[ As we prepare to announce the preliminary 2011 Folks Festival lineup, we wanted to begin introducing you (on the Forum and Facebook) to a few of this year’s artists - especially those you might not be familiar with from past Folks Festivals… ]
Carolina Chocolate Drops
http://www.carolinachocolatedrops.com/
For a lot of festivarians, one band defined their experience at the 2008 RockyGrass: Carolina Chocolate Drops. It started with a few dancers… and song after song the North Carolina-based trio won over more festivarians - more dancers - until every song was receiving a raucous standing ovation and every single festivarian was on their feet screaming (not cheering, but full-on screaming). It was a frenetic rock’n’roll energy - coming from an acoustic trio of jug, banjo, and fiddle.
The 3 musicians of Carolina Chocolate Drops came together 6 years ago to learn the traditional music of the Piedmont area of the Carolinas under the tutelage of legendary fiddler Joe Thompson. Now masters of this African-American stringband tradition, they have set out to bring this music back to dance halls and festivals, while injecting their own modern sensibility and energy. As bandmember Justin Robinson says: “Tradition is a guide, not a jailer. We play in an older tradition but we are modern musicians.”
Singing and performing on banjo, fiddle, guitar, kazoo, jug, beat-box, and anything else they can find, CCD are a musical sensation. Their most recent album, Genuine Negro Jig, was beloved by listeners and critics around the world, and their shows are unforgettable. Just ask anyone who saw them at RockyGrass or Telluride Bluegrass - they’re probably still giddy about them.
Here they perform “Trouble in Your Mind”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzombejhLUo
Here’s a great long-form interview from NPR’s Fresh Air:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123968480