It’s 20 years since the musicians who would become the Carolina Chocolate Drops first met at the Black Banjo Gathering in North Carolina, and 15 years since they released Genuine Negro Jig, an album that brought them to the world’s attention. Despite only releasing a handful of albums, the last (Leaving Eden) arriving in 2012, their impact continues to be felt, inspiring new generations of music makers and ensuring that a hugely important area of American music history is not forgotten.

This year, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are reuniting at the Biscuits & Banjos festival in North Carolina, with the original line-up of Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson set to play, alongside other members from over the years. It will be the first time they have played together since 2014.

To better understand the group’s influence, we asked a host of bluegrass, Americana, blues and old-time country artists what the Carolina Chocolate Drops meant to them.

Interviews by Russ Slater Johnson

Alice Gerrard

Old-time country and bluegrass legend known for her partnership with Hazel Dickens

I’ve been around old-time Southern music for many years. I have played, documented and lived in it since around 1952. It was an accepted fact among ‘us’ (young, white, middle class, mainly non-southern) folks who were falling in love with this traditional music, and trying to learn it, that traditional southern music was a mixture of mainly Black and white music with many other influences, such as French, German and Native American, thrown in. Many of us owned copies of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music and had heard recordings of Taylor’s Kentucky Boys with Black fiddler Jim Booker. You could hear it in the old-time fiddling with its slurs and slides, the singing with its ‘blue’ (flatted) notes and syncopations. And you knew it because you met and listened to southern Black musicians like Elizabeth Cotten, Lesley Riddle, Babe Stovall and Dorothy Melton. You heard white musicians like Bill Monroe talk about being influenced by a local Black musician, Arnold Schulz, or Tommy Jarrell, who talked about learning a couple of his well-known tunes from hearing Black musicians sing and play them. And if you didn’t hear Black influence in the music of these white musicians and others like Dock Boggs, Virgil Anderson and Addie Graham, you weren’t listening. But back in the day, for whatever reason, you didn’t often run into young Black kids who were learning from older Black musicians in the same way that young white kids were learning from older white musicians.

In 2005, through the efforts of a few people (Tony Thomas, Rhiannon Giddens, Mark Freed, Sule Greg Wilson, Cece Conway) who were interested in exploring this issue, a Black Banjo Gathering was planned and took place at ASU [Appalachian State University] in Boone, North Carolina. Older Black musicians like Joe Thompson from Mebane, NC and The Ebony Hillbillies from NYC were invited. As word got out about the event, two other young Black musicians, Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons, also attended, and they and Rhiannon met Joe Thompson for the first time. The meeting in Boone, where the three of them met each other and Joe Thompson, was a seminal moment. The three young friends often visited Joe and his family, learning his tunes and listening to his stories, absorbing his history. I can only presume that Joe was glad to hang with them as well and that it meant even more to him that these were young Black musicians wanting to carry on his music and hanging on to his every word.

Ultimately, Justin, Rhiannon and Dom formed the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a string band that was to be recognised as one of the very first groups to bring more light onto the influence of enslaved African musicians on early traditional music in the South. This led to young African Americans reclaiming their rightful musical past and future.

Jerron Paxton

Lynchpin of New York’s blues scene. His most recent album, Things Done Changed, came out via Smithsonian Folkways

I grew up with a very large exposure to Black string band music. When I told my neighbour that I was interested in instruments, she told me of all the string bands that would play in Mississippi when she was a girl in her late 20s. My great-grandfather, born in 1886, tended to play the music of his parents, which was some of the first music my grandmother remembers hearing and passed on to me. I was thoroughly steeped in the music before I knew of the Drops, but they did come along at a marvellous time when I was being exposed to more eastern [US] banjo and fiddle music as opposed to the similar music of the deep South that I grew up with. At the time, my friend Frank Fairfield was very inspired by the music of the southeast [US], and when we would play that type of music, people from all over would ask: had we heard of the Carolina Chocolate Drops?

I began to hear about the Carolina Chocolate Drops in my late teens. It turns out Dom Flemons had a small list of Black banjo players that he was interested in, and I was fortunate enough to be on that list. We met for the first time in the Bronx at the home of Feral Foster when I was about 19, and he introduced me to the music he was playing with the Drops. One of my favourite things about the group is when they would do the 19th-century repertoire of banjo tunes. Hearing those 2/4 jigs with bones and the old-style fretless banjo with groove was always fun. Two of my favourite CCD songs are ‘Run Mountain’ and ‘Old Corn Liquor’ because of their great drive and danceability.

Tony Trischka

Hugely influential banjoist who has often pushed the boundaries of bluegrass

I first saw them at a festival I was playing in Bristol, Virginia, some years ago. I’ve been interested in the historical roots of the banjo since the mid-70s and have collected old banjo instructional books from the mid-1800s. One can hear the African roots in those downstroke tunes. I also acquired a gourd banza (a Black predecessor of the banjo) from Scott Didlake, which he built to honour the enslaved players of this instrument who had died and been buried in unmarked graves. In addition, I had the opportunity to be on a workshop with Joe and Odell Thompson, probably the last ones to embody the old Black string band tradition… I ended up playing every tune with them. Joe was a mentor to the Chocolate Drops, though I didn’t know that at the time. Seeing a young band carrying that sound forth was hugely inspiring. I think CCD opened a lot of folks’ ears to the depth and profundity of Black string band music. As the years have rolled on, I’ve had the chance to perform with Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens. Being backed up by Dom on bones is an incredible experience. I saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops in New Jersey a bunch of years ago. They were great, and ‘Old Cat Died’ just grabbed my ear. I quickly wrote it down in banjo tablature on a napkin. It works great in three-finger banjo style, and now I teach it to my students.

