The Carolina Chocolate Drops are featured on the new documentary Give Me the Banjo, which premiered on PBS stations across the United States on Friday night as part of PBS Arts from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Narrated by Steve Martin, Give Me the Banjo is a musical odyssey through 300 years of American history and culture by way of the banjo, including a stop at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina, where the band first came together back in 2005. You can watch Carolina Chocolate Drops member Rhiannon Giddens perform the Ola Belle Reed tune "Gonna Write Me a Letter" from the film below.

Give Me the Banjo, which was written, directed, and produced by Emmy Award-winning documentary film maker Marc Fields, goes on to explore American music from minstrelsy, ragtime, and early jazz to blues, folk, and bluegrass. The film is now available to watch in full online at video.pbs.org.

On a very different note, the Carolina Chocolate Drops have launched a fun project on behalf of very good cause. The band, self-acknowledged cookie lovers, have launched a cookie recipe contest. From today until Thanksgiving, the group is asking fans to send in their favorite cookie recipe. They'll bake them all and choose a winner. That winner's cookies will be sold at the Chocolate Drops' December shows with proceeds donated to the Food Bank of North Carolina. The top three recipes will be posted on the band's website, carolinachocolatedrops.com for everyone to try. To enter, send your recipe to ramseurrecords.holly@gmail.com.

To see where the band is playing in the coming months, head to nonesuch.com/on-tour. To pick up a copy of the band's Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig, and their follow-up EP with Luminescent Orchestrii, head to the Nonesuch Store, where orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s at checkout.

Watch Rhiannon Giddens perform "Gonna Write Me a Letter" from Give Me the Banjo here:

Watch Give Me the Banjo: Rhiannon Giddens Performs "Gonna Write Me a Letter" on PBS. See more from PBS.