The Mike Harding Show - 18/08/2010

Mike Harding presents an hour of the very best in folk, roots and acoustic music, including an interview with the Carolina Chocolate Drops and music from their album Genuine Negro Jig. Based in Durham, North Carolina, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are a rare thing in 2010: an African-American old-time string band. Formed in 2005 by three young multi-instrumentalists - Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson - The Drops perform traditional music from the Piedmont region of the Carolinas, as well as string band versions of 21st century hits thrown in. The three members first met via an internet group and went on to visit and learn from old black fiddler Joe Thompson, who passed on to them tunes that had been in his family for generations. Their name is a nod to 1930s African-American country blues band the Tennessee Chocolate Drops.