Carolina Chocolate Drops’ ain’t just fiddlin’ Dixie

Black string band music gets redux treatment

HIT 'EM UP STYLE: Carolina Chocolate Drops turn Blu Cantrell's R&B jam into a jazzy, gypsy hoedown.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops thought they had it made when they were picked to be in a movie with Denzel Washington. But the North Carolina trio’s vision of black string band music from the 1930s caused some problems on the set of Washington’s 2007 film The Great Debaters. “Our idea of what black string band music was in that era wasn’t matching up with what their idea was,” says Carolina Chocolate Drops founder/singer Rhiannon Giddens. The Drops had to fight to get the fiddle in “because Denzel had this idea that he didn’t want it too country, even though we were in the backwoods of Louisiana.” Nevertheless, audiences have no problem with the Drops’ country sound, as the band continues to share its vision with an average of 200 booked gigs per year.

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Carolina Chocolate Drops



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$15-$17. 8 p.m. Sat., April 17. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. 404-524-7354. www.variety-playhouse.com.

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(Photo Courtesy Nonesuch)