Libby Rodenbough

Singer, musician and staple of North Carolina’s indie-folk-Americana scene

I first heard the Chocolate Drops around the same time I was discovering American string band music writ large; I was in college at UNC [University of North Carolina] and going to the old-time jam at Nightlight, hearing names like Tommy Jarrell for the first time. Because of the Chocolate Drops, I also heard the name Joe Thompson among those fiddle legends. I first saw them live at MerleFest in 2014. They were doing their cover of Blu Cantrell’s ‘Hit ’Em Up Style.’ They may have been the only people of colour there, and that’s pretty typical demographically of Americana/bluegrass/etc festivals, of which I have played many with [my band] Mipso over the years. I’m certain that most of the Chocolate Drops’ audiences in those years were hearing about Black string band music for the first time, like I was. It can’t be overstated that there was zero public conversation about that history before them (not to say that it’s widely acknowledged by the Americana or old-time worlds even now). I will also say that all the individual Chocolate Drops have had such interesting paths post-band, to the extent that I’ve kept up. During the pandemic, I fell in love with Justin Robinson’s botany and culinary series on Instagram.

Anne Harris

Fiddle player and singer with a new Americana album, I Feel It Once Again, on the way

I will never forget the first time I heard the Carolina Chocolate Drops. It was 2010, and I was driving in my car on a beautiful sunny day in Chicagoland, listening to NPR’s Fresh Air on the radio, and they were on. I just kept driving until it was over, completely rapt, hanging on every word and note. When I pulled into my driveway, I remember running inside breathless, excited to share my discovery with my husband. I went out to buy their CD that day. It was a very emotional experience for me. I felt joy, gratitude, inspiration and sadness. Joy that I wasn’t alone as a Black woman fiddle player in the blues/folk/American roots tradition. I also felt a deep sadness for the systems of oppression that strive to erase and change narratives that are not in alignment with dominant white culture.

In 2008, I had been touring with trance blues legend Otis Taylor. He was touring his masterful Recapturing the Banjo record, which featured Alvin Youngblood Hart, Corey Harris, Don Vappie and Keb’Mo. This record was Taylor’s effort to spread the story of the banjo’s true roots in Africa, and it began my journey into the history of early Black string band music and a time when fiddles and banjos were the most popular stringed instruments among Black musicians. CCD brought this important history to a whole new level and inspired me to dive deeper. They meant I had a true place of belonging as a musician and a carrier of a deep tradition. Rhiannon Giddens was the first Black woman fiddle star I was aware of that crossed into mainstream recognition; personally, that was very inspiring.

‘Snowden’s Jig’ from Genuine Negro Jig is a standout for me because of its haunting melody sailing over that provocative rhythm bed. It is a transportive, timeless and soulful journey for me. I learned that it was written by Thomas Snowden of Clinton, Ohio (I am also from Ohio) and was regularly performed by The Snowden Family Band, of which he was the patriarch. They were the longest-lasting Black string band of the 19th century. It was originally, and mistakenly, credited to and popularised by Dan Emmitt, the most popular minstrel performer of his day. Dan lived near the Snowden Family. He co-opted the tune and named it ‘Genuine Negro Jig’. The Snowden Family is of great personal significance to me because two of the daughters, Sofia and Annie, played fiddle in the band, and were known as the only two Black women to do so at the time. They used this fact on handbills to promote their shows because it was such a rarity. I’ve been playing it in my own shows since I learned it from CCD as a homage to them, and I have recorded my own version of ‘Snowden’s Jig’ that will appear on my new solo record.

Amythyst Kiah

Singer-songwriter with a darkly cinematic take on alt-rock roots

I didn’t know about string band music until I took a bluegrass group guitar class out of sheer curiosity in 2006. Then, I took an American folk music class and learned about the West African influence and the truth about the banjo. Studying artists like Elizabeth Cotten, Dink Roberts and many more, alongside hearing CCD bring the tradition to life in such a vibrant way, was pivotal in my life and helped shape who I am as an artist and musician. I first saw Carolina Chocolate Drops at the 2010 Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, NC. They played an incredible set and had workshops as well. They were a huge inspiration to me while I was studying American roots music at East Tennessee State. After that, I saw them several times and would eventually play on a few bills with Rhiannon and Dom. I am grateful for their wisdom and generosity over the years! ‘Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man’ is truly a rhythmic marvel; combining bones, banjo and beatboxing was just brilliant. Everyone’s performance on that track is phenomenal!

Joe Brent

Mandolin maverick, member of 9 Horses and co-founder of Adhyâropa Records

I first heard the Carolina Chocolate Drops in passing and here and there before Genuine Negro Jig came out, but when I saw them perform at Jalopy Tavern in Brooklyn around 2010, I was completely hooked. I’m a hack historian of the music they’re drawing from, so it was completely energising to hear them echo and amplify it for modern audiences. But it wasn’t merely the sense that they were tapping into a long-neglected tradition or even their command of history, but my goodness they could play. Switching instruments on each tune like nothing could be more natural. No one else at the time sounded quite like that without coming off as a bit of a legacy act or, worse, a museum piece. They were both authentic and yet simultaneously fresh. Manna for my ears, and I’ve followed each of their careers since then with joy. My favourite tune of theirs is ‘No Man’s Mama’. I adore the theatricality Rhiannon has in her performance of this song.