Carolina Chocolate Drops' new album, Leaving Eden, is due out on Nonesuch later this month, on February 28. The album track "Country Girl," which is included as an instant download with pre-orders of the album in the Nonesuch Store, has been named today's Song of the Day by NPR.

"Fiddler Rhiannon Giddens sings fulsome verses about the joys of living below the Mason-Dixon Line by mentioning the down-home cooking, idyllic settings and strong family bonds," explains NPR's John Murph. "Meanwhile, bandmates Dom Flemons and Hubby Jenkins ... spruce up the sonic palette of banjo, mandolin and cello [performed by Leyla McCalla] with Adam Matta's beat-boxing skills."

Read more and listen to the Song of the Day at npr.org.

To download the song today, head to the Nonesuch Store and reserve your copy of Leaving Eden, a limited number of which will be signed by the band.

Last month, Carolina Chocolate Drops were in the UK, where they performed a set with label mates Punch Brothers in Glasgow for Celtic Connections. Highlights from the Chocolate Drops' set aired on BBC Radio 2 last night. You can hear the performance and listen to an interview with Radio 2's Ricky Ross at bbc.co.uk, where the band's set begins at 10:50 in.

The Chocolate Drops began their months-long tour of the US last week. While on the road, the band stopped by WTJU in Charlottesville, Virginia, to perform a few songs and talk with Walk Right In host Rebecca Foster about the new album before their concert at the Jefferson Theater. You can listen to the show here:

Last weekend, the band made a stop in Albany, New York, to perform at The Egg on Sunday. "The Carolina Chocolate Drops are highly skilled musicians, but they’re also a lot of fun, with a gift for showmanship," says the Schenectady Daily Gazette's Sara Foss in her review of Sunday's show. "The Carolina Chocolate Drops expertly played the bones, made excellent use of a minstrel-era banjo and also used harmonica, jug, mandolin, snare drum and their own two feet to recreate the sound of an old-time string band from North Carolina. It's no accident that the group won a Grammy for their 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig.”

She concludes: "Sunday’s concert was one of the best shows I’ve seen in awhile, and I won't soon forget it."

Read the concert concert review at dailygazette.com.

The tour continues with a performance at the Georgia Theatre in Athens, Georgia, tonight, and a return to their home state tomorrow night to perform at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The show reunites the Chocolate Drops with New York–based gypsy punk band Luminescent Orchestrii, with whom they released a four-song EP last year.

Previewing tomorrow night's show, the Independent Weekly in Durham describes the recent addition of Jenkins to the Carolina Chocolate Drops line-up and the contribution of beatboxer Adam Matta as "a natural fit and creative boon. The energetic band has kept up a grueling tour schedule, wowing audiences with their roots music chops and pure showmanship."

The paper's Ashley Melzer, looking ahead to the release of Leaving Eden, writes of the album: "Produced by Buddy Miller, the record will smartly combine original compositions, traditional tunes and covers alike. Given the Chocolate Drops' catch-all creativity, fueled by fiddles, kazoos, drums, jugs and jigs, along with a continually adventurous spirit, there's little telling where they'll go tonight—or any other evening, for that matter."

Read more at indyweek.com.