Carolina Chocolate Drops

Artist Roster

Browse Artists

Sort By Genre

Active Touring Artists, Acoustic Blues, Folk/Other

“The Carolina Chocolate Drops are the hottest thing to hit the old-time music community in decades.” - Karen Michel, NPR

“Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians.” - Justin Robinson

Band Members: Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson
Repertoire Summary: Acoustic Blues, Folk/Other

“The Carolina Chocolate Drops are the hottest thing to hit the old-time music community in decades.” - Karen Michel, NPR

“Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians.” - Justin Robinson

Band Members: Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson
Repertoire Summary: Acoustic Blues, Folk/Other

More about the Carolina Chocolate Drops:
The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a group of young African-American string band musicians that have come 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 String band 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 string band 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 not unheard of in these bands, however the foundation of this tradition lies rooted in the antebellum combination of fiddle and banjo.

Visit the official CCD website - www.carolinachocolatedrops.com

Carolina Chocolate Drops’ “Genuine Negro Jig” Tops Billboard Bluegrass Charts

Carolina Chocolate Drops’ most recent album, “Genuine Negro Jig,” landed the #1 spot on Billboard bluegrass charts for seven consecutive weeks, starting the week of March 20, 2010.
Carolina Chocolate Drops Featured on NPR

“The Carolina Chocolate Drops are the hottest thing to hit the old-time music community in decades-” Karen Michel, NPR.
Carolina Chocolate Drops Nominated for an Americana Music Association Award

Among the list of nominees for the upcoming Americana Music Association Awards, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are competing for best duo or group. Winners will be revealed September 9th, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
Carolina Chocolate Drops Performs at National Music Festivals

The Carolina Chocolate Drops breaks into the mainstream after performing at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. “We’ve done pretty well in the old-time field and blues field and a couple of the more folk-based venues, but the mainstream audience, we haven’t really tapped into it that much,” said Drops’ multi-instrumentalist/vocalist, Dom Flemons. With a similar concert atmosphere as South by Southwest, the trio is scheduled to perform at the annual four to five day music festival, Bonnaroo, in Manchester Tennessee, on June 11.
First African American Band to Perform at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry

The Carolina Chocolate Drops aroused a standing ovation after their performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, in 2008. Upon this performance, the trio became the first black band to perform at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.
New York Times Music Review

The New York Times reviews Carolina Chocolate Drops’ performance at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY, on May 1, 2010. “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.”