Genuine Negro Jig
Album | Carolina Chocolate Drops
Modern string trio get the balance right.
There are two common pitfalls in reviving pre-rock forms of popular music. One is to approach the style as humorless ethnomusicologists, attempting to pretend no advances have been made, sonically or culturally, in the intervening decades; the other is to slap a lazy trip-hop beat under some sampled 78s and call it a day. Old-timey but decidedly modern string trio the Carolina Chocolate Drops wisely avoid both of those problems on their major-label debut. Working in the classic African-American string band style of the early 20th century, Dom Fleming, Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson mix traditional folk tunes ("Reynadine," "Cindy Gal"), early blues (Kansas Joe McCoy's standard "Why Don't You Do Right?"), a handful of originals and a couple of well-chosen contemporary songs (Tom Waits' "Trampled Rose" and Blu Cantrell's R&B hit "Hit 'Em Up Style") that translate well to the all-acoustic format. Producer Joe Henry gives the album his usual live-in-the-studio sound, most impressively on the haunting instrumental "Snowden's Jig (Genuine Negro Jig)," and the singing and playing throughout strike the perfect balance between correct folk technique and sheer joyous fun.
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