“Genuine Negro Jig” is the 2010 album that won the Grammy Award for
Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards. The Carolina
Chocolate Drops are an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolin
and are one of the two known full-time African American string bands.
Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons, and Justin Robinson met at the first
Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina in 2005. All musicians
sing and trade instruments like the banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica,
and the occasional snare drum, bones and jug. The Drops have released
five CDs and one EP. They have opened for Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan. In
2010 they played the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee
and have performed at the Grand Ole Opry several times. Their latest
album “Leaving Eden” was released in February 2012 was number one in
the US grass charts
Like most of the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ work, the album “Genuine
Negro Jig”, is a mixture of traditional folk songs and recent pieces.
It is part of the effort they put into celebrating the string band
music of the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, and the
influence of African-Americans on this music. Although the music the
Chocolate Drops play is quite eclectic, the band members claim that
early 20th-century African American string bands also drew from a wide
range of genres in their musical repertoire.
With the varied sound and mix of new and old, it propelled the album
that won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd
Grammy Awards.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops built their repertoire, which is based on
the traditional music of the Piedmont region of North and South
Carolina, from the eminent African American old-time fiddler Joe
Thompson. The also perform modern songs like “Hit’Em Up Style (Oops!)”
by Blu Cantrell. As you’d expect from any old’timey sting band the
fiddle and banjo can be heard very prominently throughout their music
and with three vocalists the band also has these great moments of
vocal harmonization. Here is a the band’s first official video
“Country Girl”
jorgeb90 