CAPA Presents the Carolina Chocolate Drops 10/7

The Carolina Chocolate Drops, a band of three young and talented musicians, are recognized as leading the revival of traditional string band music. Under the tutelage of Joe Thompson, said to be the last African-American traditional string band player, this trio of Durham-based youngsters strive to carry on this long-standing musical genre from the foothills of North and South Carolina. With Justin Robinson on fiddle, Rhiannon Giddens on banjo and fiddle, and Dom Flemmons on guitar, jug, and harmonica, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are a delightful taste of an old-time art based in the heritage of the antebellum South.

CAPA presents the Carolina Chocolate Drops at the Lincoln Theatre (769 E. Long St.) Wednesday, October 7, at 8pm. Tickets are $25 at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase tickets by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. The Lincoln Theatre Ticket Office will open two hours prior to the performance. Students between the ages of 13-19 can purchase $5 High Five tickets while available. Presented in association with The King Arts Complex, this Spectrum Series performance is made possible through the generous support of series sponsors David and Mo Meuse.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a group of young African-American string band musicians that have come to together to play the rich tradition of fiddle and banjo music from the 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.

Dom Flemons' guitar and jug root the band in an infectious rhythm, and he plays harmonica for additional melody. Banjo and fiddle player Rhiannon Giddens became inspired by old-time music when she fell into contra dancing after graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Justin Robinson is the band's priMary Fiddler. Trained in classical violin, he became interested in bluegrass and old-time fiddle music, as well as the fife and drum tradition of African-Americans in the deep south.

Although coming from diverse musical backgrounds, the Carolina Chocolate Drops draw their musical heritage from the foothills of the North and South Carolina, carrying on the tradition of African-American musicians like Odell and Nate Thompson, Dink Roberts, John Snipes, Libba Cotten, and Emp White.
www.carolinachocolatedrops.com

About Piedmont String Band Music

The nuances of piedmont string band music stem from the demographics of the piedmont (a plateau between the coastal plain and the Appalachian Mountains, including parts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama) and thereby focus on the banjo as the lead instrument. In African-American ensembles, the banjo often set the pace. If a fiddle was present, it served as accompaniment and not the lead instrument, as is more common in the Appalachian tradition. A guitar or mandolin would have been rare in these bands, but the foundation of this tradition lies rooted in the antebellum combination of fiddle and banjo.

 

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