The Carolina Chocolate Drops with Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson: a benefit for "Black String Revival"

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a group of young
African-American stringband musicians that have come to together to
play the rich tradition of fiddle and banjo music in Carolinas’
piedmont. The group has been under the tutelage of Joe Thompson, said to be
the last black traditional string band player, of Mebane, NC and they
strive to carry on the long standing traditional music of the black and
white communities.

A benefit performance for Black String Revival, an
hour-long documentary from Fretless Films which will tell the story of the rise and fall and the
rise again of the Black string band tradition. Before the Blues--and the phonograph-- revolutionized popular music,
African-American string bands featuring banjo and fiddle played for
“frolics” (square dances), parades, house parties, corn shuckings,
funerals, and baby christenings. Largely forgotten, this vital musical
tradition survived into the 1950s. Now a new generation of blacks is
rediscovering and reinvigorating the string band tradition. Black and
white scholars are documenting the African origins of the banjo and how
African-Americans adapted it. At the same time, young African-American
string bands like The Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Ebony Hillbillies,
Sankofa Strings, and Don Vappie and His Creole Jazz Seranaders are reinventing traditional banjo and fiddle music.

Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson are highly respected veterans of the local folk scene, warm and passionate performers with an incredibly broad repertoire that spans blues, Irish, Scandinavian, jug band, and old time string band music.

Also appearing will be Wain McFarlane and Jahz with their unique fusion of Delta blues meeting African roots!

To buy tickets

Call Cedar ticket line 612-338-2674 ext 2

Visit Cedar ticket outlets

Online sales available at Ticketweb

Bill Hinkley

Carolina Chocolate Drops

With their 2010 Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig—which garnered a Best Traditional Folk Album Grammy—the Carolina Chocolate Drops proved that the old-time, fiddle and banjo-based music they’d so scrupulously researched and passionately performed could be...

The Carolina Chocolate Drops

The Carolina Chocolate Drops are a group of young African-American stringband musicians that have come to together to play the rich tradition of fiddle and banjo music in Carolinas’ piedmont. Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson both hail from the green hills...