The Carolina Chocolate Drops are currently on a tour that includes a recent slot opening for Bob Dylan in Kettering, Ohio, and an upcoming date this Friday at the Zoo in Portland, Oregon, where band member Dom Fleming says they’ll perform a mix of their own songs and interpretations of other people’s tunes. “There’s so much stuff that people just don’t know about in terms of music,” he tells the Willamette Week. “We want to reach back and grab that stuff and make it live again.”

Further to this goal, the Chocolate Drops are collaborating on their first theater piece, which will be performed at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music this November. Keep a Song in Your Soul: The Black Roots of Vaudeville was commissioned by Old Town, and explores songs written and performed by African Americans between 1830 and 1930.

The band is working with MacArthur Genius grant recipient and jazz composer-pianist Reginald R. Robinson and the Old Town School's jazz tap virtuoso Reggio "The Hoofer" Laughlin on this production. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "More than 20 historic songs written and performed by African Americans on the legendary ‘Chitlin’ Circuit’ between 1830-1930 will be featured, as well as original music created for the production. Chicago’s Andrea J. Dymond will direct."

Keep a Song in Your Soul will make its debut on November 3 and run through November 6; tickets and more information are available at oldtownschool.org.

Watch a video of Flemons discussing the background of the music, as well as a performance from the piece: