CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS
''DONA GOT A RAMBLIN' MIND''
SEPTEMBER 12 2006
46:33
1 /Starry Crown
Traditional/2:57
2 /Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind
Traditional/2:47
3 /Rickett's Hornpipe
Traditional/2:34
4 /Ol' Corn Likker
Traditional/4:10
5 /Little Margaret
Traditional/2:06
6 /Dixie
Traditional/1:41
7 /Black Annie
Traditional/3:15
8 /Tom Dula
Traditional/3:29
9 /Georgie Buck
Traditional/3:00
10 /Old Cat Died
Traditional/2:29
11 /Black-Eyed Daisy
Traditional/3:58
12 /Short Life of Trouble
Traditional/2:47
13 /Sally Ann
Traditional/3:19
14 /Sourwood Mountain
Traditional/5:53
REVIEW
by Jeff Tamarkin
To say that Carolina Chocolate Drops are an anomaly in the 21st century would be a huge understatement. Here are three twenty-something African-Americans playing a brand of acoustic, banjo- and fiddle-driven string band music that is nearly extinct today, and in fact peaked in the pre-WWII era. Although a number of Southern-bred black string bands gained popularity during the first half of the 20th century -- this band's name pays tribute to one of them, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops -- the style is generally associated with Caucasian musicians from the Appalachians, not with African-Americans from the North Carolina Piedmont style, so the emergence of a new group reactivating the tradition is truly a phenomenon. So is the music. This is no novelty; the Carolina Chocolate Drops are serious scholars of this sound and are adept at re-creating it. Two of the members, Rhiannon Giddens (fiddle, banjo) and Justin Robinson (fiddle), are from the Carolinas, and the third, Dom Flemons (guitar, jug, harmonica, percussion, banjo), is an Arizona native. All had established solo careers when they met in 2005 at a North Carolina event called the Black Banjo Gathering. Soon thereafter, coached by octogenarian fiddler Joe Thompson and inspired by Piedmont antecedents such as Dink Roberts and Elizabeth Cotten, they began developing their own take on the traditional black string band sound, not so much updating it as giving it new life. The 14 uncredited (read: traditional) songs on the record touch on ancient blues and country, but to align what the CCD do with either of those branches would be an error. Songs like "Ol' Corn Likker" and "Black-Eyed Daisy" evoke a time and place far removed not only from the present but from contemporary notions of what those genres signify. When the trio plays "Dixie," you're listening not to a patriotic rebel anthem but a yearning, mournful moan. And the purity of Giddens' solo a cappella vocal on "Little Margaret" belongs to an era when music was not something to be sold but something from the soul. The Carolina Chocolate Drops have stated that they are on a mission to keep this tradition alive, and that they do. But they do so not from the staid position of lecturers on ethnomusicology or as strident sociopolitical posturers but as musicians truly in love with this disappearing slice of Americana, more specifically a little known slice of black Americana. That they do it with zeal as well as respect, and that they have the talent to back up their knowledge, is why it works on its own merits, not merely as a historical study.
BIOGRAPHY
by Paula Carino
The three full-time members of the string band known as the Carolina Chocolate Drops (Dom Flemons on guitar, jug, and harmonica, Rhiannon Giddens on banjo and fiddle, and Justin Robinson on banjo and fiddle -- Sule Greg Wilson sometimes sits in on percussion) met in 2005 at the Black Banjo Gathering at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, drawn together by their mutual love of bluegrass, "jass," jug music, and prehistoric country and rock. The acoustic musicians play a lively combination of standards and originals in these styles, sporting tongue-in-cheek, old-timey outfits and a spirited irreverence that barely disguises their technical facility. Their 2006 debut, Dona Got a Ramblin Mind, was released on the Music Maker label to wide acclaim, and they recorded three additional independent albums before their first widely distributed album, Genuine Negro Jig, appeared on Nonesuch in 2010. The group's next release on the label, which appeared early in 2011, was a four-song EP recorded with the New York City-based Romanian Gypsy punk band the Luminescent Orchestrii. Robinson left the group that same year and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins was added. The group augmented things further with New Orleans-based cellist Leyla McCalla and beat box specialist Adam Matta for 2012's full-length Leaving Eden, which was produced by Buddy Miller.
