News in from Nonesuch Records: ‘The Carolina Chocolate Drops are... revisiting, with a joyful vengeance, black string-band and jug-band music of the Twenties and Thirties - the dirt-floor dance electricity of the Mississippi Sheiks and Cannon's Jug Stompers.’ Rolling Stone
North Carolina-based string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops will tour the UK in January and February in support of their Nonesuch label debut Genuine Negro Jig, which is due for release on January 25. The tour begins at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow on January 26 and arrives at Bush Hall in London on February 4.
Produced by critically acclaimed recording artist and songwriter Joe Henry (Allen Toussaint, Elvis Costello, Solomon Burke), Genuine Negro Jig features string band interpretations of Blu Cantrell’s beat-box driven R&B single “Hit ‘Em Up Style” and Tom Waits’ “Trampled Rose,” as well as a pair of original compositions, alongside traditional tracks such as “Cornbread and Butterbeans” and “Trouble in Your Mind.” It is the band’s second record; their 2007 release, Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind, was praised by Paste for “bravely and expertly reclaiming the string band tradition for modern African-American culture,” while NPR’s Weekend Edition calls the band “the hottest thing to hit the old-time music community in decades.”
Tue Jan 26 Strathclyde Suite, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow Tickets £12.50
http://wwww. celticconnections.com 0141 353 8000
Thu Jan 28 Town Hall, Gateshead
Tickets £15
gateshead.gov.uk / 0191 433 300
Sat Jan 30 Derby Theatre, Derby
Tickets £15
derbylive.co.uk / 01332 255 800
Sun Jan 31 Memorial Hall, Sheffield
Tickets £15
sheffieldboxoffice.com / 0114 278 9789
Wed Feb 3 St George’s, Bristol
Tickets £19.00/£15.00/£11.00
stgeorgesbristol.co.uk / 0845 40 24001
Thu Feb 4 Bush Hall, London
Tickets £15
ticketweb.co.uk / 08444 771 000
Fri Feb 5 Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury
Tickets £13
ticketweb.co.uk / 01635 244246
Sat Feb 6 Met, Bury
Tickets £16
mrkite.org / 0161 761 2216
All tickets subject to booking fee
The Carolina Chocolate Drops formed after band members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson met at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, NC in 2005; they have toured continuously since the band’s inception. All three trained in the Piedmont banjo and fiddle musical tradition under the tutelage of Joe Thompson, who, at age 90, is believed to be the last living performer from the Piedmont string band heyday. While old-time Southern string music is often associated with Caucasian musicians from Appalachia, Giddens pointed out in a recent NPR interview that “it seems that two things get left out of the history books. One, that there was string band music in the Piedmont, period. (And that) black folk was such a huge part of string tradition.” The Carolina Chocolate Drops seek to not only correct this misunderstanding, but to keep the centuries-old string music tradition alive and developing.
Visit the band’s official website: www.carolinachocolatedrops.com
Visit the official Nonesuch website: www.nonesuch-uk.com
