With its mixed bag of presentations in today’s popular music, it's easy to see how the banjo is suffering from an incredibly vast identity crisis. In this era of "fauxlk" music, [quite literally "faux-folk" music], the true origins of the banjo get lost in the broad sweep of popular culture.
But if we wind back the clock and parse out the pieces of the banjo's history that have been widely forgotten, the result is a fascinating picture of America (and, specifically, of the South) that can teach us incredible things about ourselves and provide a stepping stone to a greater understanding of one another.
Thankfully, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are here to help us out.
Experiencing a performance by the Carolina Chocolate Drops is like taking a crash course in the parts of American history you had no idea you'd missed. As one of the few all-black traditional string bands performing today, the group has become a champion for the history of old-time string music, which they make clear by weaving historical and contextual information into their live performances.
The Drops' 2010 album, “Genuine Negro Jig,” won the then-trio of Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson a Grammy for best traditional folk album and sparked a wider conversation about the rich lineage of string music in the Southern black community. The press release that accompanied the album called it "the sound of history revealing itself," and the revelations continue despite changes in the group's lineup. Rhiannon Giddens is the only member of that Grammy-winning trio still in the band today, but the spirit from which the Carolina Chocolate Drops were born — one of passion, talent and heritage – remains unchanged.
The Drops today are a quartet of multi-instrumentalists, each of whom arrived at old-time string music from a different place: Rhiannon Giddens through contra dances and playing with legendary fiddler Joe Thompson, Hubby Jenkins through playing country blues music, Rowan Corbett from a love of Irish music, and Malcolm Parson through old-time jazz and the cello. Despite their differing backgrounds, they're all united by their passion for traditional string music and an educational mission that aims to bring the true origins of their own musical tradition to light.
This past October, I had the chance to sit down with the Carolina Chocolate Drops on the stage before the second show of a two-night stand at the Clifton Center in Louisville, Ky. With their instruments surrounding us but not too close at hand, we talked at length about the stories and historical tidbits that normally fill the time between songs in their live performances. I wanted to learn about the banjo itself — not just its history, but its cultural and racial significance.
The Drops were happy to oblige, and their words still resonate in my head and heart months later.