(NEWS & OBSERVER)

Talk about carrying on tradition: these folks are breathing life into a style of music that’s nearly extinct in 21st century America (LiveBluesWorld.org)

With one string on the pulse of history and the others pluckin a 4-string banjo….acutely aware of the tradition [they’re] inheriting 
(PASTE)

The passionate joy with which these musicians have embraced this music and its heritage is palpable and inspiring; more than ‘revivalists,’ they approach their art in spirit of the in-the-moment celebration, making it accessible to everyday listeners as well as folklorists and aficionados  (LIVING BLUES)

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Photo by Jimmy Williams



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nTune.tv - Carolina Chocolate Drops



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