The Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops (CCD) brings a sizzling, modern vibe to the string-band music of generations ago.
CCD performs on Saturday, Feb. 25, in Earlham College’s Goddard Auditorium. The Artist and Lecture Series event begins at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students and seniors.
Working to interpret the old-time fiddle and banjo-based music of past generations, CCD highlights the central role African-Americans played in shaping America’s popular music from its beginnings.
According to the New York Times, their concerts are “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.”
Members sing, dance and trade instruments including banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, snare drum, bones, jug and kazoo.
The group garnered a Grammy for the Best Traditional Folk Album for its 2010 release Genuine Negro Jig, which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart and No. 2 on Billboard’s Heatseekers and Folk charts. Their follow-up, Leaving Eden is due February 28 on Nonesuch Records.
On Leaving Eden, the band’s original lineup expands from three to five players and the new repertoire incorporates more blues, jazz, and folk balladry alongside the string-band tunes. It includes original compositions, covers and traditional songs.
Two of the founding members, Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens, met at a 2005 roots festival in North Carolina. The two shared a common interest in traditional African-American string band music of the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, beat-boxer Adam Matta and cellist Leyla McCalla join CCD on Leaving Eden.
“We want to remain true to the roots of how we started,” Giddens says. “We’re always going to have a string band on our records, but we don’t want to just do Piedmont style fiddle-banjo-guitar tunes. There’s more to our musical life than that.”
The opening act is David Wax Museum, a band that blends traditional Mexican and American folk music.
Tickets: $8.00/adults, $5/students and seniors. One free ticket with Earlham ID.
Tickets available Runyan Center Desk, Monday – Friday, 9 am – 4 pm, cash and check only,
Carpenter Hall Box Office, Monday – Friday, 12 noon – 4 pm
Cash, Check or Credit card purchases, 765.983.1474
More info: www.carolinachocolatedrops.com & www.davidwaxmuseum.com
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