Carolina Chocolate Drops were featured on CNN Newsroom, discussing their music and its roots with anchor Brooke Baldwin. Watch it here. The band performed at Celtic Connections in Glasgow with support from Punch Brothers. The bands "played with the kind of hard-won technique that leaves you high on life," raves The Scotsman in a five-star review. The Herald Scotland calls the Chocolate Drops "riotously good fun" and "a real treat"; they "set the house alight." The band launches its US tour on Thursday. Chocolate Drops and Kronos Quartet can be heard on Chimes of Freedom, a new album of songs of Bob Dylan benefiting Amnesty International.
Carolina Chocolate Drops were featured on CNN Newsroom's Music Monday segment yesterday. Band mates Dom Flemons and Rhiannon Giddens spoke with anchor Brooke Baldwin about the music they make, its roots, and the many instruments they use in making it, including the more specialized ones like jug, bones, and quills. Watch the CNN interview with a some live performance clips in the video below.
The broadcast came just as Carolina Chocolate Drops were taking the stage at the Cecil Sharp House in London last night. That show capped the band's week in the UK, during which they appeared on BBC Radio 3's In Tune and Radio 4's Front Row and returned to the Celtic Connections stages for a concert at the O2 ABC in Glasgow with support from label mates Punch Brothers on Friday.
The Scotsman gives the Celtic Connections show a perfect five stars. "What impresses most about both these American bands," writes reviewer Kelly Apter, "is the musicianship. We heard the fiddle, banjo, double bass, guitar, harmonica, cello, drum, bones (cow ribs played like castanets with remarkable dexterity), kazoo and even a jug—all played with the kind of hard-won technique that leaves you high on life."
Read the five-star review at scotsman.com.
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The Herald Scotland gives the concert four stars, describing Punch Brothers as "something to hear" and Carolina Chocolate Drops as "riotously good fun," so much so that their performance "set the house alight."
The Chocolate Drops' "old-school ploy of combining accomplished and studied musicianship with a humorous and polished show pays off in spades," says Herald reviewer Dave Prater. It's something the band mates "pull off with some aplomb, particularly when the guys started messing around with sets of cow bones ... Hilarious to watch and dizzying in execution, it proved that these chocolate drops are a real treat."
Read the four-star review at heraldscotland.com.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops return to the States to launch their US tour at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Thursday. For details and ticket links, go to nonesuch.com/on-tour.
To pick up a copy of the band's Grammy-winning Nonesuch debut album, Genuine Negro Jig, and to pre-order their forthcoming album, Leaving Eden, due out February 28, head to the Nonesuch Store. Pre-orders of Leaving Eden include an instant download of the track “Country Girl”; the first 300 CDs ordered will be signed by the band.
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Carolina Chocolate Drops and another label mate, Kronos Quartet (who are in London now for a week-long residency at the Barbican), can be heard on Chimes of Freedom, the new collection of songs of Bob Dylan performed by artists across the musical spectrum, out today with proceeds going to support Amnesty International. Chocolate Drops perform "Political World" and Kronos Quartet performs "Don’t' Think Twice, It's All Right." For more information and to hear samples from the album, go to amnestyusa.org.
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Watch the Carolina Chocolate Drops on CNN here:
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