''DONA GOT A RAMBLIN' MIND''
SEPTEMBER 12 2006
46:33
1 /Starry Crown
Traditional/2:57
2 /Dona Got a Ramblin' Mind
Traditional/2:47
3 /Rickett's Hornpipe
Traditional/2:34
4 /Ol' Corn Likker
Traditional/4:10
5 /Little Margaret
Traditional/2:06
6 /Dixie
Traditional/1:41
7 /Black Annie
Traditional/3:15
8 /Tom Dula
Traditional/3:29
9 /Georgie Buck
Traditional/3:00
10 /Old Cat Died
Traditional/2:29
11 /Black-Eyed Daisy
Traditional/3:58
12 /Short Life of Trouble
Traditional/2:47
13 /Sally Ann
Traditional/3:19
14 /Sourwood Mountain
Traditional/5:53
REVIEW
by Jeff Tamarkin
To say that Carolina Chocolate Drops are an anomaly in the 21st century would be a huge understatement. Here are three twenty-something African-Americans playing a brand of acoustic, banjo- and fiddle-driven string band music that is nearly extinct today, and in fact peaked in the pre-WWII era. Although a number of Southern-bred black string bands gained popularity during the first half of the 20th century -- this band's name pays tribute to one of them, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops -- the style is generally associated with Caucasian musicians from the Appalachians, not with African-Americans from the North Carolina Piedmont style, so the emergence of a new group reactivating the tradition is truly a phenomenon. So is the music. This is no novelty; the Carolina Chocolate Drops are serious scholars of this sound and are adept at re-creating it. Two of the members, Rhiannon Giddens (fiddle, banjo) and Justin Robinson (fiddle), are from the Carolinas, and the third, Dom Flemons (guitar, jug, harmonica, percussion, banjo), is an Arizona native. All had established solo careers when they met in 2005 at a North Carolina event called the Black Banjo Gathering. Soon thereafter, coached by octogenarian fiddler Joe Thompson and inspired by Piedmont antecedents such as Dink Roberts and Elizabeth Cotten, they began developing their own take on the traditional black string band sound, not so much updating it as giving it new life. The 14 uncredited (read: traditional) songs on the record touch on ancient blues and country, but to align what the CCD do with either of those branches would be an error. Songs like "Ol' Corn Likker" and "Black-Eyed Daisy" evoke a time and place far removed not only from the present but from contemporary notions of what those genres signify. When the trio plays "Dixie," you're listening not to a patriotic rebel anthem but a yearning, mournful moan. And the purity of Giddens' solo a cappella vocal on "Little Margaret" belongs to an era when music was not something to be sold but something from the soul. The Carolina Chocolate Drops have stated that they are on a mission to keep this tradition alive, and that they do. But they do so not from the staid position of lecturers on ethnomusicology or as strident sociopolitical posturers but as musicians truly in love with this disappearing slice of Americana, more specifically a little known slice of black Americana. That they do it with zeal as well as respect, and that they have the talent to back up their knowledge, is why it works on its own merits, not merely as a historical study.
BIOGRAPHY
by Paula Carino
The three full-time members of the string band known as the Carolina Chocolate Drops (Dom Flemons on guitar, jug, and harmonica, Rhiannon Giddens on banjo and fiddle, and Justin Robinson on banjo and fiddle -- Sule Greg Wilson sometimes sits in on percussion) met in 2005 at the Black Banjo Gathering at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, drawn together by their mutual love of bluegrass, "jass," jug music, and prehistoric country and rock. The acoustic musicians play a lively combination of standards and originals in these styles, sporting tongue-in-cheek, old-timey outfits and a spirited irreverence that barely disguises their technical facility. Their 2006 debut, Dona Got a Ramblin Mind, was released on the Music Maker label to wide acclaim, and they recorded three additional independent albums before their first widely distributed album, Genuine Negro Jig, appeared on Nonesuch in 2010. The group's next release on the label, which appeared early in 2011, was a four-song EP recorded with the New York City-based Romanian Gypsy punk band the Luminescent Orchestrii. Robinson left the group that same year and multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins was added. The group augmented things further with New Orleans-based cellist Leyla McCalla and beat box specialist Adam Matta for 2012's full-length Leaving Eden, which was produced by Buddy Miller.
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