ARTIST: Carolina Chocolate Drops (www.carolinachocolatedrops.com)
CD: “Dona Got a Ramblin’ Mind” (Music Maker)

A few years back, Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson and Don Flemons became enamored with the black string band music of the Carolinas’ Piedmont region. After immersing themselves in the music — with guidance from old-time fiddler Joe Thompson — the group found its calling. Due in part to the fact that there are few black groups championing this music, the North Carolina-based trio quickly became one of the darlings of the burgeoning roots/old-time music circuit.

Clearly, this CD points to the fact that music does indeed cross (and, hopefully, break down) racial borders. In fact, most listeners will hear little difference between the Chocolate Drop’s Piedmont-styled black string band music and the traditional music of West Virginia. Many of the songs will be familiar, either by melody or name.

Included are Chocolate Drop versions of “Sally Ann” and “Sourwood Mountain” and a number of instrumentals that have appeared through the years under different names. They offer up a plucky version of the Appalachian murder ballad “Tom Dula,” based on the 1866 murder of Laura Foster in Wilkes County, N.C., and the subsequent trial, which the Kingston Trio turned into a No. 1 hit in 1958 (as “Tom Dooley”). “George Buck” is one of the disc’s more driving tunes while “Another Man Done Gone” is a fine a capella piece.

Catch the Carolina Chocolate Drops on Sunday’s “Mountain Stage” along with Kane Welch Kaplin, Claire Lynch, Cherryholmes and Charleston’s Bare Bones and at West Virginia State University on Monday night.

– By Michael Lipton

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